The Success of The Little Soap Company
Emma Heathcote-James, founder and face of The Little Soap Company, is one of the Cotswold's most celebrated entrepreneurs.
Despite a high-flying career in media, working in television and as a distinguished author; Emma decided to trade it all in in pursuit of something closer to her heart, soap - the production of naturally organic soap to be more precise. As Emma explains.. "when you start using proper vegetable oil soap, your skin loves it, you don't need moisturiser." Indeed organic, natural soap is very beneficial for your skin over its commercial and cheaper counterpart. The naturally occurring Glycerin compound in her soap acts as a moisturiser, but it is this component that is actually removed from industry soaps and replaced with a synthetic componant and rather than using Essential Oils, cheaper synthetic aromas chemicals, which compounds Emma's claim.
Intent on proving just how nourishing her own handmade soap can be to skin, Emma wanted to unleash her bespoke range to a wider audience, after initially selling them at local farm shops. She bought a flagging soap company and completely remodelled the brand to fit her vision of beautiful bars of natural, wholesome soap. Emma's range of organic ingredients sourced from the native environment, such as lavender from Snowshill, have helped to create a luxury natural soap that is full of goodness and infused with a Cotswolds flavour. Her avant-garde recipes often include a wider range of unique ingredients; sourcing anything from locally produced honey and beer to Icelandic volcanic ash from the Eyjafjallajokull eruption!
Emma's entrepreneurial prowess can be credited to the success of her company, particularly, the quite remarkable arrangements she's negotiated both manufacturing her soap on a bigger scale as well as the contracts she has collected with all the UKs leading supermarkets and stores. The Little Soap Company has experienced phenomenal growth and has become a nationally-recognised enterprise. Today, Emma's soap can be found on the shelves of some of the biggest chains and major supermarkets in the UK. The thriving boutique soap company has exceeded all expectations, most notably her own. "I couldn’t have imagined when I first started making my soaps that the company could have grown so much", she admits modestly.
Emma Heathcote-James' efforts have not been overlooked either. In 2011, she received the highly acclaimed Enterprise Legacy Award from the University of Gloucestershire, among many other personal accolades, including being a finalist in the Worcestershire Woman of the Year and winner of the Corporate Social Responsibility Award for the Environment. More recent than that, Emma received the prestigious honour of being named 'Entrepreneur of the Year' at the 2015 Chamber of Commerce Awards!
