After more than a decade helping its clients launch brands, products and services with the lowest possible environmental impact, the consulting firm specialized in sustainable design Nutcreatives has created its own furniture brand: Suru. “We had the knowledge and experience and there was interest from a group of small investors,” explains Àlex Jiménez Higueras, the thinking mind and executing arm behind both companies.

Suru’s designs are the work of Nutcreatives, while the new company handles manufacturing and marketing, as a publishing firm. The first three product lines from Suru – which owes its name to the pronunciation of cork in Western Catalan – have just gone on sale. It consists of an armchair and a stool, a set of chairs and a collection of lamps. The first buyers have been family members and acquaintances, but they are the only individuals who, for the moment, have been able to opt for direct acquisition. In the first phase, Suru has decided to sell exclusively through architects and builders, of which Nutcreatives has a long list of contacts.

Suru, which required an initial investment of 100,000 euros, is committed to production through external workshops, but as close as possible. They are designs designed to have a low environmental impact, with a predominance of wood. In addition, the furniture has been designed to be easy to repair and dismantle, in order to extend its useful life and facilitate its recycling. For this, the firm has created an after-sales service. The promoters of Suru have also thought about groups at risk of exclusion and have chosen to work with a third sector company for packaging.

The startup is already devising a new family of products: lamps made from a biodegradable material, Jiménez explains. More in the long term, the founder plans to market his furniture to countries in central and northern Europe. “Now we are focused on Catalonia, but we believe that our product will fit very well in these markets,” says the entrepreneur.

Suru shares its headquarters with Nutcreatives and, although it only directly employs two people, both companies have an extensive network of collaborators.