Shropshire's plastic free loo paper firm is on a roll

Tanki, based in Atcham, near Shrewsbury, has celebrated its first birthday while being flushed with pride as a finalist for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

Mark Collins, the company's operations director, said: “When we started the business we estimated that we might see a pallet or two sold online each month, but to our enormous surprise we are shipping up to 5,500 packs per month through our website and Amazon which is mind blowing."

Before Tanki rolled up it had been thought unthinkable that households would buy loo rolls online. But they beat the "cistern" and are now popping the sales corks.

Tanki is currently a finalist for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, widely regarded as an Oscar for the business world. If they win next month it will add to previous plaudits from Maritime UK, the Rural Business Awards and the British Business Bank.

Matt O’Crowley, Tanki's managing director, said: “Nothing about the business is run of the mill, we reinvented toilet paper by removing glues and plastics to prevent blockages in wonky bogs and have been blown away by the incredible support given to us by members of the Shropshire business community who have constantly shown themselves to be the kindest and greatest in the universe-we really couldn’t have made it this far without the wonderful Shropshire Spirit…if only it could be bottled!"

He added: "We’ve battled covid, we’ve beaten the lack of government support for start ups and now we are raring to go to war with all of the new problems facing us such as haulage and energy issues!”

Tanki is selling nationwide to users of off grid sewage systems and is soon to expand fully into Europe and beyond, with interest from distributors as far afield as Australia.