51 Rue de Sevres
92100 Boulogne-Billancourt 
France
Tel. 33 01 79 97 23 00
[email protected]
www.naturopera.com

In 2013, two young fathers who were childhood friends started their first baby diaper brand, Tidoo, an eco-friendly brand made for the organic distribution market. This was the beginning of their company Naturopera.
According to the company’s founders and CEOs, Geoffroy Blondel de Joigny and Kilian O’Neill, it was quickly obvious that having their own machinery would allow them to not just control their production, but also the suppliers and the quality of all their brands of diapers.

With support from investment firm Bpifrance, as well as local organizations, Naturopera invested in its own equipment. In October 2022, Naturopera’s factory was officially inaugurated. Currently, the company has 100 employees based either at its plant in Bully-les-Mines, or in Boulogne France, where the head office is located. “Our sales turnover of €40 million makes us a real contributor to the ecological disposable hygiene market in France,” say Blondel de Joigny and O’Neill.

Today, Naturopera offers eight brands that are available in organic shops, pharmacies, hypermarkets and supermarkets. Its lineup includes the diaper and baby care brands Tidoo, Carryboo and Libellys, the feminine care brand Tadam’ and household cleaning products Safe, Hygios, Clean and DIY. Currently its brands are mainly sold in France, but are also available throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. Naturopera also has some additional capacity to produce private label products.

According to the company, today more than nine out of 10 diapers sold in France are produced abroad. Thanks to its strategic location in the Hauts-de-France region, the Naturopera plant has an optimized carbon footprint as demonstrated by a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) conducted by an independent organization in 2020.

Naturopera’s new converting line for manufacturing baby diapers was supplied by Andritz Diatec and features special technology to produce both traditional and bio-based baby diapers, supporting Naturopera in its efforts to become a leading producer of a new generation of sustainable diapers.

While most diapers available on the market consist of 70% fossil-based plastic, Naturopera is preparing to produce diapers made of 90% bio-based raw materials. This groundbreaking diaper concept was developed in a close collaboration between Naturopera and Andritz. It replaces the traditional spunbond and meltblown nonwoven layers with spunlace nonwovens mostly made of natural fibers. A prototype of the 90% bio-based diaper was recently produced at the Bully Les Mines factory.

By 2025/2026, Naturopera aims to produce a diaper with 100% renewable materials. Currently, the materials used in the diapers are based mainly on wood from European forests. The company is still looking for new renewable materials to replace elastics, for example, and it is already very close to the goal. It will focus on the remaining 10% of non-renewable materials in the coming months.

“This is a major improvement that makes us very confident to carry out further trials with natural substances,” Blondel de Joigny and O’Neill explain.

Product implementation on the market will take time, they say, as the company needs to develop the product on an industrial scale to make it affordable, which is their goal.

“Moreover, this plastic-free diaper needs to meet the very high-quality standards we expect, and therefore, must be submitted to lots of tests,” they say. “But it makes us very optimistic to be able to achieve such great advances.”

Blondel de Joigny and O’Neill are optimistic about the future for plant-based hygiene products. “Healthy and affordable products are increasingly in demand. More and more people are expecting transparency and short distribution circuits. The closer you are to your customer, the less environmental impact you have. Plant-based hygiene products will surely become predominant as people are now aware of controversial substances and their impacts on their health. Working on R&D to find new, natural and affordable materials will drive this expected growth.”