Ann Teehan is the founder of AnniePooh, which is an independent Zero Waste Shop & Refillery in Greystones and online.
AnniePooh gives you a new way to do your grocery shopping by fighting against plastic packaging and food waste, striving to make it easy to live a sustainable lifestyle.
Speaking about the business in her own words, Ms Teehan told WicklowNews.Net: “Basically we offer people a different way of doing their shopping. We’re fighting against plastic packaging such as single use plastics.
“We’ve got organic foods, liquids and then all the reusable items. You can bring your jam jar or celebration tub or whatever you have at home and refill it with our stock like pastas, rice, spices and nuts.”
She continued: “You can bring your empty bottles for things like shampoo, shower gel, laundry cleaner and washing up liquid and that means you’re not buying another plastic bottle.
Some of the reusable products available are nappies and bees wax wraps, with the full range available on their website.
“People always come in and the first thing they say is ‘oh my god the smell!’ they love the smell of the shop and then they see the products and how much is available,” she exclaimed.
Ann’s customers are mainly female and aged between 30-55, but she encourages all ages and genders to visit the store and start shopping sustainably.
“Older generations, such as my own mother’s generation kept everything so it is engrained in them. Like my mother still has the same sweeping brush that we had when I was a child.”
Ms Teehan said AnniePooh was created as her kids have severe eczema so originally she needed to purchase a non-chemical and plastic-free nappy product in order to protect their skin.
She discovered it was hard to get that type of product in Ireland and so decided to open AnniePooh in 2012.
“I always wanted to open a shop and I used to do a lot of pop-ups around Greystones and markets and when I had the opportunity to open the shop I grabbed it,” she said. “When I opened the shop I started to do food as well.
“As the kids grew, AnniePooh evolved with them.”
Ann is apart of Network Ireland and was recently nominated in the Emerging New Businesswoman category at their 2022 Wicklow Businesswoman of the Year Awards.
Speaking about the organisation and how she joined – just weeks ago – Ms Teehan said: “I had heard of them before and I had been meaning to join. I’ve just finished a course which is like a network with a group of businesswomen and I found it really supportive and they had said ‘make sure you join your local Network Ireland branch’ so I did.”
She continued: “I am very new to Network Ireland, I’m only in it a few weeks but so far even just the WhatsApp group, it’s just so encouraging. It’s lovely to have that because you’re on your own a lot as a businesswoman so it’s really lovely to have that network of support.”
Ms Teehan said there still is a way to go to make sure people are aware of single use plastics and the problems they create.
“I think people are definitely more aware of single use plastics and reducing and reusing but then I think there are some things that just aren’t on people’s radars.
“People want to know and learn more which is great. I love being in the shop and chatting about it all to people.”
