By Julie Chen, CEO & founder

This week, we launched our new 4ply Quilted Soft toilet paper with Waitrose.

For most shoppers, it's simply a new product on the shelf. For us, it's the culmination of years of building trust with one of the UK's most respected retailers.

When Cheeky Panda first arrived in Waitrose, we started where many challenger brands do: on the bottom shelf. The kind of spot where shoppers had to crouch down just to find us. 

We were a small brand trying to make an impact in a category dominated by established household names.

Over time, we moved up to eye level. Then we earned a single facing.

And now, alongside the launch of our new 4ply Quilted Soft, we have four facings visible across the fixture, sitting proudly next to some of the biggest brands in UK tissue.

That journey taught me something important about retail: Winning a listing is only the beginning.

Every additional SKU, every extra facing, and every new launch has to be earned. Retailers don't make those decisions based on good intentions. They look at whether shoppers are buying the product, whether supply is reliable, and whether the brand is helping grow the category.

That's what makes this launch particularly meaningful. Our new 4ply Quilted Soft was developed for shoppers who want premium comfort without compromise. We know many Waitrose customers are willing to pay a little more for products that genuinely deliver on quality, and we created a toilet paper roll worthy of that expectation.

For us, the launch also represents how far Cheeky Panda has come as a brand. When we started, many people saw us primarily as a sustainability story. Today, sustainability remains part of who we are, but our ambition is bigger than that. We want shoppers to choose Cheeky Panda because our products are soft, comfortable, high quality and offer great value, with bamboo simply being a smarter way to deliver those benefits.

So while a new 4 ply launch may seem like a small moment in the grand scheme of grocery retail, for our team it's a significant milestone. It's proof that challenger brands can grow, earn trust, and create meaningful innovation in categories that haven't changed much for decades.

A huge thank you to the Waitrose team for backing challenger brands and supporting innovation. And thank you to the customers who have chosen us again and again over the years. Without that support, there would be no 4ply launch to celebrate.