After a combined 20 years building campaigns, products, and brands for a variety of household name brands, Sam & Mike had a burning desire to turn their experiences into their own business. Sam is a scent guy – obsessed with fragrances; during a trip across the pond, he noticed that friends, and even bars and restaurants had shunned big bad white bottle cleaning brands for local, great to use products with premium fragrances and environmental claims.
Returning to the UK on the hunt for a similar product it was clear that there wasn’t anything – and certainly none that stacked up to their eco claims. Identifying a void between what customers were looking for and what existed in the market – Wilton London was born. Named after their home street in London, Wilton is a range of worktop worthy, botanically fragranced, and wholly effective household cleaning products – helping their customers reduce their environmental impact. Not a stuffy hippy eco brand, not a ‘green-wash’ brand: a brand we all wanted to use without compromise our ethics.
Wilton’s high-performing, eco-friendly products let consumers keep their homes and clothes pristine clean while allowing them to buy ethically and reduce their impact on the environment.
“Sustainability is, without a doubt, one of the hottest trends across laundry and household care and we anticipate this trend will continue” says homecare vice president Gemma Cleland. “People are more engaged with the category than ever before – which is something brands can really capitalise on if they get it right.” (The Grocer – Household Category Report)
Wilton London products are British made using recycled and recyclable packaging and is registered with the Vegan Society as it does not use any animal-derived ingredients and is not carrying out any animal testing. Wilton London is also B-Corp certified, meaning they meet a high standard of accountability and transparency on social and environmental performance. Their range doesn’t have microplastics, parabens, artificial colouring, enzymes, borax, optical brighteners, phosphates nor phthalates.
Wilton London worktop worthy cleaning products look great, smell great and they’re kind to the environment too. Most importantly, they’re effective and a pleasure to use, proving that eco doesn’t have to be a compromise. We shouldn’t have to choose between a product you actually want to use and one that helps us do our bit for the planet. The packaging and containers are recycled, and recyclable, plastic, or biodegradable. They do not test on animals or use ingredients like synthetic dyes.
Mike and Sam have had a pretty hectic past 12 months with highlights including:
- No 3 eco brand on Ocado (food retailer)
- May 2022 – Arrived on Sainsbury’s shelves
- May 2022 – Received Carbon Neutral Certification making them the first Carbon Neutral laundry brand in UK shops
- June 2022 – Hit 20k digital sales
- Team expanded by 3 people – including a Head of Grocery
- Now in more than 1500+ retail locations
- Sainsbury doubled the range in their February review
Wilton London is busy finalising their next round of funding to sustain them until mid 2024 – on a company valuation of circa £7.8m. The new investment will be targeted on Retail and Brand marketing, more senior staff hires, working capital and to provide Development and Capital investment.
‘Wilton is on a mission to become the best-loved eco-cleaning brand in the UK and to ultimately grow our eco-friendly and plant-based cleaning products offering across Europe. Eco-friendly cleaning products are currently experiencing six times the level of growth of conventional products, creating a £500m gap in the UK market alone over the next four years’.
Mike Perry, Co-Founder, Wilton London
‘We have been working with Wilton from the very start and it has been an amazing journey, incredibly smart pair of founders with a fantastic product range and a lot of traction in their core markets. We are truly excited to be part of the journey with Mike and Sam and are looking forward to supporting them through the next stage of their growth‘
Anthony King, Managing Partner, GreenTribe