Toothpaste lab on the move thanks to successful PledgeMe campaign

Solid is pleased to announce that, after almost doubling in size over the last year, we are on the move into a bigger, better toothpaste lab! A local business, Aspiring Walls has welcomed us into their Elsdon-based factory after our successful crowdfunding campaign on PledgeMe. This campaign raised over $20,000 dollars and had 270 people pledge their support.

Up until now, our range of oral care products was manufactured in a home retro-fitted toothpaste lab, but we outgrew our existing space. Storage space got so tight, we ended up hiring a shipping container that we stored on our front lawn.

As we got closer to our goal, we reached out to Aspiring Walls about potential factory space. Aspiring, a well-known wallpaper company and veteran of the Porirua business-scene, has welcomed a number of businesses to share its space over the years and is beginning to see itself as a co-working space for manufacturers.

According to General Manager, Neil Macdonald, “We really like having other companies sharing our place with us. It allows us to give back to the wider-business community and support interesting businesses like Solid. It’s all about community in the end.”

For Solid’s CEO, Laura, being able to stay in Porirua as well as learn from other companies is a huge benefit. “We needed to get our lab out of our house – every time a truck pulled up and blocked the road with 6 pallets of ingredients to offload, we had a little panic attack!

“Staying local is really important to us. Our small team of four are all based in Tītahi Bay and we have so much local support we didn’t really want to leave. Aspiring has been really welcoming and supportive, we know there is heaps we can learn from them.”

For PledgeMe founder Anna Guenther, this latest move shows “crowds can support in so many different ways – from funding the costs to move, through to making space in their factory.”

Our move to the Aspiring factory will take place in early May – follow us on Instagram for updates as it happens!

And, if you are one of our local customers, yes, you can still pick up your order from Tireti Road as per usual 🙂