Advertisement
Advertisement

Sex spray turn-off as dealer disappears

FIRST it was the sexy smell that sparked a sales rampage, now there is a whiff that something has gone sour.

Contact 18 pheromone spray proved a massive hit when it was launched here last year. In less than 12 months, local punters have snapped up more than 9,000 bottles of the sex spray, at $180 each, in the hope it will lure their dream woman.

But future sales could be disrupted after David Bernard, a director of Wan Chai-based Contact 18 distributor Eastech Pacific, failed to return to his Lamma Island home after a three-week Christmas holiday in Thailand.

Mr Bernard's partner, Mark Fairchilde, said he had asked police to investigate the removal of $50,000 from company funds.

Mr Fairchilde said he had 'no idea' why his partner had not returned, but had reported him missing last Thursday.

'It was only when I returned from a holiday abroad that I discovered the money had gone missing,' he said.

Eastech Pacific now faced restructuring, a move which could cause delays in the distribution of the spray, Mr Fairchilde said.

'Luckily the Lunar New Year is not our busiest time, so most stores have been stocked up,' he said.

'If it had happened in the middle of summer, it could have been disastrous.

'But problems might come if stores run out of the spray before the company has been restructured.

'Contact 18 has proved to be extremely popular in Hong Kong and I will be doing all I can to ensure this continues.' The spray arose out of tests by the University of Birmingham which found certain smells drew people together, and pheromones had odours which attracted women.

Police are investigating the claim that $50,000 has gone missing from the company bank accounts, and a spokesman said Mr Bernard's disappearance was being handled by the Regional Missing Persons Unit.

'At the present time, all the police want to do is establish where this man is,' the spokesman said.

Post