Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to u-u-sss, Happy Birthday to us! Did you sing that in your head?

What are we celebrating?

One year ago today, The Jolly Turtle launched its shiny new website and a new range of eco-friendly products.

Our rebrand didn’t come at the best time. The UK events and hospitality sectors shut down along with most countries worldwide. So, it’s fair to say things didn’t pan out exactly as we had planned during our first year in business.

However, we found some new opportunities to help people and businesses on their eco-friendly journey. We expanded our product range wider than we initially anticipated to meet the demand for sustainable hygiene products. For instance, face masks, PPE face shields, and hand sanitiser.

We also spent a lot of time working hard developing our new brand and long-term strategy. All to deliver sustainable solutions to customers. There’s no doubt that 2020 was a blockbuster of a year for everyone. For us, it was a year to remember in many ways, and we wrote about some of our highlights in our New Year blog post.

Looking to the future

As The Jolly Turtle enters its second year in business, we’re very excited about new plans on the horizon. We really look forward to sharing these with you! Although the world around us has changed massively over the last year, our mission remains the same. That is, to make living an eco-friendly lifestyle easier for everyone.

We know we wouldn’t be turning one without you, so from the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone that has supported us over the last year. Whether you have engaged with us on social media, purchased an individual item on our website, or kitted out your customers or teams with bespoke survival kits, we are very grateful.

Birthday gifts all round

To help us celebrate our first birthday, we are offering a special discount of 25% on all website orders. Use voucher code BIRTHDAYTURTLE1 at the checkout by Friday 9th April.

If you are a wholesale customer, we’re offering a 10% discount on top of our usual wholesale prices. This is valid for orders placed by Friday 9th April. Contact us for further information.

Stay tuned on our blog, and don’t forget to follow us on our socials for exclusive and varied content.

The Jolly Turtle supplies eco-friendly bespoke and pre-packed kits for events, travel, hospitality, and lifestyle, offering a simple and convenient way to shop for all your plastic-free essentials. 

Rainbow Love for new year

Time to reflect

Whether you loved it or loathed it, 2020 is a year most of us will forever remember. How could we possibly forget COVID-19?

I recently had a vision of my little boys sitting down with their children in maybe 30 years and telling them about the year that will go down in history. The year they spent more time at home than at school. The year they ate more brussel sprouts than times they hugged their grandparents (they don’t like sprouts!). And how almost the entire world shut down at some point.

The impact on people and companies globally was profound and, for many, devastating. As we reflect on the past year, beyond the tragedy and devastation, it’s clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has also generated a tremendous amount of change. It has shaped us in many ways, stimulated a lot of fast-moving innovation, and created new opportunities.

Like many small businesses, The Jolly Turtle didn’t escape the wrath of the pandemic. Our core business serves the events and hospitality industry, so it’s been a challenging economic climate for us. However, we’re fortunate in that we survived.

Sadly, many of the companies we work with didn’t survive beyond 2020 – festivals, hotels, glamping companies, and more. Many more are teetering on the brink, and only time will tell whether they will continue to operate in 2021. To help us stay focused on making a difference, we expanded our product range to accommodate the need for environmentally friendly PPE.

It’s more important than ever to focus on the positives amongst the doom and gloom in times like these. Therefore, as we step into a new year with renewed hope, we reflect on some of the things we’re proud to have achieved in 2020. For us, it’s certainly been a year to remember.

Our highlights

  1. We started 2020 under our previous brand, Pic ‘n’ Mix Festival Kit. In April, just after the first UK lockdown, we rebranded as The Jolly Turtle. We launched a shiny new website and several new products at the same time. Our rebrand saw us expand into new sectors, including travel and hotels. Bad timing, but unpredicted!
  2. Very quickly, we saw a problem evolving with disposable face masks adding to the plastic waste issue. Therefore, we launched a new range of reusable biodegradable face masks for adults and children. Unsurprisingly, these were extremely popular with our eco-conscious customers.
  3. We expanded our hygiene product line in May when we introduced our zero-waste hand sanitiser and Eco Hygiene Kit.
  4. We donated money from sales to the NHS Charities National Covid-19 Urgent Appeal. That was on top of our regular donations to our charity partner, Surfers Against Sewage.
  5. In July, we launched a plastic-free PPE face shield, the world’s first to be certified with A Plastic Planet’s Plastic Free Trust Mark.
  6. To help spread awareness of the impact of plastic pollution generated from single-use plastic disposable PPE such as face masks and face shields, we gave a TV interview in September demonstrating our support.
  7. Then lockdown 2.0 happened. Without knowing whether our regular business would resume any time soon, we came up with another plan to expand our customer target base. We decided to go festive in time for Christmas. November saw our Eco Pamper Gift Boxes launch. This included new luxury products, such as candles, bath salts, chocolate, and our gorgeous seeded greeting cards.

By the end of 2020, we had launched 34 new plastic-free products over the year. Definitely a year to remember for us! Thank you to everyone that has helped keep us going.

Tree of Life Rainbow
Turtle in sustainable waters

Looking ahead

2020 has taught us many lessons. There’s no doubt that the world has undergone a considerable transformation. The way people work and live has changed forever, and businesses have learned they need to be more adaptive and resilient than ever to survive.

From an environmental perspective, there have been many positive impacts and more lessons learned. As a result of reduced pollution from manufacturing and transport activities, air quality improved in cities worldwide within weeks. We saw the reintroduction of wildlife habitats that previously had diminished, including the recovery of marine life and ecosystems in the oceans.

This NCBI study gives some more detailed scientific insights into the positive and negative environmental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s clear that climate change is more critical than ever, and COVID-19 has given us a chance to reflect on how we can live better while minimizing our impact on the planet. 2021 will set a new level of ordinary. Therefore, we can and should use it as an opportunity to build a more sustainable economy and future for people and the planet.

As we enter a new, more hopeful 2021, we wish our readers a happy and safe New Year. One filled with parties, festivals, holidays, and hugs – all the things we most definitely want to remember! Let’s hope 2021 will be a year to remember for all the right reasons.

happy new year

The Jolly Turtle supplies eco-friendly bespoke and pre-packed kits for events, travel, hospitality, and lifestyle, offering a simple and convenient way to shop for all your plastic-free essentials. 

We’re very excited to announce today that the original bespoke festival kit supplier, Pic ‘n’ Mix Festival Kit, has rebranded as The Jolly Turtle.