Period poverty focused social enterprise Hey Girls lands Co-op listing

A Dunbar-based social enterprise dedicated to tackling period poverty has seen its products hit the shelves of almost 200 Co-op supermarkets following a £50,000 investment.

Founder Celia Hodson describes the latest listing as 'a real buzz'. Picture: Jamie McFadyen Photography.

Hey Girls – a period products specialist that donates a pack of environmentally friendly sanitary items to organisations in need, such as food banks, with every pack purchased – is supplying its Daytime and Overnight Sani Pads and Menstrual Cups to 184 Co-op stores as of yesterday.

The deal comes on the back of funding secured from Big Issue Invest (BII), which offers loans and investments of up to £3 million to sustainable social enterprises and charities across the UK.

The investment marks the launch of the BII Power Up programme for 2019, a scheme aiming to enable up to 20 Scottish social ventures to access loan funding of up to £50,000 over the next two years, alongside mentoring support.

Hey Girls previously landed listings with Asda and Waitrose after completing the three-month Power Up programme in 2018.

The company is now a major supplier in the Scottish Government’s initiative to provide access to free sanitary products to pupils and students in Scotland.

Celia Hodson, who founded the social enterprise at the beginning of 2018 with the help of daughters Kate and Becky, helped to celebrate the launch of this year’s investment programme yesterday.

She was joined by Danyal Sattar, chief executive of BII, and representatives from project partners including Aberdeen Standard Investments and the University of Edinburgh at the Co-op store on the capital’s Frederick Street to mark the occasion.

Hodson said: “Gaining a listing in one of the world’s largest consumer co-operatives, owned by millions of members, gives us a real buzz.

“Co-op customers selecting a Hey Girls product in store know the more period products we sell, the more period product we can donate to their local community. Box for box. Simple – that’s why we’re different from all the other product manufacturers and why our values align completely with the Co-op.”

Sattar added: “We’re really proud to have supported such a dynamic social enterprise. It’s fantastic to see how the Power Up Programme has made a crucial difference to social ventures, such as Hey Girls, which has enjoyed unprecedented growth since being founded in January 2018.”

BII’s Power Up Programme has raised £1.4m since 2018 and delivered more than 1,000 hours of business mentoring. The Scottish Government, law firm Brodies, Places for People and credit agency Experian are also among the funding partners for the lending scheme.

Amanda Young, head of global ESG investment research at Aberdeen Standard Investments, said: “We’re delighted to see social ventures such as Hey Girls enjoying such success and we’re incredibly proud to support Big Issue Invest and the Power Up Scotland programme again in 2019.

“The programme is an excellent match for our ambitions to create connections that help address social and environmental challenges. We look forward to continuing to provide expert mentoring support to early stage social ventures across Scotland.”