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News & EventsSusie Hewson is on a mission – a mission that has lasted for over thirty years. You will have seen the results of her efforts in the supermarkets and if you haven’t you should ask them why not. Now sold in 46 countries, the Natracare range of feminine hygiene products is making huge advances to limit the damage done to the environment by products such as tampons and sanitary towels.Now an award winning range, Susie decided to tackle the problem back in 1989 when people concerned with green issues were considered a hangover from the hippy movement of the 60’s and 70’s. Now, of course, we know that they were actually spot on and, were they so inclined, could give us all a great big ‘I told you so’. Then, like now, the country was in recession, industry was grinding to a halt and the effects of Thatcher’s consumerism were being felt. No one was monitoring the effects of the global industrial nations and organisations like Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace were seen as ever so slightly eccentric. Susie was an active member of both (she campaigned against the infamous Windscale nuclear plant for instance). “There was a period through the eighties where people were purely focussed on the money and I wondered where the students were, the people who would carry on the campaigning we started. Maybe it’s our children who will help these issues to come back and it is mainstream now, the media concerns have risen and though it’s still down to people’s needs, we realise that there is no second chance with the environment like there is with banks.” None of the concerns of the eighties and the recession stopped Susie from following her idea for the Natracare business. “When starting the business I didn’t go to investors, I had to go to my bank manager in an area that was predominantly an agricultural area so they were used to dealing with farmers. I had a business plan and asked for an overdraft facility against part of the value of the house. I asked for an overdraft to produce organic feminine hygiene products in a recession and God bless him he said yes! “He was the only one of several who said yes, I did go to all the banks. I used to go and visit him and he would have little clippings about the company so he had a genuine interest.” Susie was already concerned through her memberships of eco groups about the impact of plastics on the environment but knew also that she wouldn’t be able to change the whole world by the weekend. She decided that it would be better to pick off one aspect of the range of environmental issues and tackle that one, make it her focus. When she became a mother, she also became acutely aware of just how many products were being marketed to women and mothers that were damaging to them as well as the environment and she decided that this would be her focus and the idea for Natracare was born. But there were hard lessons to learn. “Our first overseas distributors were Canada and Spain. We were lucky that 80% of our market was overseas in the early 90’s apart from Waitrose who were with us from day one. Without Waitrose in the UK it would have been very difficult for us to sustain our products. In the UK as you could only buy them in health stores other than Waitrose. They saw there was an issue and they embraced us, gave us the support to build the brand. Without that interest from overseas, the recession in the UK would have stalled us though.” Her family were very young when the business was launched so they’ve not known anything else. Susie recalls with an embarrassed laugh that her two sons used to go to school and ask the teachers what tampons they were using and then give them a lecture about why they shouldn’t be using what they were using. She also recalls the time they were four or five and came to a green fair with her. She sent them off to give out some leaflets but instead came back with pocketfuls of cash having sold them to generous passers by. Clearly, they have their mother’s enterprising spirit. She considers herself fortunate to have been able to work from home for the first ten years but it was tough in that she was always trying to hide the fact that she was working from home as if it was ‘something you shouldn’t be doing; as though you didn’t have any credibility unless you worked from a big office somewhere’. But it meant she could be with her children all day and that more than made up for it for her. “It was hard though. When we had the US office the end of the night was much later, it could be three or four o’clock in the morning, which is tiring.” Previous News & EventsFebruary 2010November 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 January 2009 November 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 January 2008 January 2008 November 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 November 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 January 2005 January 2005 January 2005 |
