Social enterprise Thankyou breaks its silence, teases significant company update

Australian social enterprise Thankyou has acknowledged its relatively low profile and lack of major announcements in recent years, promising a major corporate update in the days to come.

Originally launched in 2008, Thankyou pledged to donate proceeds from bottled water sales to fund water safety projects in developing nations worldwide.

In the years since, Thankyou has expanded into hand soaps and baby lotions, walked away from its original water bottle project on sustainability grounds, and faced the growth of new social enterprises like Who Gives A Crap.

But in a new LinkedIn post, published Wednesday, co-founders Daniel and Justine Flynn acknowledged the company has not launched a new retail product in almost two years, and has not entered a new category in five years.

The pair also referenced its No Small Plan initiative — a 2020 endeavour to partner with major corporations and stock Thankyou products worldwide, a goal which Thankyou is yet to publicly celebrate.

The reason for that low profile, they say, will become apparent very soon.

“In a world that seems to judge individual or organisational success based on what is projected on the outside, by many measures, Thankyou might be on its way out,” they said.

However, “for the last 5 years, on the inside, we’ve been on a nail-biting, hair-raising journey deep at work redesigning and reimagining everything on the inside of Thankyou,” the duo continued.

Away from the spotlight, the company claims to have retooled its operations to facilitate its next stage of growth.

“Eventually, you’ll start to see a new normal at Thankyou, built not on more hopes and dreams but half a decade of work redesigning, rebuilding and reimagining for the future in front of us,” the pair said.

SmartCompany has contacted Thankyou for comment.