Fox Fold transforms the hotel industry with bamboo-based paper solutions

Fox Fold, a Vancouver-based Canadian company, is transforming the hospitality sector with its bamboo-based sustainable toilet paper and a dispenser that eliminates unused product waste. In just six months, the company has secured partnerships with some of the biggest hospitality brands, offering an eco-friendly and cost-effective solution.

The idea came to Ludovic Siouffi, CEO of Fox Fold, when he pondered which products could be reinvented. “Greg and I are cousins and we’ve always had ideas since we were kids. We looked into a few, but none of them justified leaving our careers. The Fox Fold idea seemed ridiculous at first, but we quickly wondered why no one had thought of it before”, he said.

Siouffi and his cousin, Greg Hegger, COO of Fox Fold, sought feedback from hotel owners and operators. “Internally, we expected to be told that it wouldn’t work,” said Siouffi. “But we came out of a meeting with a medium-sized hotel, from two to five stars, and their general managers and ownership groups told us how much paper was wasted, showing immediate interest in testing the product”.

While bamboo is a more expensive raw material than trees, Fox Fold offsets costs by reducing packaging and improving efficiency. “Bamboo is a little more expensive, but we’ve eliminated a lot of the packaging, and because the product is flat, we can store and ship more. It’s a more efficient product, which has allowed us to reduce our costs and maintain a competitive price, even though it’s made from bamboo, a more expensive material”, Hegger explained.

Fox Fold has also signed a deal with Accor, a global hospitality group present in over 110 countries. “Sustainability is increasingly becoming a priority for many guests. As a result, we’re seeing more innovation in the sector and it’s easier to find alternative products that align with our goals. Fox Fold’s facial tissue product has no baffles, which means there is no plastic around the top of the box. The design advances the elimination of plastic in our guest rooms. In addition, the facial tissue box itself is reusable and refillable, eliminating the disposable packaging and waste associated with tissue boxes”, said Denis Klurfeld, Senior Vice President of Luxury and Lifestyle Purchasing at Accor.

Chris Nelson, owner of Pacific Sands Beach Resort and an investor in Fox Fold, praised the company’s impact. “They support our mission to adopt more sustainable practices; we are in favor of using bamboo as a raw material instead of trees and this reduces waste from unfinished paper rolls. We can also share this story with our guests. The cleaning staff love it, as they now store and replenish fewer products, and we’ve achieved this without increasing our annual tissue paper costs; we’re saving money”, he concluded.