Ahead of its’ time in 2008, but absolutely of the moment in 2021, this multi-award winning business was created when Emma questioned why UK supermarkets didn’t offer any choice of organic soaps on their shelves.
Quite simply, they’re are on a mission to bring bar soap back & also rid bathrooms from unnecessary synthetics and plastic bottles, tubs and tubes.
- Tell us a little bit about your business…
We are a genuine kitchen table to supermarket shelf story, starting life selling handmade bars at farmers markets but with my eye always on the supermarket shelf. A few years in from 2010, we became the first British made, Cruelty Free, vegan and RSPO sustainable soap available from all the main Grocers (Waitrose, Booths, Sainsbury, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons), chemists (Boots, Superdrug and Lloyds Pharmacy) plus online retailers including Ocado, Fetch and Amazon and we have been busy disrupting the soap market (for the better!) ever since.
I think its fair to say we’re constantly pushing boundaries and bringing out innovative products that create market trends.
Every single one of our products have the same ethos and claims: We believe what you rub into your skin is just as important as the diet we eat. All our products are made in GB (really important – especially in light of the pandemic and Brexit to keep Britain manufacturing), certified RSPO, Leaping Bunny Cruelty Free and Vegan accredited meaning whatever need state or budget we have done the thinking to enable every single one of our customers to have a clean conscience as they wash.
Our latest brand Eco Warrior puts into bar form what used to be in plastic bottles, tubs and tubes. This hit the shelves in 2019 as a Sainsbury’s Future Brand and fast launching into other major retailers putting what is traditionally in bottles into bar form and has fast gathered pace, launching innovative new bars including an exclusive Beauty Edit in Superdrug.
- How did you get into the industry?
I started the business back in 2008 when the soap counter in supermarkets was incredibly dull and staid – I couldn’t understand why you couldn’t buy a pure, natural bar of soap amid the weekly shop. 2008 we often need to remind our son was very different to the world of today. There was no Amazon, we just didn’t buy online so organic products were only available from specialist shops and farmers markets. I wanted to enable people to be able to buy us amid their weekly shop and we managed to change that and have paved the way to offering proper choice to consumers.
- What are the biggest opportunities and challenges in your industry?
One of the keys to surviving and succeeding in FMCG is the ability to be able to do something different that a bigger brand or supermarket own label can’t…. with such a small team and tight supply chain we are able to control demand as well as bend and flex to bring new products to fruition quickly. We aren’t a huge conglomerate. We have genuine provenance and heritage – I started off on the kitchen table, selling at farmers markets and growing the brand to where we are today and finally able to hold our own sales wise amid the big boys. A genuine David and Goliath story.
Wanting to help people live a more sustainable life is both an opportunity and a challenge too! Our products are vegan, our bar soaps all have a plastic-free supply chain, and our Eco Warrior range is very much in keeping with the zeitgeist. The Eco Warrior range has six bars of soap (plus two exclusive Beauty Edits that we created for Superdrug), each with their own function which does away with the need for a myriad of potions and lotions in plastic bottles.
You know the saying – ‘It’s only one plastic straw, said eight billion people’ – it’s about little changes all mounting up to make a big difference. We are so proud of the company’s green credentials, and knew the Eco Warrior products would find an audience among environmentally-conscious generation Z and Millennials. But what unexpectedly delighted us even more, though, was that the product is in fact resonating right across the generations.
- How would you describe your leadership style?
Leadership has been something I have really had to work on. It’s an issue for many founders with start ups as the idea suddenly comes off and as well as a fledgling brand you also suddenly have a fledgling new team to nurture as well – something I’d never had to do before in life pre-soap!
I am moving more to a collaborative servant leader style. Having started it all at the kitchen table over a decade ago means I have a (small!) understanding and passion about every aspect of the business having done small aspects of it all (mostly, I add without any idea and thus very badly!) before I was able to bring experts in who knew what they were doing!
- How do you get the most out of the people who work for you?
The team is a real mix which makes us diverse and fresh. It’s a collection of full time and part time, freelancers, consultants and employed staff – all people I desperately wanted on board – it has to work for us both and that’s why this mix came about. Not having a corporate background and having always worked on several projects at once has enabled me to choose the best team and structure that works for us as we grow. I think it’s a huge plus that we are not tied to any structure or rigid way of doing things and this really works for the team and my creativity and drive to do things our own way as we grow the brand.
- What are the most crucial elements to your business running smoothly and being successful?
We always need to be keeping abreast of what the customer needs and what we can enable to become the next new trend staying true to our heritage and roots of being ethical and kind to the planet which thankfully is becoming more and more the norm and mainstream than when we first started.
We have to keep an eye on what’s happening in the world – ensuring our soap remains relevant and affordable which is a juggle sometimes.
- How has the past 12 months been for you?
Life went upside for us in those few weeks preceding lockdown with the mass panic buying. Flour, rice, pasta, tinned food, sanitiser and of course soap…
Our main focus has been on producing enough soap to keep our current partners supplied.
We realise it is just a catalogue of fluke coincidences that we as a business were fortunate that our main outlets – the supermarkets both physical brick buildings and their .coms and other online delivery services such as Ocado and Amazon all remained operational throughout, so we have been able to continue to sell through these channels as well as though our own website.
Our strength always has been spreading risk and not having all our eggs in one basket (see question 11!) and that has served us in this current situation and something we will continue to do.
But a surge in orders doesn’t necessarily correlate to fulfilled orders! The empty supermarket shelves just before lockdown were unprecedented… like most businesses we hold around 3 months stock – constantly making to maintain. But we ended up unexpectedly delivering all 3 months stock of all our lines in those first 2 weeks which left us with no stock.
Fortunatly we didn’t have issues with other countries lockdowns and importing as we make all here – we ended up filling empty facing for other brands who had far worse supply issues as a result.
As a business we have never worked so tirelessly as we did the first 6 weeks of lockdown to maintain the supply chain to keep up with demand and future proof us for the months ahead.
We were already set to launch in Morrisons, Superdrug and Lloyds Chemist. These were temporarily paused as all promotions and planned range changes were frozen, which did help the headache. We did launch later in the year.
- Is there anything you’ve learnt during the pandemic that you’ll take forward in your business?
We have learnt much, where do I start?
The pandemic forced everyone into the adoption of technologies and new ways of working. We had all the processes in place as we’ve always had the vast proportion of the team working from home but suddenly the office (operations, supply chain, admin and finance teams) joined them. It meant we were all in one place if that makes sense. It wasn’t the office team and the external team… a real unexpected leveller. For the first time ever we began having whole team weekly meetings – usually we only al saw one another each quarter for team away days. This has really helped understanding across departments and far better cross team working, communication and collaboration too.
With all diarised meetings obviously switching from face to face to online – something buyers never would have done before will be a part of the new normal. For example, I have quarterly face to face meetings with all our key accounts, all the major retailers and supermarkets: I really enjoy the interaction and catching up, but the sticking point is each hour long meeting entails at times a 6-8 hour round trip travelling, so a day wiped from my calendar. That’s 12 days wiped each quarter travelling = 48 days a year which equates to almost 2.5 months out of the working year just travelling…. My time could be far better spent! I don’t enjoy the lost day, my family doesn’t enjoy it and more over the planet doesn’t enjoy it.
Money saved not just on travel but on make up, hair, outfits.… life has suddenly become really simplified. It’s more real (am not saying I am totally feral yet but there is a down shift for sure which I think we will all agree!). Meetings no longer happen in our board room or in retailers glassed, soulless corporate meeting rooms but instead we get to see glimpses into their lives – their homes, their cats, dogs and babies sneaking into shot, dismembered hands dropping cups of tea side of screen…. This new way adds a new realism to it all. It’s like our masks have dropped a little and I embrace this new human side that is coming into all interactions…
I hope moving forwards all those that are able to are given the option to work from home – we now know and have proven zooms, teams, calls are just as effective – if not more productive.
I’ve been wearing my sports watch the past year and almost immediately my resting heartrate dropped by 10-15BPM – I am an extroverted introvert – I have always worked more effectively from the quiet of home, surrounded by loved ones, without the travel so I feel I’ve returned to my core and it’s been a great reminder. Things have to change.
As for the supply chain – I have always been passionate about keeping Britain manufacturing. The lure of moving production to Europe, even amid Brexit to help with pricing has never turned my head.
I hope other businesses will now favour security of supply over price and choose more UK manufactured products in the future.
- What will the next 12 months look like for your business?
I see much of it the same as we are now. Projections show soap usage won’t return to base line even after the pandemic as awareness is now there for hygine and people to continue to wash hands more often.
We have new innovative bars to bring to the world that we’ve all worked on in the bonus time saved without travelling.
I just hope we can get everyone together in person later this year – I really value and miss our whole team away days we used to have quarterly!
I have a photo on my Facebook page taken of my first ever batch in 2008 playfully saying watch out Unilever….. it was one of my failed attempts before I perfected the art of soapmaking. But that photo is rather poignant now really…. I genuinely want us to be the household name for ethical, natural soap and each year we edge a little bit closer.
- What are the highlights of your career so far?
Even now I still get a twang of excitement whenever I see our products on shelf – I hope that feeling will never stop. Maybe if it does it’s time to walk away.
We’ve been given many industry awards and accolades over the years including the Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders and ‘Scale Up Business” to “Best Rural Retail Business” to ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’. But by far the most poignant was to gain BCorp certification, which put simply, is a business that has met “the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.”
B Corporations are businesses that are making changes to alter the way we view success in business. They’re building more inclusive and sustainable economies and using their power to make positive changes for employees, communities and the environment. They’re creating more jobs of high quality and are helping to create communities that are aspiring to the same values.
I have always rigidly believed the business of a business should be to improve the world. It is a responsibility we all have as leaders to be mindful about what we do and how and why we do it.
- What’s the biggest business mistake that you’ve learnt from?
Mistakes come with running any business, but they all help to grow both us and the business. There are too many to mention, but another couple of big mistakes we have made include human error inputting an incorrect number for a barcode on a delivery note which created thousands of pounds of putting right, launching an innovative organic foaming body wash first rather than a normal shower gel as no one got what we were doing and it totally flopped – same when we launched a Shampoo Bar too early 10 years ago, total flop but redoing it now, well it’s one of our bestsellers! .
The biggest mistake though? Putting all my eggs in one basket – it sounds so simple when you say it out loud but in the (very) early days I only had one factory that was prepared to work with me – I was an unknown, with no track record and I was so fortunate to have them take a punt and make for me. But unexpectedly almost couple of years in, with everything working so well, they went into administration overnight – and overnight I suddenly lot the ability to supply any of our retailers. Back then I made to order, it was incredibly risky, but it was working and enabled cash flow as we grew. Fortunately, I was able to bargain with the administrators to keep the one line open so we could stockpile whilst I found alternate manufacturer – but the premium price I had to pay for that stock and with the cash needed up front to pay them and the short timeline we were working on, no one could loan me that sort of money so quickly. I lost my house to keep the business going. It was the best decision in hindsight but of course at the time there was a huge change I could have lost the business too.
Spread risk wherever possible, you never ever know what is around the corner.
- What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve been given?
Anybody building a company will hear the word “no” so many times. No is a quick email reply to get your off their desks but also it’s short hand for “I don’t know”. Do not slink off and take that as the end. Many of our products don’t fit the usual categories. We are the first bar in an otherwise liquid market in the chemists and supermarkets. It took almost two years to move for example the shampoo bar out of soap and into the haircare aisle with a new buyers where it needed to be – it makes it more complicated but sales have soared since doing so! We need other bars to join us! It’s a good thing, that you’re trying to do something that’s disruptive, that’s ground breaking and new – there will always be no’s and naysayers but don’t let them stop you and your vision.
To find out more go to: www.littlesoapcompany.co.uk.
