Hawke's Bay man Tim Baker attracts an international audience with his unconventional business. Photo/Supplied.
Hawke's Bay man Tim Baker attracts an international audience with his unconventional business. Photo/Supplied.
A Kiwi marketing boss based in London is cashing in on loo rolls emblazoned with Donald's Trump's face.
Tim Baker, 29, has been shifting the loo rolls from a grocery trolley since Christmas and has sold more than 7,000 rolls so far, according to the Daily Mail.
Hebelieves his business venture is so successful because the American president is "universally unpopular".
"I don't think anyone else will be so unpopular in the history of mankind," he told the Daily Mail.
Baker, originally from Hawke's Bay, left New Zealand in 2012 to travel and is yet to return home.
Baker has a peddler's permit, which allows him to sell the product directly from a trolley around the city.
"I haven't seen anyone else selling them - you can get them online for a fiver but mine are cheaper," he said.
While Baker appears to be having a good time selling the toilet rolls, which go for £3 (NZ$5.75) or £5 (NZ$9.58) for a pair, this is just his side hustle.
His more serious career involves running a marketing company.
In selling the bog roll, Baker has also faced a fair amount of criticism from some passersby.
"One of the funnier insults was when this kid came up to me and said, 'This is a hate crime,'" Baker reclass.
"And I said, 'I really don't think you understand what a hate crime is.' But that was OK, I just said that I liked his shoes and I killed him with kindness. He went away pretty quickly.
"Another guy, an American guy, said, 'This is sh***y and you're a sh***y person for doing it. This is a sh***y idea.'
"And I said, 'Are you being ironic?' He said 'no'.
"I said 'that's tragic. You just made a brilliant pun, and you didn't even get it'."
He sells the toilet paper from a grocery trolley. Photo/Supplied.
Baker has sold the toilet rolls in a variety of places including Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Bath in Somerset and in London last month for protest against Donald Trump's visit to the UK.
He says the venture has proved so lucrative that he expects to be on the property ladder by the end of year.
The loo rolls come in two designs, one of Trump puckering up his lips and one showing him making a speech to Republicans, dressed in a suit and red tie.
Baker explained: "I asked around and found someone who was printing toilet roll for a good price, and we came to an arrangement.
"I had to find someone to be a courier for about a train carriage worth of toilet rolls."
His best sales period so far happened at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where he shifted 1,000 rolls in four days.
