Dzintra Boyd, founder of cloth nappy retailer and subscription box company Fluff Mail, had become increasingly concerned about the impact her family’s lifestyle choices were having on the environment. As well as making sustainable changes in her own household, she set out to promote the use of modern cloth nappies and other eco-friendly products to environmentally-conscious mums. Here she talks about starting her business, Fluff Mail, and the challenges she has faced along the way.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
As a mother to four daughters, my concern for the world I was leaving behind for my children has been a growing concern and I felt compelled to investigate the impact my family’s lifestyle was having on the environment.
After discovering some disturbing statistics about disposable nappies and being a cloth nappy addict myself, I soon realised that there was an opportunity in the market to promote the use of modern cloth nappies and other eco-friendly products to Australian mums. And so, Fluff Mail was born – Australia’s cloth nappy retailer and subscription box!
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
In the beginning there was no such thing as a cloth nappy subscription box and I realised that there was a huge opportunity here to create something fun and innovative for not just current users of cloth nappies, but also as a way to introduce reusable nappies to parents who hadn’t yet made the switch. I simply started an Instagram account and got to work taking beautiful pictures of cloth nappies, gradually building my audience whilst working away in the background developing the subscription boxes. By the time I had launched, I had hundreds of interested customers and just kept growing from there. A few months into the business and then the bushfires in Australia happened, shortly followed by COVID. Both these events saw the stockpiling and shortage of disposable nappies and business suddenly boomed. I opened an online store and I couldn’t keep the nappies on the shelves long enough. Though it’s been a disastrous situation worldwide, it has opened people’s minds to using more sustainable ways of living and that can only be a good thing.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
The entire concept of cloth nappy subscription boxes has been extremely well received, not just by customers but by cloth nappy brands too. We are even releasing our own exclusive nappy range with one of our suppliers which I’m super proud of. It’s a huge milestone and the feedback from our customers has been overwhelmingly positive.
