Waterwipes Sets Sights On Nordic Breakthrough After Swedish Success

Since starting to look beyond the shores of the UK and Ireland in 2017, Drogheda-based Irish company WaterWipes has gone on to generate annual revenues of more than €50 million from abroad, and success in the Swedish market has them looking further afield as they seek to grow their footprint. “The Nordic region can definitely be a real source of growth for us, and what's most important is that this growth can come with good profit margins,” says Alvaro Portes, Business Development Manager, DACH & Nordics at WaterWipes.

Described as “pure and gentle for the most delicate skin, but in the convenience of a baby wipe,” WaterWipes are the brainchild of founder Edward McCloskey, who was looking for a solution after his newborn daughter suffered with bad nappy rash. After an extensive and fruitless search to find a baby wipe that didn’t contain chemicals or other ingredients that would have been too harsh for his daughter’s sensitive skin, he decided to make his own. A lot of hard work and years of testing and scientific research finally resulted in WaterWipes coming into being. Fast-forward 14 years and WaterWipes has grown into a with products available in more than 50 countries, and while the Nordic region may not be the biggest in the company’s portfolio, it is certainly a very important piece of the puzzle. 

”The Nordics are probably the region with the most purchasing power at the moment, and our product is a premium product that fits in very well with the values of consumers in the region,” Alvaro explains. “The Nordic consumer is very climate-aware, and we emphasise things like purity and sustainability in everything we do.” 

Alvaro says that consumers in the Swedish market are more driven by brand more than price, even if a fall in the value of the Swedish crown against the euro over the last year has made them more price-sensitive in recent times. Breaking into the Swedish market, which is dominated by a few main wholesalers and retailers, has been a learning experience for WaterWipes, and even though the Nordic markets have their similarities, they also have their differences. Notably, they recently embarked on a rapid expansion journey with ICA, Sweden's largest grocery retailer. 

Their products not only infuse added value into a category that was gradually shifting toward lower-value alternatives but also bolster retailers' reputation as they align with cleaner-label and climate-friendly offerings. WaterWipes is currently also working with Enterprise Ireland to scope the opportunity that exists in the Danish market and how the company should approach establishing itself there. “We had a session with the Enterprise Ireland team there in September, just to get to know the market and get to know a little bit about the stores themselves, just walking around a bit. And that is definitely helpful, it is a great introduction for us,” Alvaro says. 

One of the keys to succeeding in an ultra-competitive Swedish retail market, which can often be a very tough nut to crack for new companies, was engaging a distribution agent and leveraging their existing relationships with major retailers.

“We understood that we needed to outsource certain things in Sweden in order to maximise the reach there, so now we set the strategy here centrally, we set the priorities together with the distributor, and their responsibility is to deploy that strategy in the market with the retailers.” 

That tactic may well be repeated as WaterWipes attempts to break into the markets in Denmark, Norway and Finland. “I can say with a lot of confidence that the distributor for this region is doing a good job. And we have quite a positive relationship, they are very trustworthy, transparent, and that is actually one of the things we value the most in a distributor. So far, I think they've done a good job. And I hope that we can continue on that trend,” Alvaro adds. Though they have every intention of gaining market share and over-taking their competitors, WaterWipes sees their entry into the other Nordic markets as a rising tide that could lift all the boats in the sector. 

“In the short term, I think we have a good opportunity to continue with our rapid growth - we need to do our job, to consolidate our brand and our core range in the Swedish market and also penetrate the rest of the Nordic markets,” Alvaro says. “Once we accomplish that, which will probably take two, three years, then I think the role of WaterWipes is to take the lead of the category and derive value, not just for us, but also for the category and the retailers themselves.” The last few years have indeed seen some very rapid growth for WaterWipes, and the company has no intention of resting on its laurels as it seeks to expand its portfolio and break into new markets. “We have a pretty strong innovation pipeline for the years to come, and once we reach that point where we have enough strength in our category, then we can start launching them – that is where I see our brand going in the next few years,” Alvaro says.