HELEN RANKIN is the boss of Cheeky Wipes, which offers a range of simple reusables, alternatives to single-use plastic products. The company has just won the Queen’s Award For Enterprise 2021 for Sustainable Development.

Where is Cheeky Wipes based?

Newhaven – and I live in Seaford.

How many on your team and who are they?

Thirty five in total, mostly local and most part-time.

How long have you been going?

We’ve been trading for 12 years. We launched in October 2008 when I was 37 weeks pregnant with baby number three – as you do.

How did the idea for your business come about?

They say that necessity is the mother of invention and that was certainly true for us. I’ve suffered from eczema since I was a small child and never quite outgrew it. When my eldest son was born, the eczema on my hands was dreadful, leaving them bleeding and cracked. Using disposable baby wipes just made it worse, so I started using cloth wipes and from that the idea of a reusable baby wipes kit which could be used by cloth nappy or disposable nappy users came about.

From this original idea, we developed the product range, continuing our ethos of “simple reusables” and now have a range including reusable make-up removing pads, cloth sanitary pads and reusable period pants which are HUGELY popular.

How have you coped/adapted during the pandemic?

It has certainly had its challenges. The initial madness of Covid was actually great for us – the mass toilet roll shortage meant that lots of people were willing to try our toilet paper alternative cloth wipes who might not have done so otherwise. The brilliant thing about that is how many have continued to use them even when loo roll was available once more.

We also moved to a larger warehouse last May at the height of lockdown one, which meant the staff had a lot more space to work socially distanced. And right now, like many businesses, the rapid rate of Covid infection rising again has meant many staff are self isolating on rotation. But we’re still standing.

What would you like to tell people about your business?

We were honoured to be a winner in the Queen’s Award For Enterprise 2021 for Sustainable Development which makes us feel incredibly proud. My team really believe in our products and the brand and how we can make a difference together. Since 2016, Cheeky Wipes have saved from landfill 25 million disposable baby wipes, 40 million pads and tampons and five million disposable make-up wipes. It is worth noting that approximately two BILLION sanitary products are flushed each year and those products are made from up to 90 per cent plastic so that is a lot of bad stuff ending up in landfill and clogging our waterways. To put into perspective, 14 sanitary pads equals five plastic bags which is shocking so we view every sale as a big achievement and a huge step to changing our world.

What are your plans/hopes for the future?

We want to do more of what we’re doing. We’ve just launched our own brand of cloth nappies, which were designed and tested by over 100 parents. And we’ve also launched a range of incontinence pads and knickers. It’s such a huge problem for men and women and no one talks about it. We want to break down those taboos.

Anything else you’d like to tell us?

We understand that some of our products can seem a bit bewildering if you’re used to single-use products. But our customer services team are always really happy to help and if you read our fantastic Trustpilot reviews, you’ll get an idea of how good they are. They all use the products themselves and love to help people make the change to simple reusables.