Gain insights on business growth in our series of bite size chats with Business Leaders, brought to you by The FD Consultant.
We interview high achieving individuals who we believe everyone can learn from, and who bring insight into the many aspects of successfully growing a business.
Today we welcome Marcus Hill, Co-Founder of Bower Collective. Marcus has a track record of setting up successful growth businesses based on sustainability, and Bower Collective is no exception. Flying the flag for sustainability with its closed loop solution, Bower Collective has been enjoying accelerated growth.
We hope you find the Q&A interesting and insightful!
Hi Marcus, please tell us about your business.
Bower Collective sells sustainable home & personal care products in reusable packaging.
Our packaging is sent back to us for reuse and recycling. We have 400 amazing products from beautiful hand and body washes to effective natural laundry and surface sprays.
What are the key factors which have driven your growth to date?
We have grown rapidly because our customers want more sustainable products to use in their home. They are fed up with plastic waste and want a solution. Bower Collective provides great products direct to your home and eliminates any plastic waste.
What makes you so passionate about what you do?
Most people are aware there is a plastic waste crisis with 8 million tonnes of plastic going into the ocean each year.
What people do not know is that only 10% of the plastic you put into your recycling bin gets recycled. The rest is exported, incinerated or sent to landfill.
These facts have made us passionate about finding another way to deliver great home and personal care products with a closed loop on the packaging.
What do you view as your greatest achievement in this role to date?
Building a business with 400 products online that has already avoided 21,000 kg of plastic waste being created!
What are the biggest challenges your business faces?
We are doing something new so we have had to innovate to create our closed loop and reusable packaging and that has been a real challenge.
Fortunately, we have managed to raise venture capital backing and had support from Innovate UK to create our BowerPack™ reusable packaging. The packaging is fully trackable so you can scan a QR code on the pack which will show how many times it has been reused.
What one piece of advice would you give to those who want to achieve or sustain high growth in their businesses?
Make sure you are building something the customer loves. Once you are sure of this then push forward.
Listen to your customer the whole time and adjust or improve your product/ proposition accordingly while still being focused on your long term vision.
Website: www.bowercollective.com