Kath Austin, BeeBee Wraps

The Responsible Finance Podcast

From kitchen table business to employer of ten and featured on the front page of national newspapers: BeeBee Wraps makes compostable food-wrappers from organic cotton, tree resin, British beeswax and organic jojoba oil.

Founder Kath Austin launched BeeBee Wraps when she wanted to minimise her own family’s use of plastic and became curious about how people kept food fresh before clingfilm.

In this episode, Kath discusses how she began to experiment in her own kitchen making waxed cotton covers using ethically sourced materials.

Friends who were using the wraps she produced encouraged her to turn it into a business. She listed the product on Etsy and orders began to fly in.

Having secured finance to support growing the business, Kath has sped up production, launched a zero-waste product and – because of demand – taken on larger premises and more staff.

She also needed to move away from Etsy to her own ecommerce platform as the business grew.

Kath covers the journey of launching and scaling up the business, marketing, gaining PR coverage (including one article which skyrocketed orders), where and how she accessed business support and finance, social media, delegation and much more.

If you're launching or growing a business, don't miss this episode.