When Little Wigwam launched in 2009, making products in the UK was not a marketing decision. It was simply the right way to do things. Sixteen years later, it still is.
The conversation around where products are made has shifted considerably in that time. Supply chain disruption, growing awareness of carbon footprints, questions about labour practices overseas, and a renewed appreciation for British manufacturing have all brought the subject into sharper focus. Parents buying educational products for their children are increasingly asking not just what something is made of, but where, and how, and by whom.
These are exactly the right questions to ask. Here is how we answer them.
Full control over what goes into every product
When you manufacture close to home, you know your supply chain. Not in a general, approximate sense, but in a specific, detailed, verifiable sense. We know where our materials come from, who processes them, and what standards govern every stage of production.
That matters enormously when you are making products for children. Our placemats and posters are made in the UK from polypropylene, a material we have selected carefully for its combination of durability, wipe-clean performance and safety. Every ink used in our print production is child-safe. Our placemats go further still: all of our print is produced under the strict BRC Packaging (Food Hygiene) Standard, a globally recognised benchmark that governs food contact materials. That means our placemats are not just safe to be near food, they are certified to a standard that the food packaging industry itself uses.
This level of certification is not something you can take for granted when manufacturing happens at a distance. It requires direct oversight, established relationships with suppliers, and the ability to verify claims rather than simply accept them. Making in the UK gives us that oversight in a way that sourcing from the other side of the world simply does not.
Child safety is not negotiable
Parents trust that the products their children use at mealtimes, in their bedrooms and at school are safe. That trust should be earned through transparent practice rather than assumed.
When a parent puts one of our placemats on the table at breakfast, they do not need to think about what is in the surface their child is eating from. That peace of mind is built into the production process rather than bolted on afterwards.
A lower carbon footprint
Manufacturing in the UK and EU means our products travel a fraction of the distance that comparable products made in Asia would. The carbon cost of shipping container loads of goods from factories in China or elsewhere in the Far East is substantial, and it is a cost that is rarely visible in a product price but is very real in environmental terms.
Our placemats, posters, and height charts are made in the UK. Our flash cards and jigsaws are made in the EU. In both cases, the supply chain is short by the standards of the wider consumer goods industry. Products move from manufacturing to our warehouse without crossing multiple countries and oceans. The carbon footprint of getting a Little Wigwam product onto a family's table is genuinely low in a way that globally sourced products cannot match.
This is not a claim we make lightly. Lower food miles, in the agricultural sense, is a concept most people understand intuitively. The same principle applies to manufactured goods. Shorter supply chains mean lower emissions, less fuel, and a smaller environmental impact at every stage.
Ethical sourcing and Sedex certification
Knowing where your products are made is only part of the picture. Knowing how the people who make them are treated matters just as much.
All of our UK suppliers hold certification and reach the highest standards of ethical operations, such as Sedex certification. Sedex, the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange, is a globally recognised standard covering labour practices, health and safety, environmental performance and business ethics. It is used by major retailers and manufacturers worldwide as a means of verifying that suppliers meet consistent ethical standards across all four of those areas.
Choosing certified suppliers is not a passive decision. It requires active engagement with supplier practices and a commitment to sourcing from companies that take their responsibilities to their workers and their environment seriously. It is a higher bar than simply choosing the cheapest option, and that is precisely the point.
When you buy a Little Wigwam product, you are buying something made by people who are treated fairly, in facilities that meet recognised standards for health, safety and environmental practice. That should be the norm across the industry. We think it is worth saying clearly that it is the norm for us.
Why some products are made in the EU
Our flash cards and jigsaws are made in the EU rather than the UK. This is a deliberate choice based on quality and materials rather than cost.
For our flash cards, we source from a European manufacturer whose card stock, print quality and finishing, including the rounded corners that make the cards safe for young children to handle, meet a standard we have not been able to match from UK sources. The recycled card used in our jigsaws is similarly a case where European manufacturing capability gives us access to materials and processes that align with our environmental values.
EU manufacturing still means short supply chains, safe, certified suppliers, and full oversight of production standards. The principle is the same as our UK production, to make products as close to home as possible, with full knowledge of what goes into them and how they are made. The EU is not a compromise. For those specific products, it is the right choice.
Supporting British business
There is a broader point worth making about what it means to continue manufacturing as much as we can in the UK.
British manufacturing has faced significant pressure over the past few decades. The combination of lower labour costs overseas and global supply chains that make it straightforward to source from anywhere in the world has led many brands to move production away from the UK. The businesses that remain, the manufacturers, the suppliers, the logistics companies, represent a genuine industrial capability that, once lost, is extremely difficult to rebuild.
Every product we make in the UK is a small contribution to keeping that capability alive. It supports skilled jobs, it keeps knowledge and expertise in British industry, and it sustains the supply chains that other businesses depend on. We are a small family business, and we are under no illusions about the scale of our contribution. But we think it matters, and we think it is worth saying so.
What this means for the products you buy
For parents buying Little Wigwam products, all of this translates into a few simple things.
You can be confident about what is in the products your children use. Our materials are carefully selected, our inks are child-safe, and our placemats are produced to a food hygiene standard. There is no gap between what we say about our products and what we can verify about them.
You can be confident about how they were made. Our suppliers are certified for good practice in material sourcing, quality, environmental considerations and more. We know our supply chain and we take responsibility for it.
And you can be confident that buying a Little Wigwam product is a choice that sits well beyond the transaction itself, supporting British and European manufacturing, keeping supply chains short, and choosing a brand that has held to these principles since 2009 rather than adopting them when they became fashionable.
The products are better for it. We think that is worth knowing.
Browse our full range of UK made placemats and posters at educational placemats and educational posters. Our EU made flash cards and jigsaws are at educational flash cards and jigsaws.