Minneapolis toilet paper brand sees sales skyrocket during pandemic

It must be an error.

That's the initial thought Zoe Levin had when she checked her company's sales on Amazon.com last March.

Levin is the owner and CEO of Bim Bam Boo, a Minneapolis tissue paper and paper towel brand. Consumers began buying toilet paper in bulk when state governments issued stay-at-home lockdowns because of the coronavirus pandemic, and her products, which are made from bamboo, were selling in record high volumes, she said.

"I thought the app was broken," Levin recalled. "We had sold one month's worth of inventory in less than 24 hours. I shut the app down, rebooted my phone and checked again, and it was the same data. I was like 'What is going on?'"

In 2020, Levin's company saw a 900% increase in sales compared to 2019. For perspective, in 2017, Bim Bam Boo did $230,700 in revenue, Levin said. In 2020, it rose to more than $2.5 million.

Levin and her father, Phil, started Bim Bam Boo in 2014 under parent company Ecosentials. Levin bought Bim Bam Boo from her father in March 2020 under her new company, Zogo Co., just before the pandemic led to shutdowns.

Bim Bam Boo can now be found in roughly 1,000 stores in the U.S., as well as on Amazon.com. This summer, Bim Bam Boo landed deals with prominent Minnesota grocer Cub Foods and Lidl, a European chain with 130 stores in the U.S., mainly on the East Coast.

Whole Foods began selling the company's 12-roll tissue package in 2020, and the Amazon-owned grocery chain expanded to selling more of Bim Bam Boo's line of products this year, Levin said. Along with Cub and Whole Foods, Bim Bam Boo is sold in Minnesota through Kowalski's Markets, independent grocers and co-op stores.

To keep up with demand in 2020, Levin imported about two years' worth of inventory. Investing in more production allowed Bim Bam Boo to launch in all 500 Whole Foods stores in less than 60 days.

"There's a level of operation excellence that comes from that kind of scale in such a fast period of time," she said.

Bim Bam Boo's products are made in China. Levin sources her material from a privately owned bamboo grove there, where she also maintains a partnership with a manufacturer that transforms her bamboo into paper rolls.

Levin said she would like to build the market for tree-free products in the U.S. to the point where it could sustain its own manufacturing facility. The climates of southern and Pacific Northwest states are suitable for bamboo groves, depending on the species, she said.

Bamboo is a type of grass and can be a more sustainable crop than trees, Levin said.

"When we look at using these ancient forests or hardwoods that take the equivalent of 30 years to grow for paper making, and you look at the equivalent you can grow for bamboo which is approximately two years, and its root structure does not require replanting or nearly the level of rehabilitation to the soil, you're really looking at the future of fiber in a lot of ways," she said.

Soon, her brand will make flushable wet wipes.

With the delta variant causing COVID cases to rise across the U.S., retailers are bracing for the possibility of consumers stocking up on toilet paper, again, amid concerns of more lockdowns. Citing the volatility of supply chain operations and demand by retailers, Levin did not disclose revenue projections for 2021.