People, products, purpose: here’s what innovation means to us at CoirProducts

People, products, purpose: here’s what innovation means to us at CoirProducts

 

 

At CoirProducts, glossy marketing adverts have never mattered to us, but what does matter, quite simply, is serving this community with value and purpose. In an industry driven by profit and competition, ‘innovation’ takes on a whole new meaning for us.

In today’s post, we talk about what shapes our culture of innovation.

 

But before we do that, we take a step back…

 

In an already-established industry, we don’t claim to be what we’re not

 

There is nothing new about using coir (also known as coco coir and coco peat) in horticulture. In fact, in the late 1940s, a soil scientist, E. P. Hume wrote about a type of waste product he saw in the process of extracting long fibres from the coconut husk. Today, there are many large-scale coir manufacturers and suppliers. In countries like Sri Lanka, where coir is manufactured, coir product making has continued to be an important cottage industry and source of livelihood for many over the decades. So coir-based products have been used in horticulture for many decades. We as a company have never claimed to develop a product from a coconut itself, nature does that all on its own. We however have utilised what would go to waste, regenerating the byproduct into something with an entirely new lifespan.

 

So how do we call ourselves innovators in such an industry?

 

Before we established CoirProducts, the stakeholders of the company were supplying coir by bulk, in container-load to customers in many parts of the world. They’ve been doing this for over 20 years. During this time, they also saw an urgent gap in the market, where customers were being overcharged for some of the coir they buy. They also found that there was little knowledge of the vast range of coir product varieties available for use in horticulture.

 

Fast forward to 2020…

 

Building UK’s largest coir portfolio

 

We’ve been disruptors since our inception! We started off by introducing the UK's largest coir portfolio. What made us stand out? We were making never-before-seen high-quality coir product varieties easily accessible for everyone, whether they were individual or large-scale growers.

 

A whole host of sustainable firsts!

 

Crafted with natural coir, and free of the more harmful peat-moss, our range introduced exciting new product varieties. They included our fully biodegradable CoirCoins, which were unique in the market compared to many other similar products that come with a non-biodegradable cover. We introduced popular products such as coir pots, coir potting mixes, coir mulch mats, and coir grow poles in unique sizes. And now our revolutionary Coir Nutri – a first-of-its-kind decomposed coir potting mix with added nutrients joins our ever-expanding range. We’re proud to be setting new trends.

 

Introducing the first exclusive coir kids bundles

 

Our kids bundles – consisting exclusively of our sustainable coir products – were another first in the market. True to our innovative sprit, we’ve continued to expand our coir kids range.

 

Listening to our community, building connections

 

Our community is at the heart of what we do, and this is why we’ve always offered more to our community, whether it’s the product range, quality, or in our giveaways. We introduced unique coir bundles that were not only high quality but economical too. We created collaborations and partnerships via our online platforms. When we set up our Instagram page back in 2020, there were hardly any coir-based companies active on this platform. Our specially-curated coir product giveaways were a first-of-its-kind in this world of coir-based-horticulture.

 

Serving with purpose

 

Since our inception, we’ve pride ourselves in serving with purpose. As part of these efforts, we’ve supported various initiatives. We continue to support Chestnut Tree House and charities like Thrive. We’ve supported community and school gardening initiatives. But this is nothing new to the founders of the company, who have been conducting corporate social responsibility programmes in local communities in Sri Lanka, from where the raw material is sourced.

 

Crafting with care

 

More than anything, we’re conscious about how our decisions impact the people and the planet. With our products crafted out of natural material, we’ve made bold decisions in making sure that our work has minimal harm on the environment. Our range is now carbon-neutral, as per globally-recognised ISO standards.

And this is what brings us value.

As a company that’s driven by purpose over profit, the community and the environment are at the heart of our work.