Decisions That Made Me: Charlie Bowes-Lyon (Wild)
The Bottom Line
BBC
4.6 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 11 September 2025
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
In 2019, Charlie Bowes-Lyon co-founded Wild with childhood friend Freddy Ward, frustrated by the lack of sustainable options in personal care. Their first product — a refillable deodorant in compostable packaging — struck a chord with consumers looking to cut down on plastic. From a standing start, Wild became one of the UK’s fastest-growing consumer brands, selling millions of units, building a loyal online following and moving rapidly into high-street stores. The company has already replaced hundreds of tonnes of single-use plastic. In 2025, Wild was acquired by Unilever in a deal worth hundreds of millions. Charlie speaks to Evan Davis about building a disruptive eco-brand, and what it takes to scale a start-up into a global business.
Producer: Osman Iqbal Series Producer: Simon Tulett Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Gareth Jones Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison and Rosie Strawbridge
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're dead to me. |
| 0:05.0 | No, no, that's the name of our podcast. Sorry. |
| 0:08.7 | And we're back for a brand new series. |
| 0:11.1 | Not only is it British history, it was a quill drop. |
| 0:15.1 | With more fun and facts from history without taking it too seriously. |
| 0:19.8 | Empress Matilda, what is she going to do now? |
| 0:21.7 | She decides to take back some of the jewels with her. I'm taking these as well. I'm going to come back |
| 0:27.3 | for Tuscany one day as well. You're dead to me. Again, not you. Name of the show. Listen first on |
| 0:33.7 | BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds Music music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:40.8 | Charlie, let's go back to you starting Wild |
| 0:44.2 | and your co-founder, your relationship with him, |
| 0:47.5 | because you went back quite a long way. |
| 0:49.2 | Tell us about the decision you made, |
| 0:50.6 | because it was a joint decision, |
| 0:51.9 | and I'm just interested in the way that kind of thing |
| 0:54.4 | works, that kind of conversation with an old friend. Yeah, so Freddie and I grew up in Scotland |
| 0:59.3 | together despite the accent and we knew each other from the age of three and we went to our first |
| 1:04.6 | school together and then university together as well. And he went to Hello Fresh and I think |
| 1:10.2 | over the course of being at Hello |
| 1:12.6 | Fresh, he saw the sort of shift in consumer perception of packaging. And, you know, initially, |
| 1:19.8 | all the complaints that Hella Fresh will get would be, you know, the chickens dodgy or whatever |
| 1:23.5 | it would be. And by the end, it was like, there's a lot of packaging and why aren't you thinking about, you know, sustainability a bit more in your processes? And at the same time, |
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