Bamboo business growing

A PERTH entrepreneur is targeting sales of £10 million this year of eco-friendly toilet paper made out of bamboo.

Chris Forbes founded The Cheeky Panda with wife Julie Chen in 2016 after seeing bamboo being harvested on a visit to her parents in China.

They discovered the 100% sustainable crop could produce toilet roll boasting 65% less carbon than rivals.

Launched with a £10,000 start-up from friends and family, Mr Forbes hopes to grow sales from £2m to £10m this year.

He said: “We wanted to launch a green business, and bamboo gave Julie the idea that became The Cheeky Panda.

“Bamboo grows so quickly, about a metre a day, and it needs harvested every year so the impact on the environment is minimal.

“It was mad that we have the most sustainable plant on the planet and yet it isn’t being used for tissues so we thought we would do something about it.”

The Cheeky Panda range includes bamboo toilet tissue, facial tissues, kitchen towels, pocket tissue and baby wipes. FOUR engineering students from the University of Dundee faced -15C temperatures and teams from across the world when they took part in an international snow-sculpting contest in China.

The team, consisting of PhD students Azin Lamei and Shuijin Li, Masters student Thomas Riccio and undergraduate Ieva Bockute, had three days to chisel a 27 cubic-metre snow cube into a sculpture using hand tools.

They created a sculpture of a lighthouse incorporating the university’s crest, for which they received a commendation as part of the 11th MORE than 40 new homes are to be created as part of the latest phase of a major housing development.

Planning approval has been granted for 44 new properties on the three borders of Dundee, Angus and Perthshire.

The plans are part of developer Springfield Properties’ wider project to build an entirely new community at Dundee’s Western Gateway.

As part of the latest phase, 44 homes will be built on West Green Park South on Dykes of Gray Road.

Springfield has been carrying out the construction of its 595 house development in phases after it was approved in April 2015.

More than 100 families have already moved into homes at the Dykes of Gray development.

Plans are also in the works for a new nursery, a play area, retail space and offices.

A Springfield spokeswoman said: “Dykes of Gray village is proving popular with home buyers and already has more than 140 homes occupied.

“We have submitted plans to

Chris Forbes