When Tina Cho started Tourwell out of a Junction Triangle storage unit in 2024, she had a hunch nobody else seemed to be acting on: the city's biggest events were renting their towels from the same handful of overworked suppliers, and they were tired of it.

Two years later, the company has quietly become a fixture behind some of Toronto's most-talked-about galas, music festivals, and runway shows. Its inventory now includes more than 40,000 bath, hand, and stage towels — all warehoused, laundered, and dispatched by a team Cho has grown to seven people.

"We just kept saying yes," Cho said on a recent afternoon at the company's Etobicoke facility. "If a venue called and asked for a thousand white bath towels by 6 a.m., we figured it out. That's how the whole thing started."

Filling a quiet gap

Tourwell's growth coincides with what industry watchers describe as a sharp rebound in Toronto's events sector, where production budgets have increased nearly 40 percent year-over-year. But Cho says the real opportunity is even simpler: most operators don't want to think about towels.

"Nobody books a venue thinking about linens," said Maya Singh, a producer at Wavelength Productions, who has used Tourwell for three back-to-back industry events. "Tina makes them disappear. They show up, they're folded, they're clean, and you never have to ask twice."

That reliability has translated into word-of-mouth growth that Cho says has outpaced any marketing the company has done. Tourwell has handled deliveries for fashion week activations, the Toronto International Film Festival, and most recently, a 5,000-attendee charity gala at the Beanfield Centre.

Building it together

The business has scaled alongside Cho's personal life. She and her partner, Kiah Quirion, are set to be married on May 15 in Toronto. Quirion, who runs a separate creative practice, has helped with the visual identity and the early operations side.

"She's the engine," Quirion said. "I just put logos on things and try to keep up."

Asked about what's next, Cho gestured toward a stack of unopened invoices on her desk. "More towels," she said. "And eventually, all of it. Tablecloths. Aprons. Whatever a venue needs, we want to be the call. Quietly, in the background, doing it right."

— with files from The Globe and Mail staff