G
aëlle Wizenberg was
always ambitious, and that
was never more evident
than after the birth of
her first child, son Zachary, who’s now
eight. Back then, she was a new mum
determined to do away with disposables
in favour of cloth diapers. But procuring
them proved a gargantuan task. So
small was the market back in 2006 that
finding them was impossible in Hong
Kong, and not much easier elsewhere.
With eBay her only option, Gaëlle heard
her inner entrepreneur calling. “My
master plan was cloth diaper world
domination!” she says, with a giggle.
A meeting with a factory owner
Gaëlle had met in her previous career
in the toy industry proved a fortuitous
first step. “He is passionate about ‘eco’
and changing the world, and he took me on almost as his pet
project,” she explains. Today, just four years since launching,
colourful Charlie Banana cloth diapers have become a
Eco
entrepreneur
Hong Kong proved a strangely perfect place for one mum
to launch an eco-friendly product line, writes
Elle Kwan
.
global brand, and are available in
stores across Asia, Europe and North
America. In 2012, Target began stocking
Charlie Banana across the US. Now with
training pants, swim nappies, organic
wipes, and even men’s boxers – daddies
do lots of nappy changing, so why not
include them, laughs Gaëlle – the brand
is continuously evolving, bringing world
domination that much closer.
She feels a certain satisfaction for
founding the company in Hong Kong
specifically – a place known more widely
for excess and extravagance than eco,
says Gaëlle. In the beginning, she says,
“People would say to me, Hong Kong
people are not eco-friendly. I disagreed
and proved them wrong,” she says. “Our
logo is a tilted double happiness, and it
means good for you and good for the
planet. Right from the start, people here got that, the seed
was planted and it was unstoppable,” she says. “I don’t think I
could have grown so fast being based anywhere else.”
February 2015
67
