The Star Business Monthly October 2007
Bagging The Market
Julia and green new ideas.
Julia Gash, the Sheffield-based businesswoman and entrepreneur who brought sex into the mainstream - in the nicest possible way - with her Gash empire is clearly a woman who can spot a trend.
Which is why, with environmental issues dominating headlines, Julia is one step ahead of the crowd with a new business venture that sees her going green.
Along with fellow city businessman, Andy O'Hara, the man behind Tank Creative Print, she has launched Bag It Don't Bin It, and eco-friendly printing service producing branded, cotton shopping bags.
Julia is one step ahead of the crowd with a new business venture that see her going green.
This new venture tackles head on the issue of plastic carrier bags and the West's apparently unstoppable need for something that is adding to the problems of landfill sites and, because the majority are not bio-degradable, is a problem that refuses to go away.
The aim of Bag It Don't Bin It is simple - to provide businesses and organisations with the option to purchase re-usable, 100 per cent cotton, undyed, branded bags which have been made without using environmentally harmful chemicals.
Retailers may have been fairly slow up to now to wean their customers away from the convenience and disposability of plastic but Julia and Andy are convinced that the tide of public opinion is turning.
"Bag It Don't Bin It is helping retailers replace the national trend for using disposable, plastic bags, which harm the environment, with branded, re-usable cotton or jute bags that are made from non-fossil sources and are also totally biodegradable," she explains.
" We use unbleached and undyed, 100 per cent cotton short or long handled shopping bags, printed with environmentally-friendly, water based inks. As the inks are heat cured, the bags are machine washable and can be used time and time again."
As the project gets off the ground, the printing of bags - which are being made in India - is being done by Julia and Andy themselves but, with big plans to see the concept expand, they are now also looking to take their bigger orders to India.
For Julia herself, Bag It Don't Bin It is simply an extension of the Gash eco-friendly philosophy - her shop has been providing customers with cotton recyclable bags for the past four years.
"I realised that people were re-using those and, of course, it was a great way for me to market my own business, which is something we are keen to point out to other companies," she says. "And now just seemed to be the right time to get his project out there.
"Only recently, 22 of the biggest retailers in the UK have signed a government pledge to reduce their plastic bag use by 25 per cent by the end of this year so they need to find a viable solution to their problems very quickly."
Julia and Andy are now talking to retailers and finding, inevitably, that while some may be extremely interested, there are still others who continue to think of the economic implications of dropping the plastic.
"We have had some say that you can buy a plastic bag for 3p but they have to realise that their customers will continue to use a Bag It Don't Bin It bag."
Just to make sure the scheme really does take off nationally, though, Andy and Julia are calling in the support of some celebrity friends to add to the appeal of the brand.
"We're hoping to get at least a dozen celebrities involved in designing a bag of their own," Andy says. "We aim to release one a month, to be carried by retailers in their stores to give the bags a bit of a boost.
"The shop will get a percentage, we will cover our production costs and whatever is elft will go to the charity of the celebrity's choice - that's going to be our big project for 2008!"
Founded by co-directors Julia Gash (Gash lingerie) and Andy O'Hara (Tank Creative Print), the new company produces unbleached and undyed cotton and jute branded shopping bags, which are manufactured without the use of harmful chemicals and then hand-printed with environmentally-friendly water based inks.
Seeing the amount of waste produced from unnecessary packaging and the volume of plastic bags that are given away at the point of sale inspired Andy and Julia to come up with an eco-friendly solution for businesses that works.
"It is our mission to change the nation's habit for using plastic bags, which harm the environment with re-usable, cotton bags," says Julia. For further information on products, prices and to view the company's Environment Policy, Fair Trade Policy and Keep It Cool Campaign, log onto www.bagitdontbinit.co.uk