Our Background
Nappy Ever After was started by Joy Vick, Gareth Maeer and Ian Gollan in 2003. Joy had seen Ian (a local dad) using real nappies on his child. When Gareth and Joy had their second baby they decided to try modern washable nappies and this led to wanting to help other parents find out that there are alternatives to 'disposable nappies.'Very soon after we started Nappy Ever After we were awarded a kick-start grant from the Big Lottery CRED (Community Recycling and Economic Development) progamme. This enabled us to employ some local parents to market Nappy Ever After's services and offer the service to local residents for £6 per week. A local dad drove the electric van that was purchased with the grant.
We proved there was demand and a willingness from parents and nurseries to use a nappy laundry service. At the point at which the funding came to an end we were serving 250 babies. This had been our target.
We learned a lot and discovered if Nappy Ever After was to grow it had to launder the nappies in-house As we have never managed to raise the finance for our own laundry our strategy has been to stay small and survive until investment becomes available and the market conditions are right.
But staying small comes at a price to our customers. The weekly fee of £15 makes our service only affordable to a minority. However, it would be even more if not for our other activities:
- Our premises are open every Tuesday 2-6pm for people to come and see real nappies before they buy.
- In May 2008 Nappy Ever After became UK distributor of the legendary Canadian nappy brand, Bummis. Their unbleached organic prefold nappies are shipped to the UK directly from Pakistan. It was a distant dream when we started Nappy Ever After to bring economically priced organic nappies to the UK market
- In 2012 Nappy Ever After started distributing Rockin Green eco-laundry products in the UK and Europe
In 2014 Nappy Ever After moved from Somers Town (Camden) to Shoreditch (Hackney.) This was partly to bring down overheads (ie the rent) but also to be closer to our laundry. We now do all our laundry deliveries by electric freight bike as we believe clean air is important for us and most importantly to babies and children growing up in London.
If you’re visiting London or live locally, then come and see us. We would love to meet you. We are just 10 mins walk from Old Street tube and overground station and a short walk from bus stops on City Road and New North Road. If you are coming by foot along Regent's Canal, exit at Shepherdess Bridge.
Our address is
81 Murray Grove
London
N1 7QJ