Meet our Brands: CLOSE
Pictured – Close directors Martine & Hester
Introducing ‘Close’ the brand behind the popular Pop-in nappy!
Close, creators of the multi award winning Pop-in nappy and the popular Caboo Carrier was founded back in 2004 here in the UK by entrepreneurs Martine Carroll and Claire Scott. Back then, they were both running their own companies focused on cloth nappies and baby wearing. The Caboo Carrier was launched in 2007 and was featured on the Channel 4 series ‘Bringing up Baby’. A year later in 2008 the first version of one of our favourite nappies here at Babipur – the award winning ‘Pop-in’ was released.
Ethical manufacturing is very important to Close. They have a purposely built factory in China which is co-owned by one of the Close directors. The location was carefully considered and chosen in order to keep the environmental cost and carbon footprint down and all the materials used are locally sourced. The factory is closely monitored and inspected twice a year by the directors themselves who work hard to ensure good working conditions are upheld. Close factory employees are provided with onsite meals, a fair wage and decent holidays.
Close continues to be family focused business and is now run by directors and parents Martine and Hester (pictured above). The Babipur team have met Martine and Hester many times but we thought it would nice to ask Martine some questions and share her answers with you..
We love the new prints, which is your favourite out of the Lion, Hippo, Russian Dolls and Robot?
My personal favourite is the Robot, as I have 3 boys and so I’m always drawn to the real boyish ones, but I think overall Hippo seems to be coming out top favourite!
Do you have any exciting plans for the future?
We always have exciting plans for the future, just never enough time to do everything we want to do!! We will have some exciting new product launches early in 2015 though, watch this space…
What do you like to do to relax?
I used to have an allotment which I loved, but with 3 boys and a business to run it got a little neglected in the end (the boys would never come with me once they got older!) so this spring my husband built raised beds in the garden and I moved everything there, so now I love to potter around my garden full of fruit and vegetables
Who would be your ideal diner date and what would be your food and drink of choice?
My husband of course! 😉 Just the two of us would be nice for a change… on a lovely summer’s evening I’d like a nice cool G&T followed by a lovely Italian meal…
What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learnt since you’ve been making nappies and slings?
I think that parents sharing their experiences of using nappies and/or slings helps other parents to realise that they’re not so scary or complicated; when I first started using reusable nappies (15 years ago!) everyone thought I was crazy as they didn’t understand how easy they were to use, but these days so many more mums and dads use them and talk about them that they spread the word far more successfully, showing by example that neither nappies nor slings are really difficult and when used properly can make a huge positive impact on the environment and on parenting in general. The power of talk is amazing!
The Close Pop-in Team
Here at Babi Pur we’ve been stocking Close baby products for 7 years. We absolutely love the fantastic range of products they make from the incredibly cute and popular pop-in nappies to training pants, bibs and playmats.. you’ll find them all at Babipur!
