What is The Soap Kitchen?
I acquired The Soap Kitchen in May 2020 and it is my second business. The Soap Kitchen is home to soap supplier ingredients completely dedicated to the craft of cosmetics and toiletry making. As one of the leading handmade soap manufacturers and ingredients stockists, The Soap Kitchen’s aim is to provide our customers with an unrivalled selection of products, services and ingredients at competitive prices and to ensure delivery is prompt and efficient. With our customers at the heart of everything we do, in order to provide the ultimate shopping experience, knowledge and inspiration for hobbyists and businesses alike.
Where did it all start?
Originally formed in 2000 moving to their shop premises in Torrington in 2001, The Soap Kitchen has grown a great deal over the years. In 2014 it made another huge leap forward to confirm its place as the best soap supplier. Having outgrown its previous warehouse premises, it moved to a much larger location in nearby Bideford. The Soap Kitchen is now 20 years old, growing year on year supported by our amazing customers. We are now at a new stage in our journey, with myself taking The Soap Kitchen into the next chapter. My experience and complementary businesses are the perfect step for developing The Soap Kitchen and providing even more for our wonderful customers. With the brand-new introduction of our dispatch warehouse, a new stock control system, pre-packing procedures, a new brand identity and a sparkly new website, with exciting features to help make our customers shopping experience even easier. I am really committed to developing the business to deliver the best service possible, using me and the team’s existing knowledge and understanding to support all of our customers. We are always expanding and changing to keep up with the industry and we are excited to share our journey with all of our customers and partners.
How has The Soap Kitchen grown?
The Soap Kitchen started in 2000, as a small family run soap supplier, making quality cold process soaps from pure and natural ingredients. Over time we developed our own unique recipes as a result of lengthy experimentation which originally took place literally in the kitchen. Our original selection of quality handmade soaps were first thoroughly tested and approved by our family, friends, neighbours and their families and friends before ever being offered for sale.
In 2001, after having our soaps safety assessed, we moved into our shop premises and expanded the business. To include stocking a range of soap making products, which we offered for sale to those who wanted to try the craft for themselves.
Over the years our business has grown and evolved into one of the leading suppliers of soap and toiletry making ingredients to the hobbyist and small business in Europe, but one thing remains constant and that is our commitment to customer service.
We take our business very seriously and without satisfied customers we would not be where we are today. Since starting in 2000 it has been committed to the core of the business which remains soap making, soap and toiletry supplies and ingredients and we now have space for large and comprehensive stocks of all the ingredients you’re likely to need. Over time, customers have suggested that we diversify into other areas and where we think they are complementary to our business we have done this, which has resulted in us now stocking a far wider selection of ingredients including those for people looking to use more natural products for cleaning and fragrance in their homes and workplaces.
We have also taken on a wide range of products for the bath bomb maker, which is an area we are also committed to. Many products we stock as part of our core business have many other uses, and this is especially true of our large stocks of quality essential oils, which find their way into many marketplaces including aromatherapy and complementary therapy. Our large and diverse stocks of fragrances and flavours are increasingly being used far more widely than we originally anticipated.
We have shipping arrangements in place which allow us to ship virtually any quantity of our products throughout the UK, Europe and beyond at highly competitive prices.
These days, with our two large Bideford premises, plus our investment in machinery and software, we are well placed to meet the needs of our customers.
How do we take care of our customers?
All our Soap Kitchen staff are completely dedicated to ensuring our customers receive the kind of service they expect and deserve, and we strive to offer our customers a large and diverse range of products and services. We are also teamed up with experienced consultants who have constructed some extremely cost-effective Cosmetic Product Safety Report solutions for our customers and over time we will extend these to provide wider and more bespoke services where required.
We’ve recently launched a brand new website, so we concentrate our efforts in encouraging our customers to shop on-line with our new, easy to navigate page. With the additional benefit of our blog, with regular updates to provide our customers with information, recipes and inspiration to do with the industry.
We have recently received our Feefo Platinum award for service. Since 2019 we have been organically certified and proudly support the Cruelty-Free International Leaping Bunny programme. We take pride in providing sustainably sourced ingredients and like to reduce our carbon footprint by reusing our packaging where possible.
What’s it like to run The Soap Kitchen alongside Supplies For Candles?
We recently decided to discontinue all of our candle making supplies at The Soap Kitchen focusing these products on the Supplies for Candles website. Both The Soap Kitchen and Supplies for Candles have amazing teams of staff who understand their brand and the importance of their products. The two companies both owned by myself will work alongside each other, in support of one another. In order to provide the ultimate service and amazing selection of reputable products for our customers.