Charlie Banana founder Gaëlle Wizenberg is living proof that giving your children the best does not always mean sacrificing your own dreams - they may in fact be one and the same.

Born in Paris, Wizenberg had an unusual childhood. She grew up on a boat on the French and British Caribbean Islands, spending most of her childhood on Martinique.

"You learn to be mature early on because you have so many responsibilities," said Wizenberg, who crossed the Atlantic Ocean from France to the Caribbean at five.

While surrounded by islands, beaches and blue lagoons, the young girl actually longed for the things she was seeing on television - cars, drive-throughs and the American dream. And although she was living in paradise, she wanted to move to the United States and learn to speak English on top of her native French.

"I always said that I would learn English, move to north America, and one day, I would have big businesses," she said.

Driven to actualize her dreams, Wizenberg started working summer jobs at 13, earning money and experience in various types of jobs, such as a receptionist, photo-lab technician and sewing machine saleswoman.

At 19, Wizenberg started traveling, visiting cities like Virginia, San Diego, Montreal and Paris, where she worked for a year.

She finally settled in Ottawa for 12 years, working in her husband's software company, which focuses on apps in the import and export business for the toy industry.

As vice president of sales, she would often travel to attend trade shows around the world.

"I ended up going to Hong Kong every toy fair and I just loved it. I never wanted to leave every time I was in Hong Kong. I fell in love with the people, the culture and the life."

She also found that the city was more familiar to her than she initially thought.

"Funnily enough, Martinique and Hong Kong are very similar in the food, fauna and weather. So I felt quite at home."

She eventually moved to Hong Kong and stayed here permanently when the company opened a branch in the city.

The idea of having a cloth diaper business came to her when she had her first child.

As a new mother, Wizenberg was looking to use the best things available for her newborn son, and a friend from Canada recommended she try cloth diapers. "I thought: 'Oh my god, they are so soft!' I think it was the softness that really opened my eyes to something that I didn't think of," she recalled.

Upon conducting some research, she believed that cloth diapers were the best in the market. However, she was puzzled to find that it was not popular in Hong Kong, so she decided to become its advocate and make it available to the city.

"It just needed to be a little bit more fun and to be explained and shown in the right light, because most parents haven't even a clue that they can use cloth diapers," she said.

From personal experience, Wizenberg knew that cloth diapers are softer and gentler on a baby's skin.

Another plus was adjustable sizing. Straps and press studs on the diapers allow them to be fitted to any baby.

"They are also more sustainable. You are going to use about 24 diapers from Charlie Banana versus 6,000 plus diapers for the first two years of a baby," she added. "They are also more economical. You don't have to buy them every week so you don't keep going to the store to buy diapers and end up buying other things that you don't need."

Sustainability is a big selling point for Wizenberg, who developed a passion for healthy living from her days living on a boat.

"When I had the children, it became my mission because I wanted the best for them. I wanted to make them the best citizens and make sure that they were in a better environment."

The birth of her business coincided with that of her daughter, Charlie. And when asked about what his younger sibling's middle name should be, her son Zachary replied: "Banana!"

Seeing an opportunity in the catchy name, she trademarked it in 2009 and launched the brand a year later.

From what started as a small company in an apartment, Charlie Banana has come a long way in the last decade. The products are sold in 66 countries, and the company was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 2020.

The decision to sell came when Wizenberg realized that her company had reached its full potential under her leadership, and that she needed external help to take it to a higher level. "It came to a point when I realized that, to bring the company to the next level, I didn't have what it takes to make it the next Coca- Cola," she said.

Still driven to realize her initial dream of 50 percent of babies in the world wearing cloth diapers and reversing the trend of disposables, she believes that being with the global company would help Charlie Banana flourish and further her cause.

"To me, the fact that Procter & Gamble loves Charlie Banana and wanted to acquire us showed me that we won because now they are looking at us. And together, we can really change the world."

Source URL : Banana mama | The Standard
https://www.thestandard.com.hk/fashion-and-design/article/31520/