🇬🇧 Our mission is to make local production a reality. Last year, we started testing laundry detergent sheets production in the Netherlands. In this blog series, we’re sharing how this journey has gone so far. In September 2022, our very first laundry sheet test line arrived. Right now, the technology and know-how to make laundry sheets is only available in China.
With extended forklift forks and an awesome landlord Jeroen who helped us unload, we got all the machines safely on the ground! Inside this huge crate is the cutting machine that slices the long roll of laundry strips into the small sheets you’re used to.
Problems we ran into:
- No access to a forklift and extended forks
- No suitable space
You might know the feeling—it was like we bought a couch that was way too big. That was the moment we thought, what did we get ourselves into 😅
Luckily, we were able to rent an extra hall from Jeroen and store the machines there. Here you can see a water filtration system, mixer, steamer, tumble dryer, and cutting machine. The entire line cost about €50.000 euro excluding shipping, customs, and taxes. This is the smallest possible batch to test our formulations and feasibility.
The next problem we ran into is that everything is in Chinese and you don’t get an Ikea-style manual on how to make a laundry strip 😬 We were kind of hoping you could just plug it in, press a button, and a laundry strip would pop out.
Our electrician has checked all the machines and installed safety features. Our safety standards are higher than in China. Unfortunately, the steamer needed a bigger connection of 63 Amps. That’s a cable as thick as a cucumber! We had to reroute the electricity from several company halls so we wouldn’t shut everything down when turning on the steamer.
Because of all these circumstances, we only really started production in May 2023. In the meantime, we sourced raw materials from Europe and tested our formulas in the lab.
Here’s our very first lab-grown laundry strip. Doesn’t look great 😂 That’s because the liquid strip was dried in a vacuum oven and all we had was an oven rack. But hey, that’s not stopping us haha. The best part? It actually worked as detergent! A real milestone 🎉
We produced our very first laundry strip on the machine here. So awesome to see the strip come out so smooth—super satisfying! 😁
In the next part, we'll tell you more about the production process and everything that went into it.
In the video below, Jason explains what a complete line looks like and what each machine does. This gives you a clear idea of how it all works.
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