A beauty entrepreneur has told how she pivoted her innovative refill service for home and personal care products from a pop-up shop in an airport to a milk float that delivers refills to her customers’ doorsteps.

Claudia Gwinnutt, 31 from London, worked for 10 years as a wealth manager but yearned for something more out of her career.

After an inspirational sabbatical spent volunteering, she quit the rat race in 2019 and founded Circla. The company sells premium beauty and homecare essentials in glass and aluminium bottles which it then refills for the customer, cutting down on tonnes of wasted packaging.

Originally, Claudia had planned for Circla to target holiday makers and launched a pop-up shop in Luton airport in November 2019 selling travel-sized minis that vacationers would purchase at the airport and then have them refilled on their return.

The pilot was a success and ran until January 2020, just when coronavirus was starting to reach the UK.

Claudia reflects: “Circla was looking like a completely different model back then. We had pilots booked in hotels for March 2020 and we had just finished a successful pop-up trial at an airport. The last thing anyone expected was for the travel industry to shut down practically overnight.

“Like so many other businesses at the time, especially ones in their early inception, we had no choice but to pivot to a different model. When I first came up with Circla, I had pictured it as a kind of ‘milk round’ for beauty items that would be refilled for you without you having to leave your home. So, I decided to revive this idea, which previously had been dismissed by investors due to it being such a shift in consumer behaviour. But now with so many of us staying at home, the market for direct-to-consumer e-commerce was really booming and it was a great opportunity to get our message out there.

“It was frightening at first, particularly as this was my first business venture, but I am so passionate about closed loop solutions to help reduce our impact on the climate and that drive helped negate a lot of my fear.

“We have progressed very quickly with 780 customers signed up to a refill scheme in zones 1 and 2 in London.”

Since its official launch in March 2021, Circla has curated a range of 25 independent brands on its platform showcasing the best of sustainable, vegan, and organic beauty and homecare. Each brand and product must meet its thoroughly vetted standards and its ingredient and manufacturing principles.

For every bottle returned, Circla awards points which are redeemable on your next order. All it asks is for you to keep your pumps and just leave your empty bottles in the replenishment bag provided with your first order.

The auto-replenishment service is delivered by bicycle or electric vehicle to avoid pollution where possible – with founder Claudia Gwinnutt rising at 5am each day to do most of the rounds herself. The brand recently used a real milk float to deliver refillable beauty goodies around Fulham.

Claudia said: “On reflection, I am so grateful for our pivot as our mission is to ensure Circla is always easy-to-use, convenient and effective. We know making planet-friendly choices isn’t always easy but by now delivering straight to people’s doorsteps, we’ve taken the stress out of it and achieved that desirable shift in shopping behaviour.”

Circla is on track to turnover £100,000 by the end of 2021 and is looking forward to a bright future of revisiting the travel industry as it eases out of lockdown.