Ever heard the expression “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link”? - it’s one that we love, and when it comes to the raw natural materials with which we hand make our beds, mattresses and bedding, it’s a mantra that we steadfastly adhere to.
From Dartmoor to Sri Lanka, we have crisscrossed the earth to find the perfect natural and organic ingredients for our beds and mattresses. With the attention to detail that we employ sourcing the very best natural materials, we can be confident that all the links in our chain are strong - not just in terms of quality, but also from an environmental, ethical and sustainability point of view. We sleep easier, and so do you.
We have an ever growing list of unique and exceptional suppliers from around the world, and here we want to shine a light on three of them:
Windout Farm, nestled between Exeter and Dartmoor and just a half-hour drive from our Topsham HQ, is where the father and son team David and Samuel Ursell family have spent the last decade organically rearing beautiful North Country Mules (that’s a breed of sheep, for the uninitiated) who very kindly provide wool that can be found in everything from our cot mattresses to our duvets.
Why do we only work with organic sheep farmers? Simple - because the strict standards required for Soil Association organic certification means better conditions for the animals, which in turn means better quality wool. Everybody wins!
From half an hour away, to half a world away, we find ourselves in Sri Lanka where one of the most important ingredients in our mattresses is produced - coir, also known as coconut fibre.
We love this material not just for its natural breathability, durability and support, but also because every single part of the coconut tree is being used as a raw material for something —kernel, shell, husk, trunk, leaves to the roots—and as the husk is taken from ripe nuts, this fibre is never harvested prematurely and is almost endlessly renewable.
We buy direct from a Fair Trade, certified organic plantation in Sri Lanka, where after picking and de-husking the coconut for food or copra, the precious by-product of husk fibres is what we then use in place of, or alongside, metal springs to provide ventilation and bounce to our mattresses!
In 2020 we set out to launch our own range of 500 thread count organic cotton bedding, and when it came to sourcing the buttons for our duvet covers - you guessed it - we just had to look for a natural, sustainable solution. This led us to David and Andrea Courtney of Courtney & Co, who are single-handedly reviving the once-booming industry of manufacturing of natural buttons in the UK.
The buttons are made from seeds of the tagua palm, an Ecuadorian wonder plant known as 'vegetable ivory'. When carved the tagua seed is incredibly strong and hardwearing, but has a beautiful ivory-like finish.
Tagua palms cannot be planted but grow naturally in equatorial rainforests such as those in Ecuador. As each palm can produce as many as 1,800 nuts a year, they enable local people to make a living from the trees - eliminating deforestation in these areas. The tree has such an economic and sustainable status that it’s saving rainforests across Ecuador.
