Eureka moment 

When Gran died, I realized the soaps she'd raised me on weren't available in UK supermarkets so I started making my own - it was hit and miss! I bought a bar at a Cotswold village fete in 2008 and said "this belongs on the shelves of Waitrose". What started as a hobby to make soap for myself quickly grew. Determined, I decided to create a company to make the best ‘real' soap, disrupt the market, and make pure soap easily accessible in high street supermarkets. Organic was the original range, now Naturals, Eco Warrior and Little Beast sit alongside. 

 Finance

 I sold at Farmers Markets, in Waitrose locally within the first year then regionally with Tesco. Then scaled production and went national with both and others  followed .Orders hugely increased with WIGIGs during the pandemic, and we took debt finance for the first time to fulfil them. We gained an Innovate UK Grant for R&D bringing out new shampoo/body bars for babies and recently secured more debt finance to invest in IT systems as we scale retail and ecomm platforms and start exporting. 

Regrets? 

How costly it is being green! We were a genuine company from the very beginning - business mentors said it wasn't viable and to switch out essential oils for cheaper synthetic fragrance and to make and buy outside the UK. I am so glad I ignored them all and stuck it out and kept my principles!

Little Soap Company [1]