Enterprise: Baresop
Why they stand out online: The surge in demand for waterless soap has propelled Baresop’s sales growth to 500 per cent.
Baresop was conceived in 2020 on the back of a conversation its founder, Prisca Ongonga-Daehn, had with her daughter. “She spoke passionately of the plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean, suggesting a generation inheriting a world in crisis,” Prisca explains. “In that moment, her concerns ceased to be just her own – they became a rallying cry for change. I couldn’t ignore the urgency in her voice, nor the tears in her eyes. This was a call to action, a demand to break free from helplessness.”
Prisca delved into the issue. Plastic waste has woven itself into the fabric of our lives, suffocating the planet. The answer to breaking free, it occurred to Prisca, lay in the everyday choices we make.
The bathroom, a sanctuary of routines and rituals, held an unexpected challenge. “As I searched for waste-free alternatives, I encountered obstacles that would have deterred the faint-hearted,” Prisca laments. “But these challenges fueled my determination.”
From adversity emerged a business idea and a name – Baresop – that “echoed simplicity and purpose. It symbolises a departure from the mundane, a commitment to make waves of change in a sea of apathy,” Prisca avers.
“Our concept enables a convenient experience for our customers, resulting in a fast-growing automated subscription channel.”
Within months she brought a hand wash and a body wash in four different scents to market, and her launch of two more new products is imminent – all designed to disrupt the personal-care space, enabling everyone to shift to climate-positive products. In foam and gel personal-care products, Prisca uses a patented crystallised powder that can just be added to tap water.
“Not only does the Baresop concept make it easy for everyone to re-adapt with a frictionless experience, we have also built our climate impact metrics into our financials so we can share these with customers,” Prisca enthuses. “Our vision is to empower our customers to see how each use of our products impacts their environmental footprint.” Other unique selling points Baresop offers include mindful packaging and adding value to our customers by offering a health and wellness benefit with plant-based Australian bush food ingredients.
The Baresop concept eliminates single-use plastic waste. Each 15g sachet equals one single-use plastic bottle not ending up in landfill and is equivalent to 1kg of a traditional 300ml dense, liquid soap. “This eliminates CO2 that would have been emitted from transporting heavyweight products,” Prisca explains. “By reusing our refillable bottles made from recycled waste, we enable our customers to re-use and elongate the products’ lifeline. And by using our foaming alternative to gel soap, you reduce water wastage by 50 per cent.”
Prisca elected to run the business online for a number of reasons. “Our concept enables a convenient experience for our customers, resulting in a fast-growing automated subscription channel,” she explains. “Once you run out of your soap, you just order a 15g active ingredients refill. We launched in the middle of COVID, when everyone was shopping online. And being online was the best way to learn about our customers and understand their needs.”
The surge in demand for the waterless soap concept has propelled Baresop’s sales growth to 500 per cent. “This meteoric rise has paved the way for an imminent launch in the North American and Canadian markets with three new product innovations,” Prisca says. “We’re setting our sights on achieving a revenue milestone in the seven-figure range by mid-2024. This trajectory isn’t just a journey; it’s a testament to the power of innovation, purpose, and the resounding resonance of a concept whose time has come.”
This article first appeared in issue 42 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine
