250,000 thank yous

The life of a loo roll is usually predictable. It starts big, steadily gets smaller, and ends as a cardboard tube. The holder, the hand, the flush. The biggest surprise we serve up at Naked Paper is the fact that our bleach-free toilet paper is brown, but once you get over that, you're in for a straightforward experience.

Behind the scenes, though, the last five years have been a whirlwind.

We started Naked Paper out of a small warehouse in Dorset. We shared the space with a company that made kitchen counters, so the first boxes were nestled side by side with marbled worktops and wood panelling. We processed the pallets by hand; the first one took about 6 hours just to unload. 

Today, our warehouses in Oldbury and Welwyn Garden City welcome 13 pallets a day, and Naked Paper is used in homes, businesses and venues all over the country.

In fact, we recently reached 250,000 customers. To celebrate, we thought we'd share some of our favourite messages from a few of them.

Every detail

We send regular community newsletters about improvements to our products and production line, and the wonderful world of making toilet paper. Recent topics include the difference between toilet paper, kitchen rolls, and tissues, and the ways we cut waste while making our toilet paper tubes.  

The little notes we receive in reply to these newsletters always make our day. 

Here's an example that captures the general vibe of the mailbox after our newsletters, from our lovely customer Frances:

Just to say I love these emails (when I have time to read them) – never knew there was so much interesting stuff to learn about TP!

Keep them coming 😊

And this one came from Peter.

“guys i love getting the 'little glimpses' into your production process, i love your transparency as a company and i'm promoting you all over the place 💚”

Messages like this have convinced us that our approach of showing our workings is the right one. When you go beyond trying to tell your customers that you're greener, and actually show them the concrete steps you're taking, they become fascinated by the details as well. 

This message from Frankie expresses it perfectly: 

“There is so much green washing around at the moment and i really appreciate your attention to detail in every aspect of your processes and business to actually make things more sustainable for the planet, not just for marketing. It’s beautiful to see your thought processes and continual striving for improvement every step of the way.”

We're so grateful to be a small part of the everyday lives of so many curious, positive homes. 

Every home

And of course it's not just homes. Naked Paper shows up in all sorts of places we could never have predicted when we first started.

Animal rescues and shelters are always a favourite. This year we’ve heard from people rescuing wild birds, guinea pigs, and cats, all of them finding good use for our bleach-free boxes and sheets. Here's a message from Carol fostering for the South West London branch of the RSPCA, whose feline guests are getting full use out of our boxes. 

"In April, I took in a pregnant female who gave birth a couple of weeks later to four kittens. As you can see, under Mum's watchful eye they have given their seal of approval to your product (packaging)."

We also love hearing about our toilet paper and tissue boxes finding their way into craft projects. We've received too many fantastic pictures to count, from kitchen tables all the way to theatre prop departments.

Here's a fun one we received at Easter. Lena from Westfield repurposed one of our tissue boxes to make a game she invented herself. Her mum got in touch to tell us:

"My daughter did some Easter crafting with a tissue box that she's calling Feed the Bunny! (You throw eggs (ping pong balls) into the bunny's tummy). She wanted to share it with you!"

Thank you, Lena! We’re seriously considering an all-team tournament of Feed the Bunny next Easter :)

Everywhere

We receive dozens of emails every day. There's the odd delivery complaint and production snag, of course, but there's one message we receive loud and clear: we aren't going it alone.

The support from our customers has been a wind at our backs, and we're doing our best to rise to the occasion.

We were bowled over, for instance, to hear from our customer Pippa. A few months ago she attended a community meeting about the preservation of Hampshire's native chalk streams and the everyday household products that could pose a threat to waterways. 

She sent the organisers a message afterwards, which she forwarded to us, speaking about the harmful effects of bleach in everyday products and recommending Naked Paper. She also forwarded the message to her MP!

In a follow up email she told us that she is convinced that

“if enough people - we consumers, eco aware MPs and companies like yours make enough waves we can bring about the changes that are so urgently needed.” 

We couldn’t agree more. 

Pippa has gone above and beyond, and she’s in good company. We’ve heard from customers who take rolls of Naked Paper to leave in public loos and school pupils who write presentations about bleach free toilet paper for their classmates. Every day we receive messages from the owners and managers of cafes, guest houses, and salons who stock Naked Paper and would like to know if we have signs they can hang in their loo to explain more about the funny brown rolls. 

(We do, as it happens. Here they are.)

250,000 thank yous

From two people unloading pallets of toilet paper by hand to a community that would fill Wembley Stadium nearly three times over. 

It seems like a lot for such a little thing, but somewhere along the way, our customers have helped us make Naked Paper much bigger than just the loo roll. You've taken the simple question of why bleach everyday products and run with it, sending in questions for us to look into, encouragement that keeps us pushing forward, and pictures that make the whole team smile. You’ve shared rolls with your friends and families, you’ve even sent letters to MPs.

We're so incredibly grateful for all of it. Thank you for getting us this far. We can’t wait to see what's next.

Want to join team unbleached?