Re-usable Chilly’s Bottles have been among the success stories for many gift retailers, with the company’s co-owners, James Butterfield and Tim Bouscarle, seeing sales rocket by 284.01% over the past year, earning them the top place in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100.
The brainchild of university student James Butterfield in 2010, who was joined by Tim Bouscarle the following year, the company has grown from James’ initial idea of finding a replacement for plastic bottles to enable consumers to have cold water on the move, to a business that makes 3.5m bottles and coffee cups a year, with sales of £11.9m.
With both James and Tim having previously worked – and met – while working in digital marketing, growth has escalated through social media advertising.
As the headline sponsor for June 19’s National Refill Day, Chilly’s created a bottle in support of the campaign. For every Refill x Chilly’s bottle purchased, the company donated £10 to City to Sea – the organisation behind the campaign – to help protect the UK’s oceans.
“Chilly’s Bottles mission is to accelerate the adoption and everyday use of reusable products, and it’s why we were excited to be partnering with non-profit City to Sea on its award-winning campaign Refill,” explained James and Tim. “We’re looking forward to continuing our support of the Refill campaign and its incredible work which is estimated to be on track to save over 100 million single-use bottles from entering our waste stream by the end of 2019.”
Top: A selection of Chilly’s Bottles on display at Jo Amor in Tiverton.
