As consumers we’re all trying to be more conscious and buy and shop in a more sustainable way. An increased number of brands are looking at products in a more innovative way, one of those brands is Billi London the world's first biodegradable hosiery brand. Today Nicole is joined by Billi London co-founder Sophie to find out more about this eco-friendly brand. 

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• After ripping a pair of tights while she was getting ready for work, Sophie threw the old pair in the bin and went to get new ones. It was then that she started thinking about how wasteful it was to have a one use product that couldn’t be recycled into another pair, they would just end up in landfill. 
• Every year in the UK alone there is over 7000 tonnes of waste just from tights in landfill. Globally that’s 8 billion pairs of tights being produced just to be thrown away. They will take over 100 years to decompose. 
• Sophie needed to surround herself with people who know about sustainability. Her co-worker Marie came on board to be the other co-founder bringing her background in sustainability in fashion and biodegradability. They were both trying to solve the same problem at the same time.
• Billi London tights biodegrade in around 5 years when in landfill, compared to up to 100 years for other hosiery brands. 
• Sophie is also very passionate about changing the way in which we buy tights. Instead of just grabbing them in the supermarket, she wanted to walk people through the journey, let them try them on, feel the material, and most importantly understand the sustainability of the product. In the first pop up in London they had a conversion rate of about 90%. The traffic wasn’t huge but almost everyone who went in bought one of their products. 

 

BEST MOMENTS

‘There was no way I was going to create a brand with a negative impact’

‘There was no way we were going to sacrifice quality or sustainability’ 

‘Biodegradability is a harder thing to explain than recycling’ 

‘Know your values and what you’re not prepared to compromise on’

 

EPISODE RESOURCES

https://billi-london.com

https://www.instagram.com/billi_ldn/

 

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com

www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach 

www.tiktok.com/@thebuyerandretailcoach

https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/

 

ABOUT THE HOST

Buying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years working for companies such as Primark, M&S, Debenhams and Asda, sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. 

Nicole now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and small to medium sized business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses as The Buyer And Retail Coach (TM) 

Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist

 

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