The pair had only known each other for three weeks when a conversation over a coffee changed their lives
Solar Buddies co-founders and owners Kelli Aspland (right) and Laura Waters, also known as Laura Griffin(Image: John Myers)
Thousands of parcels leave a warehouse in Cwmbran every day bound for homes across the UK and as far away as Australia and the United States.
Inside each one is a Solar Buddies applicator – a refillable sunscreen bottle designed to help children apply sun cream independently without the sticky hands, stained uniforms, and wasted lotion parents know all too well.
It is a business that today employs local people, ships around the world, and has secured investment from two of the UK’s best-known entrepreneurs.
Yet the idea behind it was born not in a boardroom or a laboratory but over coffee between two mothers who had known each other for barely three weeks.
Eleven years ago Kelli Aspland and Laura Waters were sitting in Laura’s living room while their children happily played together nearby.
From what they can remember the conversation that afternoon was nothing remarkable at first – work, family life, and the daily juggle of parenting.
But before long they found themselves discussing a frustration familiar to countless parents across the country.
Schools were increasingly operating “no-touch” policies meaning teachers were unable to help children apply sunscreen during hot weather.
Instead children were left to fend for themselves with slippery bottles and greasy hands, often returning to class with sun cream smeared across their uniforms – if they managed to apply it at all.
For Kelli the issue had hit particularly close to home.
“My youngest, Charlie, got himself into a bit of a mess with his sunscreen,” the now 47-year-old recalled.
“They ended up getting my oldest son, Sam, to come and help him because he’d got himself in such a state in the bathroom with the normal bottle of suncream I had sent in with him.
“They were saying: ‘You should’ve seen the state of your kids’ and I just thought: ‘Why can’t you help them? Their uniforms are ruined, all the suncream’s gone, and what good has it done?'”
That moment of parental exasperation sparked a conversation that would ultimately change both women’s lives.
“We were like: ‘There’s got to be something better out there’,” said Laura.
“We did a bit of a Google search and couldn’t find what we were looking for.
“Then Kelli made this flippant remark: ‘Why don’t we try and make something?’
“I laughed at first. Then I realised she was actually being deadly serious and thought: ‘Well yeah – why not?'”
For many people that would have been the end of the conversation – another bright idea left behind with the coffee cups.
Instead it became the beginning of an entrepreneurial journey neither woman had planned.
At the time Laura, now 43, was working in the civil service while raising her three children – Emily, Ffion, and Ioan. Kelli was a stay-at-home mother raising four children – Olivia, Sam, Charlie, and Harry – while doing a nursing access course.
Kelli said she had been drawn to nursing after her children experienced a number of serious health challenges while growing up.
“My daughter was ill when she was little and I became really involved in her care,” Kelli said.
“It felt like a natural fit. Then my other children had health issues too and I’ve always been fascinated by anything medical.”
But while Kelli pursued nursing both women became increasingly consumed by another challenge: turning an idea into a real product.
Eleven years on co-founders Laura (left) and Kelli reveal what it takes to make an idea work(Image: John Myers)
“The minute I realised Kel was serious we threw ourselves into it,” Laura said.
They raided Bodycare stores, buying plastic bottles, sponges, and anything else that might help them understand how existing products worked.
“We took things apart to see how the mechanisms worked,” she said.
“But we weren’t really getting anywhere because we had no design background.”
Then came the phone call that changed everything. Someone suggested a university might be able to help so Laura picked up the phone and contacted Cardiff Metropolitan University’s School of Art and Design.
On a whim the department agreed to listen.
Soon the pair found themselves standing in front of a lecture theatre full of design students explaining a problem that thousands of parents faced every summer.
“We explained the problem we were trying to solve and asked them how they would solve it,” Laura said.
“We knew we wanted some form of bottle but they looked at the bigger picture.”
For around 18 months the idea became part of undergraduate and master’s design projects. Among countless sketches and prototypes one simple suggestion transformed everything.
“There was this thing with it being a sponge or a rollerball,” Kelli recalled.
“Laura wanted the rollerball, I wanted the sponge, and they said: ‘Why don’t you just put both of them together?’
“We were like: ‘Oh… well that makes sense.'”
The solution was simple: a refillable bottle fitted with a rolling sponge applicator, allowing children to spread sunscreen themselves while keeping their hands clean.
Looking back both women say the university’s support proved invaluable. “The process at Cardiff Met was absolutely vital,” Kelli said.
“It was free help and it allowed us to even get a prototype made. To this day they’ve been so supportive.
“Gareth Barham has literally been our champion all the way through this.”
Years of development culminated in the launch of Solar Buddies in 2015. Read the biggest stories in Wales first by signing up to our daily newsletter here.
For Kelli, however, success arrived alongside one of the hardest decisions of her life.
Having completed her access course she had secured a place to study nursing at Cardiff Metropolitan University and was due to start just weeks after the company launched.
“I got into Cardiff Met, had my interviews, and I was going to start in September,” she said.
“But we launched in July and it was just too much.”
Viral TikToks and hard work propelled the brand forward(Image: John Myers)
Investment from GoCompare founder Hayley Parsons encouraged Kelli to make a choice.
“She basically said: ‘Look, if I’m investing in this you need to put everything into it.'”
Laura remembers watching her friend wrestle with the decision.
“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever seen her go through,” she said. “She’d always wanted to do nursing but this was her baby as well.
“I couldn’t have done it on my own.”
After deferring for a year Kelli decided not to take the course.
“My cohort all got fast-tracked because they qualified into Covid,” she reflected.
“You know what they say about sliding door moments. When you think about the different paths it would’ve been absolutely crazy.
“But I don’t regret it at all.”
The leap into business never felt like one they made alone. Family members believed in the idea from the outset.
Laura’s stepfather became their first investor. Friends and relatives helped wherever they could, often stepping in to work as the company grew.
“Our plan was never actually to run the business,” Laura admitted. “Our plan was to sell the idea and jog on.
“But we couldn’t. We got too attached to it.”
Today relatives remain part of the business, including Laura’s cousin and mother. “I remember saying to my cousin years ago: ‘It’d be great if I could give you a job one day.’ Now she’s here. My mum’s here too. Everyone loves working here.”
Then came Covid. Like countless small businesses Solar Buddies suddenly faced an uncertain future with their target market disappearing almost overnight. Schools closed. Holidays were cancelled. Families tightened household budgets.
“It was scary,” Laura said. “I genuinely wondered how we were going to pay the wages.”
However one evening Laura’s phone kept pinging indicating an Amazon purchase had been made. And it kept going. “I messaged Kel and said: ‘Have you seen Amazon in America?’ We didn’t have a clue what was going on.”
The duo came to find out that American influencer Daryl-Ann Denner had bought a Solar Buddies applicator and shared it with her hundreds of thousands of followers.
“She loved it so much she posted about it three times for free,” Laura said.
“I wrote her a letter afterwards because she’ll never understand what she did. Her kindness didn’t just save our business. It completely flipped it around. It catapulted us.”
Just when life seemed to have settled again another opportunity arrived. While sitting in their much smaller premises down the road Kelli noticed applications for Dragons’ Den had opened.
“We always said we’d never do it,” Laura laughed. “But then we thought: ‘Why not?'”
The pair described Dragons’ Den as being like ‘an awkward first date’
Within two weeks they were standing in front of the formidable panel making the biggest pitches of their lives. Although television viewers saw little more than 15 minutes it actually lasted around 90.
“I was so nervous,” Laura said. “There were long silences and they’re looking at you, writing things down, and you’re thinking: ‘Do we speak? Do we stay quiet?’
“It was like an awkward first date. But luckily we were together – I can imagine it being intimidating by yourself.
Kelli agreed. “It looks like we were in there for about 15 minutes but we were there for like an hour and a half.”
Their pitch impressed the Dragons, attracting offers from Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, and Sara Davies, before they accepted an £80,000 investment from Peter and Deborah in exchange for a 20% stake.
Keeping the outcome secret proved almost as difficult as the pitch itself with the women only able to tell immediate family. “The due diligence took a year,” Laura said.
“By then, weirdly, we didn’t actually need the money anymore. But their advice and contacts – they’re invaluable.”
If Dragons’ Den accelerated the business social media launched it into another league altogether.
A five-second TikTok video showing labels flying from a printer unexpectedly went viral and suddenly the business exploded.
“We went from four staff to 16 staff overnight because we just couldn’t cope,” Laura said.
They left for a bank holiday weekend with every order dispatched but when they returned around 10,000 orders were waiting.
“I never want to go back there,” Laura admitted. “It was probably the hardest month because it just never let up.
“Every time you thought you’d caught up another weekend would come and you’d be back to square one.”
The business quickly outgrew its 1,500-square-foot premises. “The unit wasn’t big enough,” she said.
“It was like ants. There were so many staff in such a small place.”
Moving into their current warehouse felt almost extravagant at first but the business kept growing and growing.
But the rapid success brought pressures few people ever see.
“Everybody wants to grow their business,” Kelli said. “But what goes behind the scenes is a lot harder than people realise.”
Indeed Laura believes entrepreneurship is often romanticised. “I think everyone’s got this perception that owning your own business means the nice car, the big house, the lovely holidays, and everything’s golden,” she said. “But it doesn’t work like that.”
Internal systems struggled to keep pace, customer service inquiries surged, emails multiplied, marketing changed, and the payroll expanded almost overnight.
“There is always something,” Kelli said. “Our sales channels change all the time, the laws change all the time. Platforms go down, shipping routes change, tariffs change.
“Everything that’s happening in the US affects us because we trade there so heavily.”
Global events that seem distant can have an immediate impact on Solar Buddies. Products manufactured in China can suddenly take longer to arrive as shipping routes are disrupted while changing customs regulations and tariffs can alter costs overnight.
“It can literally pivot our business in a minute,” Kelli added. “One minute you think everything’s fine – the next you’re trying to work out how you’re going to keep selling.”
That constant uncertainty takes its toll. And on top of this both women were still trying to balance growing families with a rapidly-growing company.
For a time Laura found herself trying to care for what she describes as two families – her own at home and the team relying on her at work. “It was a lot,” she admitted. “If somebody had told me that it was normal to feel like that I probably would’ve stopped beating myself up so much.”
Like many business owners the pair admit they have struggled with the pressure and the guilt of stepping away from work. Laura recalls a conversation with mentor Deborah Meaden that changed her perspective.
“I said I felt guilty because I wasn’t at work,” she said. “She asked me: ‘If you worked for someone else and you woke up feeling unwell what would you do?’ I’d call in sick. She said: ‘You’ve got the privilege of making that decision for yourself. There’s no point coming into work at half steam when you’ll be much better tomorrow.'”
Many burnouts later the dynamic duo have one piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs (Image: John Myers)
The advice stayed with them. While they still find it difficult to switch off they’ve learnt that taking the occasional day to recharge ultimately benefits both them and the business.
“I think there are people who dip in and out of their business and if that works for them that’s great,” Laura said. “But we still like to oversee everything.”
Kelli agreed but believes the key lies somewhere in the middle. “You’ve got the people who are hardcore and completely burn out. Everybody has to find their own balance,” she said.
Balance is also a factor in their partnership. “I always say that if we’d been friends for years beforehand I don’t think we’d have gone into business together,” Laura said. “We’re so different. I’m messy and a bit erratic. Kel likes everything planned.
“But we balance each other out. There are jobs she does that I wouldn’t touch with a barge pole and vice versa.”
This has essentially carried them through difficult periods and some unforgettable highs. One of the biggest milestones came when children’s retailer JoJo Maman Bébé became the company’s first major stockist.
“We’d messaged Laura Tenison on Twitter,” Kelli recalled. “She told us to get in touch with Harriet and we ended up taking our very first shipment ourselves. I remember us standing outside the Abergavenny store thinking: ‘Oh my goodness, that’s our first retailer.'”
“We’ll always be thankful,” Laura said. “She didn’t have to take a chance on us but she did.”
Every chance given over the years has paid off. Today, Solar Buddies is valued at around £5.5m and is stocked by eight major UK retailers and sold in the United States through Target. The company has also secured high-profile collaborations including one with Nivea, which approached Solar Buddies directly.
With more exciting things in the pipeline it is looking like an exceptionally bright future for the brand. Yet the founders are quick to point out that the success wasn’t instant. “It’s only really been in the last year that we’ve started to see the benefits ourselves,” Kelli said. “We’ve always been really frugal.”
“Everything went straight back into the business,” Laura added. “We’ve moved into lovely homes now and bought cars but that’s taken 10 years.”
It’s a message they wish more aspiring entrepreneurs understood. “It doesn’t happen overnight,” Laura said. “It’s a hard slog. You have to be passionate and sometimes your business partner has to keep the drive going when you’ve lost yours.”
However their biggest piece of advice is refreshingly simple: “Be ballsy,” Laura shrugged. “You never know what can happen.”