You know, when we asked our customers and die-hard fans to name some Cheeky Panda-branded trucks, we weren’t sure what to expect.  

A little bit of background – we’re always on the lookout for unique ways to showcase Colin the Panda alongside our bamboo products for everyone to see. Social media is fun, billboards work too, but there’s nothing quite like a moving monolith, rolling down the road, emblazoned with a giant cartoon panda and some toilet roll to get tongues wagging.  

So we decided to splash The Cheeky Panda branding all over a fleet of five lorries. But they couldn’t possibly just go out into the world anonymously, they needed names.

2020 – Phew, what a year! But apart from all the eventfulness of the past months – which sometimes felt like one (March), The Cheeky Panda had quite an exciting year. All of our HQ Pandas have been incredibly busy, from creating new products to bringing them to your local store. We’ve grown so much that a total of 13 (!) new pandas have joined our team!  

Naturally, we want to share all the good things with you. Here are our highlights of 2020: 

 
January – Product of the Year 

We were awarded with the Product of the Year 2020 in the wipes category with our Baby wipes! This was a huge honour and a big step forward for us. 

February – Nappies Galore 

In February, we launched our eco-friendly and plastic-reduced Nappies!  

 
March – Smashing Milestones  

In March, we smashed our revenue milestones – twice! We might still be a young bamboo shoot in toilet paper world, but we sure had a massive growth spurt in March. 

 
April – Learn Sustainability with Colin 

In April, we launched our animation channel on YouTube! Every month, Colin will explain sustainability and other important topics to parents and their little ones. 

You want to know more about our channel? Find our videos here.

We also launched our crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs! We feel honoured that some many of you believed in us, contributing a staggering amount that helped us develop over the past few months, bringing us one panda step closer to make this world a little bit greener. 
 
May – Hello World!  

The Cheeky Panda is conquering the world! Well, sort of. In May, we’ve opened our offices in China, and at the same time, we also launched our products in the United States! One day, we’re hoping that every little panda can find our products in their local stores… 

 
June – We’re going places! 

We’re not just launching in different countries – more and more stores want to sell our products! You can now find us at Tesco’s or Lyreco France, and many brands have started using our products in their offices. 

 
August – Going Plastic-free 

Our HQ Pandas have been working hard to make our products as sustainable as possible, so we felt it was time to recreate the packaging of our core products – Toilet paper, Kitchen rolls, and pocket wipes! Officially launching on our platforms in August, using a zero-waste alternative for our bestsellers has helped us save up to 6.3t of plastic!    

September – Some Showing Off… 

In September, we represented The Cheeky Panda at the Natexpo in Lyon for the first time ever! Fans of eco-friendly and organic products were able to take a (very safe) look at our products and learn more about us.  
 
 
October – The Cheeky Panda meets BrewDog! 
 
In October, The Cheeky Panda partnered with BrewDog! From now on, you can sip your drink with our amazing straws at BrewDog Camden in London – the first completely vegan BrewDog! Learn more about our partnership with BrewDog in our video here. 

Doing something good is important to us! In October, we decided to create three different teams within our company to raise awareness for three different Charities: Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the World Land trust and Toilet Twinning – and thus, Team Ocean, Team People and Team Earth were born! All of our HQ Pandas have been keen to help raise awareness and money for their chosen charities, and we can’t wait to see what we can do in 2021! 

 
November – Name our Truck! 

We won another award! The Cheeky Panda was awarded with the Sustainability Award by the Franco-British Business Awards. 

We also now have 5 trailers bringing our goods to your local stores – and you got the chance to name the newest addition to our growing trailer family! We’ve also made another donation to the World Land Trust to continue balancing out all of our emissions. 

December – Awards, Awards, Awards 

You might have guessed it already… More awards! In France, our plastic-free pack of 4-rolls  made the Sélection Bio, a prestigious selection of organic and eco-friendly products in France. And in the UK, we made the Sunday Times’ ‘Fast Track Ones To Watch.’ 
 
We also took part in this year’s Save The Children Christmas Jumper Day! With the help of many amazing The Cheeky Panda fans, we created a wonderful cozy Jumper for Colin and were able to raise a total of £782 for Save The Children – enough to establish and operate a Child Protection - Mobile Child Friendly Space in targeted communities!   

And finally, right before the end of 2020, The Cheeky Panda will launch a brand-new website!  

A lot has happened in 2020, and The Cheeky Panda has grown way beyond our expectations. But we couldn't have done it without you! You helped us grow from a little bamboo sprout into a strong shoot - and we want to work even harder for you and our planet in 2021.