Ora
Reinventing the paper tower
Ora is the world’s first round paper towel. Since Ora's launch in 2010 it has won multiple design awards around the world having secured several patents, and is now sold in major retailers both In the U.K. and U.S.
Client
Year
Awards
- Trade Monthly Food & Drinks
- DBA Design Effectiveness
- Grocer New Product
Design Objective
Disrupting the marketplace and rewriting the rules
Acumen are co-inventors and founding shareholders in Ora, a revolutionary new FMCG product. The best ideas are often the simplest, with the original in-sight coming from Oday Abbosh (co-inventor of Ora, and founder of Better All Round with Colena Abbosh).
Oday realised that the corners of square towels don’t often get used, and as such a round towel could be the perfect solution. Acumen worked with Oday to bring this innovative realisation into commercial reality, disrupting the marketplace and rewriting the rules.
Oday and Acumen are kindred spirits always challenging the paradigm. Together we inject passion and lateral thinking into everyday consumer products, and as a team we are more than just business partners but very good friends – which is always important to us!
“Right from the very beginning, Acumen have been a fundamental part of creating and building Ora. Their combination of exceptional product design, technical expertise and passion for what they do is truly inspiring. They continue to be inextricably involved in our journey and we cannot recommend them highly enough. Put simply, we would not be where we are today without Acumen.”
Oday AbboshFounder & CEOBetter All Round
The Challenge
Conically folded paper towels had never been manufactured before
When you truly create a ‘Blue Sky’ original idea there are always ‘Firsts’ that need to be overcome. Round, conically folded paper towels had never been manufactured before, so there were no ‘rules’ or equipment capable of commercially producing towels on a commercial scale. Better All Round and Acumen worked with PA Consulting to help develop a totally new manufacturing process from their Global Innovation and Technology Centre in Cambridge. The team took the Ora towel from concept to the supermarket shelf in just 12 months.
The household kitchen towel sector has seen no genuine innovation since its inception in 1931, and together we have challenged the paradigm, supplying the market with a revolutionary new product.
The Result
Simply lift a round sheet off the stack with one hand
Ora has been designed to make using a household kitchen towel easier than conventional tubular rolls. With single round sheets in an innovative conical stacking system, you simply lift a round sheet off the stack with one hand. Ora’s unique shape means that there is no need for an inner cardboard tube, which means less wastage. With no additional inner tube, the conical folded towels naturally stack on top of each other more compactly, offering in effect two rolls of paper towels in the space of one traditional roll.
This has major benefits for retailers as they can stack more product on the shelf in store, and also on the palette when transporting the product, making it more environmentally efficient.
With 20% less packaging and 30% fewer trucks needed to deliver Ora, it is more eco- friendly, and ‘better all round’ for the environment.
Ora is the first product from British consumer goods company Better All Round (BAR), which is an innovative, award-winning eco-friendly company – Proudly designed and manufactured in Britain. Ora’s unique and innovative design has attracted numerous accolades including winner of the 2017 Trade Monthly Food & Drinks Awards (Household); Silver in 2016 DBA Design Effectiveness Awards, and in 2014, winner of the prestigious Grocer New Product Awards (Household).
The combination of a great concept, a great team, and ultimately a great product has resulted in almost 91% of consumers surveyed saying they would recommend Ora to others.