Making environmentally friendly and sustainable choices is important in all aspects of day to day life.
Will set up Eco Bru after being inspired whilst travelling. He has since created a fabulous range of bamboo toothbrushes, which are stocked around Leicester and also available to buy online. We caught up with him to find out more about it.
Tell us a little about Eco Bru and how you got started?
My name is Will. I am 25 years old and have been lucky enough to travel. This opened my eyes to what us (as a human race) are doing to our planet. I wanted to make an impact, a change but had no idea how to go about it. Once I had returned home, I started selling (on a very small scale) a variety of zero waste alternatives to every day products as a secondary business, whilst I worked full time. This lead me on to thinking deeply about how I could make a more monumental change. With a limited business background, working only for my dad’s company following the completion of my PE degree, I had to invest a lot of time into research. I started watching youtube videos on how to create a brand and picked up information from wherever possible.
What is it that’s different about your products and what made you go down that route?
After starting the business I furthered my research into the bamboo toothbrush market. I felt there was a real gap for the right product. My aim was to create a zero waste, bamboo toothbrush that was just as aesthetically pleasing as a plastic brush, cleans in the same way and is not dissimilar in price. With my brand Eco-Bru Ltd, I feel I’ve achieved this goal.
What’s your favourite thing about running Eco Bru?
My favourite thing about running Eco-Bru is that I get to positively impact the environment and make people happy at the same time. I like it most when I send someone a brush or supply a shop and they’re so excited with the product and say how good it is etc. That feeling is brilliant.
How do you find Leicester as a city to start a business in?
It’s all I know I guess. It was a slow launch as I started along side another job but just went into a few shops selling in person and most people loved the product and wanted to stock them.
Who are some of your other favourite independents?
I do my best to actively support as many as I can. I like The Bottle Garden in St Martins Square as that’s run by two young entrepreneurs and locally I frequent to Northen Cobbler and Pavlovs on Queens Road, of course! I’ll always choose an independent over a chain if I can, it’s important to support local business.
Where can people find out more about or buy your products?
People can find my brushes at various locations around Leicester and the UK including; Nada, Just., Currant Affairs, Green & Pleasant but also on my website:
www.eco-bru.co.uk.