Bdiapers introduces India’s First Hybrid Cloth Diapers with Disposable Inserts

Bdiapers is a labor of love by Amrita Vaswani, a mother of two boys and a passionate proponent of natural parenting. Currently she runs this brand alone with her team. Amrita completed her MBA from Australia and has over 10 years of consumer marketing experience from companies such as Colgate Palmolive, Microsoft and American Express.

The idea came to her when she had her first baby in the US. Being a child prone to diaper rashes; she was tired of chemicals in disposable diapers and while she was committed to cloth diapering, she missed the convenience of disposables. “I looked around for a disposable diaper that was healthy, easy to use, eco-friendly and affordable but I couldn’t find one that would fit the bill”, she says.

Amrita started the business in 2013 bringing the first Modern Cloth Diaper in India under the brand name “Bumchum”. But soon she realized that mothers like herself were finding it difficult to commit to cloth with all the washing, airing, soaking and other works that came with a small baby. She then started the design of Bdiapers with a home machine and a tailor and they relaunched as Bdiapers in 2019, with a cloth cover and a chemical free disposable insert. The entire range is completely made in India. The first lot of Bdiapers were made with matching T-shirts to make these as complete pieces of clothing. We had a lot of success initially with new moms and our first set of customers were very excited about the concept. Our first channel partners were Firstcry, Amazon and Flip.

The product/service

Bdiaper is India’s first and only hybrid cloth diaper that can hold a disposable (or washable) insert. These work in a patented 2-part system with a cloth shell and a removable waterproof pouch that holds the insert pads. The cloth shells come with matching T shirts, headbands and bandana bibs to complete the look, and make for comfortable and stylish clothing for the baby. While the disposable inserts are fragrance, bleach and dye free, they are hypoallergenic and do not cause a rash. The cloth shells are  also sized and the brand offers a complete range of healthy diapering solution for conscious, green parents.

Bdiapers covers do not need to be washed until soiled, and the same diaper can be used with a simple change of insert.

Bdiapers Hybrids are the healthiest, most eco-friendly diapers available in India. These diapers help keep the convenience of disposables and the health of cloth in a diaper that is affordable, leak proof, rash free and convenient. These diapers are great for moms who are tired of painful rashes caused by chemicals in disposables and want to break the cycle of exposure to chemicals on their baby.

Vision and mission

In the short term we are looking to create knowledge around our concept of Hybrid Diapers and create awareness about the hazards of using single use disposable diapers on the babys health and her environment. We wish seek feedback on our new system of diapering and work towards a completely green (i.e. Biodegradable) product in the future. Our long-term vision is to disrupt the diaper category and create options for mothers like myself who are tired of chemicals in disposable diapers.

Our core belief is that mothers deserve the option to choose what they feel is convenient and healthy for themselves and their babies. We wish to incorporate modern convenience in traditional products that are healthy, affordable and eco-friendly.

Market/industry details

The Indian diaper industry is pegged at 5Bn growing at 5.8% CAGR. With Covid-19 awareness parents are getting conscious about the choices they make in products that impact the health of their children and the world they will grow up in. With the rise of the Make in India campaign, several new brands have emerged in the baby space that have propelled growth within the category.

How did you come up with the name, tagline, and logo for your Company?

How we became Bdiapers is a story of serendipity. We started back in 2015 as Bumchum Diapers however due to a personal tragedy, I was unable to further the business that time. We restarted in 2019, as Bdiapers where the “B” is an integral part of our philosophy. The “B” stands for ‘the state of being’ we want to give parents. The “B” signifies respect for a mother’s choice, her judgement and her decision to raise her child to with knowledge, health and happiness. We support every mother in being who she wants to be, in her parenting journey.

Business Model and revenue model

Bdiapers is mostly available online through B2B ecommerce channels and through the company website. They also sell through some retail stores in Nagaland through a distributor. Everything is in the price range of Rs 199/- – Rs1399/-and we cater to an entire range of healthy diapering solution which includes rash balms, baby wipes, diaper bags and other accessories apart from our Hybrid Diapers. 

Getting the first 100 customers for your company is a bliss! Launching Company

We launched our website in May 2020 and reached our target of 100 customers within 1 month! Since launch we have over 450 loyal customers with a good number of them coming back. However, bulk of our sales come from our ecommerce channel partners Firstcry and Amazon.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers/clients?

What has really worked for us is our product in itself. Being the only brand in India doing something disruptive in the diaper space has given us some much-needed visibility. There are new designs in the pipeline and we are working tirelessly to incorporate all that we have learnt from feedback from our customers over the last few months. We have also launched new prints and are working on a line of newborn diapers and accessories. But the reason we have customers coming back is because we are an affordable, healthy diapering solution in India and are completely locally manufactured.

Most challenging part and how did you overcome it?

We re-started operations in November 2019 with our webstore ready in May 2020, hence like most other startups in our stage, our biggest challenge has been covid-19. Since the start we have faced issues of factories that made our products closing down, us losing good people and several other setbacks. We have had to improvise, hustle and in a lot of places take the hit on the high prices of trims and costs of production without compromising on quality. This has hurt our liquidity and has been our biggest challenge. Also, we are completely self-funded.

Name some of your competitors

We do not have a direct competitor in India, however our biggest competitor in hybrid diaper category doing great work is in the US called Gdiapers (the similarity in name is purely a co-incidence!). In India, Superbottoms is doing phenomenal work in bringing full cloth diapers to the Indian moms. However our product is disfferent in concept and design from a complete cloth diaper or disposable diaper.

Future plans

We hope to build the category of hybrid diapers and come with a great product that will be a healthy, eco-friendly, affordable alternative to single use disposable diapers. We also hope to create more and more awareness amongst parents regarding chemicals in disposables and their harmful effect on baby’s health in the long term.