This year our Year 12 Business Challenge team created SoyKind (meaning ‘ I am Kind’), a business that takes pride in its environmentally friendly, reusable vegan wax wraps!

Our Journey
In the beginning when we were putting forward ideas, we had originally planned to sell mismatched tea sets. However, we soon saw the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing risk of climate change and started discussing the idea of reusable food wraps. Throughout our journey, we have emphasised the importance of protecting our environment and have minimised the use of plastics and certain ingredients in our wraps. Initially, we wanted to sell beeswax wraps but, after some discussion, we decided to go further and supply vegan wraps as it meant that everyone would be able to use them. Firstly, in order to begin making prototypes, we had to raise some funding to supplement the £10 we had each invested as equal shareholders in our business.

After a very successful night selling reusable glow sticks and sweets at our annual bonfire night (courtesy of the PTA), we were able to make a good profit which enabled us to begin our business. The first task we set out to do was create a prototype for the food wraps and so we made some samples.  Betty, our product designer, created several prototypes trying different combinations of soya wax and grape seed oil. However, it was discovered that soy wax leaves you with a semi-waterproof cloth that doesn’t really stick or cling at all.  And so, although the prototypes were not as successful as we had hoped, they proved valuable to our decision making.

It soon became clear that it would take too much time to make our own high quality products alongside our A levels, and so we looked at other companies who were trying to achieve the same environmental goal and found Rowen Stillwater, which enabled us to kick start to our business.

Our Product
 We have chosen to sell vegan food packaging wraps, which aim to cut down on the use of cling film and other forms of wrapping, replacing it with an environmentally friendly alternative. The wraps come in sets of three and are made with 100% cotton fabric, plant waxes, tree resins and plant oils, which make the wraps reusable. They can mould and grip with the warmth of your hand to form a water repellant seal – effectively preserving what is inside.

The packaging is also plastic free. The labels are kept minimalistic in order to avoid lamination, high gloss inks and plastic wrapping - this means that they are recyclable. When the product is being delivered unbleached paper envelopes and cardboard boxes padded with recycled tissue paper are used. This way no additional plastics are being used, this is an important part of our business ethos.  

Challenges of Covid-19
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have not been able to expand our business as far as we had hoped, but we have continued to make progress! Over the past three months of remote learning, we have had weekly SoyKind meetings to discuss how we may proceed further in the current situation and in the future when restrictions ease further.

Therefore, we are now happy to announce that you can pre-order our product. If you are interested in purchasing a set for yourself, please feel free to email us at soykindbusiness@gmail.com.  For further information on our products please visit our Instagram @soykind or our twitter @KindSoy.

Thank you, again, to the PTA, parents and students for supporting us throughout this school year and we all hope you have a lovely summer!

A'ishah
Year 12