A conversation with Guy Fennell

Our ‘in conversation’ this issue is with local businessman and father Guy Fennell, who after a successful career leading FMCG companies, was compelled to channel his drive and passion into sustainability when he realised that disposable baby care was harming the planet.

Why an eco-friendly baby care business?

Guy and Abi Fennell had hit the phase of life where many of their friends were beginning to have children – Guy and Abi would go on to have their first child, Ezra, just before Pura’s launch. They began to notice how many baby wipes were appearing around friend’s houses and when they dug deeper, they found some shocking statistics.

Guy explains: “We found out that 90% of wipes sold in the UK contain plastic and take more than 100 years to break down in landfills. And, equally as shocking, three billion disposable nappies are thrown into landfill annually in the UK, each taking up to 500 years to degrade.”

This inspired them to drive change and during Covid in 2020 they created Pura, a baby care brand that meant parents no longer have to choose between caring for their babies or their planet.

The business was set up in Tattenhall, Cheshire, eight miles outside Chester. Guy says: “Pura wasn’t born in a boardroom; it was started in our Cheshire home. As we expanded, Cheshire felt like the perfect location.

Our head office is situated among beautiful fields in a pretty village, but it’s accessible from places like Liverpool, Manchester and Stoke. We get a better deal on rent than we would in larger cities and there is lots of great talent in the area – there was no reason to look elsewhere.”

A national reach

The company has been successful in getting many of the multinationals to stock Pura products quickly.

“Pura has a large addressable market and a competitively-priced product, positioning our wipes and nappies as an appealing option for consumers looking to move away from traditional established brands, to more agile eco-ethical brands.

“We’re also the only baby brand to partner with nappy recycling experts NappiCycle, an innovative programme that collects and repurposes millions of used nappies in Wales. This was a point of interest to many retailers. Asda went on to support Pura NappiCycle’s first ever nappy recycling trial of its kind in England, with a huge awareness drive. This led to Pura and Asda joining forces, to help to tackle the issue of plastic waste by producing the UK’s first instore signage using recycled nappies. The signs are used on shelving selling Pura products in 320 stores, replacing plastic shelving.

“Pura’s products are also highly certified and accredited. We’re the only UK baby brand with a 5-star Trustpilot rating and we have won numerous parent-tested awards, including Made for Mums, Project Baby, Mother & Baby, and Loved By Parents, as well as having a Mumsnet Rating.”

We built our business on Teams “Launching a business in Covid was certainly a challenge. The newly recruited team had to get to know each other while working remotely and we built our business on Teams. Other than that, the business has grown rapidly, and we’ve had to finance that growth.

We invested significantly to get Pura off the ground, and we worked hard to secure £4.25 million in investment, led by Maven Capital Partners in 2022. We’re now just completing Raise B, to facilitate our next phase of growth.”

Supermarket success

“One of my proudest moments was seeing Pura products on the shelves at a leading supermarket for the first time,” says Guy. He is also intensely proud to be offering parents an easy and affordable alternative to wipes and nappies that are harmful to the planet. Pura’s partnership with NappiCycle delivered the first road to be resurfaced with recycled nappy material in Britain using 110,000 recycled nappies in 2022. The company also launched the first Nappy Recycling of its kind in England. “We will keep lobbying for change,” says Guy.

Demand for eco-ethical products is soaring in the UK and beyond Guy shared that Pura is now preparing to launch its entire baby care range into one of the largest retailers in the world, which will create massive distribution opportunities in a new territory. “It’s imminent but I can’t reveal any details just yet,” he added.

“We are constantly innovating and have plans to continue to grow our eco-friendly product range. Other goals include continuing our work to champion nappy recycling as a low-impact, cost-effective alternative to the three billion nappies that are sent to landfill in the UK each year. As a business, we have a goal to reach Net Zero by 2027.”

Get your ducks in a row

Asking what advice he would give others hoping to get a multinational to stock their product, Guy suggested: “Only approach retailers when you have all your ducks in a row, and you know all facets of the business are geared up to cope with a potentially huge increase in demand. This means being prepared and ready from a stock, supply chain, marketing, team and resource perspective.”

About Pura’s nappy recycling initiative

Every day in the UK alone, eight million disposable nappies end up in a landfill, and each one takes hundreds of years to break down. Pura has calculated that if the three billion diapers used annually in the UK were 100% recycled, the impact would be equivalent to removing 72,000 cars from the road each year.

In the same year that Pura launched (2020), Pura began a partnership with Wales-based NappiCycle, a world leader in nappy recycling technology. In Wales, millions of nappies are recycled each year. In the areas where nappy recycling is offered to households, it is a local authority provided service that is financially supported by the Welsh Government.

Unfortunately, this is not a service offered to parents in the rest of the UK. Extending this service outside of Wales means local authorities changing their waste management schedules, central government support and potentially legislative change.

In 2022 Pura led the first nappy recycling trial of its kind in England in a bid to expediate that change. The trial was held in Bristol, England in an attempt to show the government, the benefits of nappy recycling as alternative to sending nappies to landfill or of incineration. Results from the trial are to be released shortly. For more information on this, visit: https://mypura.com/pages/ nappy-recycling

Pura NappiCycle also delivered the first road to be resurfaced with recycled nappy material in the UK. A stretch of the A487 between Aberystwyth and Cardigan in Ceredigion was resurfaced using 110,000 recycled diapers. The Welsh government backed the project with £180,000 funding, Guy Fennell mypura.com