When pandemic demand for toilet paper and kitchen rolls subsided, UK manufacturer Nova Tissue found itself facing a harsh new reality: a shrinking client base and razor-thin profit margins.

The Oldham-based company discovered a lifeline in Temu, the e-commerce platform that connected the family business with consumers across the United Kingdom.

When its Temu store went live in December 2024, the response was immediate. Daily sales soon surpassed £10,000, and several of its products became UK best-sellers.

"Once we started to sell on Temu, we realized that the sales volumes are huge. The potential is massive!" said Khurram Iqbal, managing director of the company. "And this is even without doing anything."

From Family Business to Manufacturing Challenge

Founded in 1986 by Iqbal's father, Nova Tissue started as a small operation with a single machine run by family members. For decades, the company supplied wholesalers, supermarkets, and retailers across the UK. It is now a £14 million business with two production lines and 50 employees.

But in recent years, many of its smaller retail clients had shut down, while larger customers consolidated, reducing its client base from 200 to just 30–40 key accounts.

Meanwhile, the cost of raw materials and energy soared, further squeezing profit margins. Large retailers, which once provided stable revenue streams, began demanding lower prices, leaving Nova Tissue with little room to maneuver.

Nova Tissue had experimented with e-commerce before, listing products on mainstream platforms and its own website. Growth remained sluggish and platform support minimal until the company discovered Temu.

Direct-to-Consumer Sales Transform Operations

Since 2024, Temu has been inviting UK local merchants to join the platform to help them better reach local consumers. By selling on Temu, Nova Tissue is able to eliminate intermediaries, improve profit margins while lowering prices, and reduce delivery time.

The way Nova Tissue recounts it, it set the prices, uploaded its products, and the sales began immediately.

What started as a test quickly turned into a major sales channel. Sellouts became frequent and the company had to rapidly increase stock, adding 500 to 1,000 units at a time to keep up with demand. Temu soon outpaced every other e-commerce platform Nova Tissue had used.

Job Creation and Brand Protection

The surge in orders created a new challenge: scaling operations to meet increasing demand. To keep up, Nova Tissue expanded its workforce, hiring more staff in dispatch and customer service, contributing to local employment.

Unlike other platforms where third-party resellers can undercut manufacturers, Temu provided safeguards to ensure that manufacturers retained control over their products.

The company's profit margins on Temu are significantly more favorable, making it economically viable for sustained growth.

Future Growth Projections

Currently, 7% of Nova Tissue's revenue comes from e-commerce, representing £1 million in sales. The company expects its online sales to double in 2025.

For manufacturers like Nova Tissue, Temu represents a new way to connect directly with consumers, bypassing traditional retail intermediaries.

"I think the potential is really massive. I don't think the mainstream public has really grasped Temu yet in the way that it potentially could," Iqbal said. "If this is what the platform can do now, then I'm really excited as to where it might be in three, four years."