Success is in a bag for shoppers who care for the environment

In these more enlightened times, a Yorkshire entrepreneur is building a business empire which caters for those who want to shop in an environmentally-friendly way.

Sheffield-based Julia Gash, who is perhaps better known for her skills as a lingerie designer, has established Bag It, Don’t Bin It. The company is poised for growth after securing a host of blue chip customers.

She said: “By producing an eco-friendly, fairly traded, alternative – branded, cloth bags – we help the world get rid of plastic bags that harm the environment.

“We make cool and contemporary, eco-friendly bags as well as making bags for companies and organisations so that they can promote their brand and ethical values.

“We count many blue chip brands, such as Jimmy Choo, Harvey Nichols, Liberty of London, River Island, Paperchase and Waterstones as clients.

“We also produce eco-bags for many of the nation’s favourite museums and galleries, including The British Museum, National Science Museum, National Media Museum and The National Portrait Gallery.”

Ms Gash, who has been in business for 21 years, expects the company’s turnover to increase from £643,000 to £750,000 this year.

“I had been involved in a print-led fashion brand in the 1990s, until an earthquake hit Japan in 1995, which changed everything,’’ she recalled. “The Japanese market froze and my main client base disappeared.”

She set up a lingerie business, but discovered that many customers were “more enthused by the bag than the knickers within it”.

Ms Gash felt she wanted to return to a business with high growth potential – and decided eco-bags were the answer.

She said: “From a standing start in September 2007, we have developed a fast-growing and profitable business, which is guided by an eco-ethical business model.

“We have taken six guys out of unemployment and trained them to be master printers. We are also looking at developing a website to create an online shop for personalised eco-bags.”

She added: “Our expertise in understanding the needs of premium brands, and having the patience and ability to turn their creative ideas into a printed eco-bag, is a key factor in our business growth.

“We are holders of the Made In Sheffield Mark of Quality, a badge we wear with pride. We have a number of really exciting blue chip contracts in the pipeline. We are an old-fashioned business, but are also very 21st century with our whizzy website.”

In 2009, Bag It, Don’t Bin It won extra funding from a Dragons’ Den-style entrepreneurial panel.

Ms Gash agreed a deal for £30,000 of funding in exchange for 10 per cent of the business, with Jennifer Ryan, from Yorkshire Association of Business Angels (YABA). The company’s bags are made in Fairtrade-registered factories in India. The factories are also a member of SEDEX, which is an international ethical auditing association. The company produces an eco-ethical information pack, giving further details about the environmental and ethical credentials of its products.

Ms Gash learned her trade by working in her father’s print company. Her fashion brand, Gash, was stocked in stores around the world.

She won a National Export Award and an invitation to Buckingham Palace in the 1990s.

Julia Gash: Fact file

Sheffield-based entrepreneur Julia Gash has appeared on a number of high-profile television shows as a commentator on business and environmental issues, including Newsnight, on BBC2, and The Politics Show, on BBC1.

After working as an artist and teacher in London, she established Gash, a lingerie fashion brand. She founded Sheffield-based Bag It, Don’t Bin It in 2007, which today employs 13 staff.