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THE SHE FACTOR: From a mom with love

Dubai - Hannah Curran brings an eco-friendly concept in nappies

Hannah Curran, founder and CEO of Pure Born, inherited her entrepreneurial drive from her mother, who owns a successful children nursery brand in the United Kingdom.
In 2011, Hannah moved to the UAE to pursue a career working with nurseries and children. It was during this time she realised that there was a gap in the Middle Eastern market for good quality eco-friendly family products that were also accessible.
"I understood there was always going to be demand for disposable hygiene as my mum is in childcare and I grew up with her saying 'people will always need and want the best for their children'. I wanted to make a better product with purpose," Hannah explains.
Pure Born is a homegrown eco-friendly brand that creates plant based products made with bamboo for environmentally conscious mothers and their children. For the last 3 years, the 26-year-old mum and entrepreneur has quietly grown Pure Born to become a market leader in the organic nappies category.
In 2016, Hannah launched the first Pure Born product range, which took 2 years to develop. Hannah spent a lot of time making sure sourced the best products and researched ingredients to create Pure Born without compromising on quality.
Since then she has turned Pure Born into a brand that can now be found in all major retailers in the UAE. In March 2018, Pure Born entered the Saudi market, followed by Bahrain and Jordan and in July 2018, the brand introduced fully biodegradable nappy packaging. "We are reducing our footprint by being made from bamboo rather than traditional wood pulp. We use eco-certified bamboo which is biodegradable," she claims.
Hannah's Pure Born journey began with her knocking door to door to generate interest from retailers and distributors. In 2017, Baby Shop signed as the first retailer to stock Pure Born products with an order of 3,000 products, Hannah ended up manually packing all the boxes by herself from her warehouse in Al Quoz.
"We are still considered a startup with a couple of years of operations under our belt. We started with a team of two people and have grown to a team of eight. We are also working with distributors that have 300 staff supporting Pure Born," she says.
Hannah is a big believer in giving back and has incorporated this into Pure Born. "Pure Born is a game changer because we are not just a nappy and family brand. We give 5 per cent of all our proceeds to charity, this year we are working with Dubai Cares. We have a reduced carbon footprint as all our nappies are made from bamboo fibre and pulp, versus traditional nappies which are made from trees. On average, with traditional nappies, four trees are cut down by the time a child is 3-year old," she says. Hannah believes that the UAE is the best place to start a business because of its world-class infrastructure and its business-friendly environment.
"I think there are many doors that can be opened here easily and most people are receptive and excited to talk about ides," she says.
Hannah says she is always ready to help out young entrepreneurs and startup, especially during the earlier stages of their businesses.
"I'd like to actively seek out and support start-ups within the first year and offer unfiltered support sharing challenges, I think the most exciting part of any business will always be the beginning and the challenges faced."
She urges young entrepreneurs to believe in their ideas and remain focused. "There's always a solution and your perception of the challenge will deliver the outcome," she concludes.
Social media key to success
Hannah Curran, founder and CEO of Pure Born, says technology, especially social media played a key role in her success.
"Social media has already played a huge part in our growth. Now exploring consumer spending patterns online is a focal point finding out who they are, what they like and how to address them, which digital analysis offers any ecommerce business," she says.