Emma Heathcote-James 

Former Staff

When Emma Heathcote-James came to the end of her three year consultancy contract with the University of Gloucestershire back in 2008 she decided to take another step back from her media life and start making soap in the country whilst she wrote her next book... however, she didn't realise how successful her new 'hobby' would be.

Thanks to Emma's entrepreneurial skills, Little Soap has become a rip-roaring success and is now stocked by one of the UK's leading supermarkets and is spreading up and down the country. "Within just six months of trading, we were taken on by our six nearest Waitrose branches, including Cheltenham and Cirencester”.

When Waitrose decided to stock Little Soap, Emma was immediately classed as one of their Local Heroes - an accolade in itself but also Little Soap was only the second company to be taken on within their first 12 months of trading.

Stocked in various local farm shops, boutiques and now branching out into eco-caring hotels – Emma's aim is simply to get the world using proper synthetic free soap again.

"'Carpe diem' is something I live by - life is what you make it and I have always insisted business can be fun - Who would have thought you could do so much with a bar of homemade soap...?!"

And who would - from Stately Homes one day, to delivering to the National Trust or Waitrose the next, to making, to teaching, to going into schools and talking about it, to providing demo's and hosting alternative office party soap workshops every day is indeed different... and something to take from. "It's just a case of having firm faith when one door closes another will present itself - and so long as you wake up with fire in your belly and a want to get out of bed and work work work on your dream then it means you're doing the right thing" says Emma.