Stratford-based entrepreneur cleans up with soap firm Queen’s Award

A kitchen-table hobby that blossoms into a successful business and scoops a Queen’s Award for Enterprise sounds like a storyline from a movie.

But it’s the real-life tale of Stratford-based Emma Heathcote-James who began making her own soap in 2008, after struggling to find organic, cruelty-free bars in the supermarkets.

The turning point was persuading first Waitrose, then a slew of other chains such as Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Lloyds, Ocado, Boots, Co-op, Sainsbury’s and Amazon, to stock her Little Soap Company’s organic and natural ranges.

But it’s her latest Eco Warrior range of specialised shampoo, shower, shaving and exfoliating bars, launched in 2019, that has just netted Emma the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for ‘excellence in innovation’.

She’s also gained BCorp, or ‘business for good,’ status.

But it hasn’t always been plain sailing.