Reusing 5.5 million Plastic Drink Bottles with Hayley Clarke, co-owner and MD at Onya (episode 431)
Hayley Clarke is the co-owner and managing director at Onya. The business has been trading since 2004 and Hayley and her partner bought it in 2015. Onya is selling products that help customers reduce their use of single-use plastic via their WooCommerce site where they get over 25,000 visitors a month, AND they have over 700 wholesale customers globally.
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About Onya
- A global business that ships all over the world
- Sells direct-to-consumer and also does B2B
Onya is all about reducing waste that comes from plastic and providing alternatives. One of their best-selling products is their bread bags, which Hayley says was born out of listening to their customers and understanding their needs.
Acquiring an Existing Business
After working with a national retail business for about ten years, the opportunity came up to purchase Onya from the original owners.
Hayley says starting a business from scratch can be daunting and a really big step. Buying Onya, which was already up and running, allowed her to get a feel for manufacturing and understand that side of the business without having to start something completely new.
And while Hayley loves retail and its face-to-face nature, it is hard work and takes up a lot of your time. Doing eCommerce has given her the chance to do what she enjoys while not being tied down on weekends.
Replacing Single-Use Plastic
Hayley explains that when they started out, their aim was to replace single-use plastics. Plastic in itself is not bad, but the challenge is getting people to avoid single-use plastics because this is where the problem comes from.
Onya produces different types of reusable bags, such as produce bags, lunch wraps, and other food bags. On the product development side, Hayley says they look at ways where they can be most used and use customer feedback to come up with products that will be used over and over again.
Relaunching the Brand
When Hayley and her partner took over Onya, they knew they had to freshen up the brand and introduce a new look. They relaunched the website, and together with that, they also introduced responsible packaging that uses recycled materials and soy-based ink, making it recyclable and compostable.
They also went after the B2B market because they knew that, even with eCommerce, B2B would allow them to gain traction much faster.
What It Means to be B Corp Certified
For Hayley, taking over Onya meant building a brand that people could trust. And as they were already a company built around sustainability, Hayley says becoming B Corp certified was the natural progression for the business.
Hayley believes that being assessed by an independent body as a company doing good for the planet gave their retail customers a certain level of trust.
Hayley adds that with the certification, bigger corporations are now talking to them about purchasing their sustainable products and supporting them.
The process of becoming certified may have taken a bit of time, but for Hayley, it was absolutely worth the effort.
eCommerce Book Top Tip
- Simplify: How the Best Businesses in the World Succeed by Richard Koch and Greg Lockwood
- Back Yourself by Peace Mitchell and Katy Garner
eCommerce Traffic Top Tip
- For Hannah, email marketing is one of the most effective tools you can use to convert customers.
For the latest Email marketing advice, have a listen to our sister show Keep Optimising
Tool Top Tip
Growth Top Tip
- The conversion rate from emails is really high, so grow your email list to develop your revenue consistently.
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