This text is taken from Courrier de l’ économique. Click here to subscribe.
Bidets have made their mark on the market and have been growing in popularity in North America since the start of the pandemic. We cite their environmental and economic advantages, as well as the comfort they provide. A first company in Quebec now wants to market its own version of this personal hygiene device.
“I’m sold. I wouldn’t go back. » Sophie St-Gelais was convinced by one of her colleagues to install a bidet in her home a year and a half ago. She wanted to reduce the use of toilet paper and cleaning wipes in her family, which has young children. As an occupational therapist, she recommends bidets to people who have difficulty wiping themselves.
For her, the advantages are undeniable today. The impression of freshness and cleanliness is particularly pleasing. She encouraged her sister Catherine to follow in her footsteps.
“It’s definitely less unpleasant to go to the bathroom now. It’s quick, efficient and comfortable,” comments Catherine St-Gelais. The latter spreads the good news around her. She also notices that more and more people around her also have a bidet.
While this intimate water jet washing tool has long been popular in many parts of the world, particularly in Asia, the wave took time to arrive in North America. Indeed, several American bidet companies doing business in Quebec, including Tushy, Luxe Bidet and Brondell, report an explosion in their sales coinciding with the rush for toilet paper in March 2020. According to them, demand then continued to grow quietly until today. Brondell estimates, for example, that she now sells tens of thousands of them per year in Canada.
This is exactly the same phenomenon that was observed in Patrick Morin hardware stores, according to the company’s plumbing category manager, Philippe Lussier. “We see that popularity continues to grow,” he said.
Manufacturers have increased and diversified their offerings, as have hardware stores. Today, bidets can be found in a price range from $10 to over $1000. The least expensive are portable bottles that are operated by hand, while the most expensive are complete electric toilets with multiple functions. Between the two, they can take the form of toilet seats or shower bidets, which resemble a small removable shower head.
The most popular model, however, is an accessory that is easily installed between your toilet seat and the bowl, from which you can make the water flow using a lever attached to it on the side. Several American brands sell them online for less than $100, notably on Amazon. The offer is more limited in stores — notably at Costco, Walmart and in hardware stores — in Quebec, because few manufacturers have adapted their packaging for our French-speaking market.
“We like to encourage local purchasing, so if we could have products from a Quebec company at a fair price, we would be interested,” indicates Patrick Lussier.
A first Quebec bidet
A Quebec entrepreneur has the ambition to soon launch her own bidet. Marie-Ève Lupien, founder of Bateau Bateau, has been selling American models on her website since 2021. She provides with these an instruction manual that she herself had translated into French. In this way, it sells around 400 bidets per year, without doing much promotion.
Mme Lupien, who also designs reusable tissue and toilet paper sets and washable paper towels, touts the virtues of bidets.
“There is a substantial economic aspect, because it allows you to stop using toilet paper. On average, Canadians consume approximately 83 rolls per year. I calculated that it is at least $78 per year for one person,” reports the businesswoman in her bright premises in the Chabanel district, in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville district.
The environmental benefits of this lifestyle are also close to his heart. She points out that the production of toilet paper involves the destruction of the boreal forest, as well as an intense use of energy and water.
Bidets have the potential to win many more hearts, believes the mother. To do this, she believes that they must be made even more accessible and actively promoted. So she first marketed a portable boat bidet. She then found a Chinese manufacturer who allowed her to create a prototype bidet to her liking, with the functions and options she desired.
“It will allow me to have a better profit margin and also to be able to sell them in hardware stores and pharmacies,” she explains.
To finance his production, Mme Lupien will launch a crowdfunding campaign on May 31 on the La Ruche site. By pre-ordering their bidet, customer-donors will obtain 20% off the product, which is priced at $89.99.
A former Montrealer and her millions of bidets
Other bidets could soon reach more Quebecers. Popular Brooklyn-based Tushy plans to offer its products with French-language packaging and information within a year, says founder Miki Agrawal.
The American businesswoman was born in Montreal and raised there. She considers that the bidet she received as a gift, having had to go to the toilet very often due to health problems, changed her life. Between 2015 and 2020, business was slow to take off for Tushy.
“We had to educate people a lot on the issue, and do fun and amusing campaigns to show that bidets are cool,” says M.me Agrawal in an interview in French.
In 2020, its annual sales reached about US$40 million, or about 400,000 bidets, she says. It tripled the number of its employees. For 2025, it plans to reach a turnover of between $65 and $75 million. About 20% of their orders come from Canada.
“If you had bird poop on your arm, you wouldn’t just wipe it off with paper, would you? You would also want to minimally rinse it, argues Mme Agrawal. So why don’t we do this for the dirtiest part of our body? »