Page 47 - HW June-July 2021

global eyes
European pureplayers are looking for more
What price magic
mushrooms?
Dutch company Grown.bio is using mycelium, the root network of fungi, to make tough, recyclable packaging.
Mycelium – a “network of fungal threads” – grows on organic substrates and feeds on organic waste. When no longer required, it can return to the soil, adding nutrients along the way.
The interesting part in all this is that mycelium also acts as a natural adhesive and can be processed to form a very soft yet strong biodegradable and CO2 negative material.
Grown.bio first produces a shape from hemp, on which the fungus grows and moulds itself over 3-5 days. It is then oven-dried for another 48 hours and ready for use offering high shock resistance and insulating properties.
The caveat is that this type of packaging is said to be 6-7 times more expensive than comparable polystyrene products at present, although taking into account the cost of recycling and transport, waste taxes, the difference is reduced.
Grown.bio has a factory for all this but customers can equally make their own mycelium packaging with the aid of a DIY kit.
Grown.bio produces its own products under the Ecovative license and carries Cradle2Cradle Gold certification.
www.grown.bio
BIG EUROPEAN AND UK pureplayers ManoMano and CMO Stores group want to make more of their €50 billion online marketplace.
Launched in 2013, European marketplace pureplayer ManoMano last year saw €1.2 billion in sales, boasted 3,600+ seller partners and 10 million products, employing 800 people across its operations in France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Germany, and the UK.
With 50 million unique visitors per month across its platforms, the company serves over seven million customers throughout Europe and, with Western Europe having seen 30%+ e-commerce growth, it still wants more.
Earlier this month, ManoMano announced it had completed a US$355 million fundraising and had reached US$2.6 billion in valuation.
With France still 60% of its business
but with the UK its fastest growing B2C market (+240% last year), ManoMano will use its new funding to continue expanding, including plans to do more B2B business, replicating its success in Spain and Italy (ManoManoPro has seen 140% growth), and to further develop its ManoFulfillment logistics network.
To achieve these lofty ambitions, ManoMano will more than double the size of its current workforce by recruiting a further 1,000 people by the end of 2022.
“The pandemic triggered an international craze in the DIY industry, and we believe the trend is here to stay,” says a confident ManoMano.
Meanwhile, also with a UK orientation, a stock market flotation is on the cards
for online-only building materials retailer CMO Stores, which operates seven specialist websites – Roofingsuperstore. co.uk, Drainagesuperstore.
co.uk, Insulationsuperstore.
co.uk, Doorsuperstore.co.uk, Tileandfloorsuperstore.co.uk, cmotrade. co.uk, and totaltiles.co.uk.
CMO (formerly Construction Materials Online) says it wants to disrupt a £27 billion market that it says has to date traded mostly offline, with just 10% of building materials currently sold online, says CMO, in contrast to the 34% of online sales through UK retailers.
CMO was founded 12 years ago, offers 75,000+ products through its websites as well as specialist advice and expertise in niche categories and delivers to customers through a drop ship (supplier-customer direct) model supported by 350+ suppliers.
CMO is targeting organic growth and acquisitions having already seen like-for- like sales grow by more than 30% in the five months to the end of May 2021, and by more than 70% when new acquisitions (including totaltiles.co.uk) are taken into account.
www.manomano.com www.cmostores.com
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JUNE/JULY 2021 | NZHJ 45