Love To Be Natural is celebrating 10-years as the UK and Ireland’s longest running baby carrying store, decade of keeping babies close to their parents every day.
Baby carriers enable mums and dads to carry their child in a variety of ways, at home or when out and about – and Love To Be Natural leads the way with a love and passion for what they do.
Founded by mum-of-four, Beth Beaney, the Northern Ireland company currently employs four people, with plans to double that number in coming years.
Beth carried all of her children in sling-type carriers, and believes that they support what every parent wants.
“We are passionate advocates of using baby carriers, and improving parent & baby relationships through bonding and attachment,” she said.
“Love To Be Natural is the largest specialist baby carrier retailer in the UK and Ireland. We carry a hand-selected, tried and tested range of premium, best-in-class baby carriers and wooden toys.
“Our aim is help new parents find the best baby carrier that works for them and their children by providing a specialist one-to-one service.”
Beth’s husband, Colin, works for Love To Be Natural and this emphasises the family basis for the company.
Both are fully accredited with industry standard training in baby carrying and Beth leads the consultancy side of the business helping parents understanding the benefits of baby carriers, and how to chose the best for them and their child.
However, what sets Love To Be Natural apart is their attitude.
“Our expertise, experience, a genuine love and passion for what we do, and an appreciation for the positive effect using slings and carriers has on babies and families as a whole is what creates our success and supports parental choices,” said Beth.
What also is unique with the company is their ethical commitment.
“We have a very natural and organic approach to the business,” explained Beth. “For example it is become almost fashionable now to claim to be ‘plastic free’ but we’ve been plastic free for 10 yrs. We’re a Living Wage Employer too.”
Nominated for two upcoming business awards Beth and the Love To Be Natural Team are not resting on their laurels.
“We plan Opening more stores, to provide a one-to-one specialist service to more parents,” she said. “And we will also be rolling out our ‘Carrying Is Love’ Initiative, to back parents wanting to find out more about baby carrying, to a wider geographical area.”
With a decade of success Beth reflected on what they have achieved so far.
“The true highlight is knowing that we’ve helped thousands of families,” she said. “It’s seeing the smiles on their faces when their baby relaxes in a sling for the first time, seeing the photos, being part of their parenting journey.”
With £1m in revenue after their first five years, Love To Be Natural, has tapped into a growing desire from parents to return to the bonding and affection that can only be accomplished with their baby and body contact.
Yet all comes from Beth and Colin’s desire to be a family.
“We realised the benefit of using baby carriers with our own child (and then children) and the advantages of attachment parenting,” Beth said. “We had a desire to build a life that allowed us to be with our children and work from home and turned that into a reality.
“We will continue to retail specialist baby carriers and offering an expert one-to-one service. None of our competitors can do this.”
Peace, Love and Babywearing – a motto for a real 21st century success story.
Find out more about Love To Be Natural at: lovetobenatural.co.uk