UK: Cocogreen coir extends its lifetime savings
Cocogreen has been representing its own brand in the UK market for 3 years, when it moved its Sales HQ to the UK to focus upon growth in its western markets and to help fulfil its bulk supply coir contracts to the retail horticulture sector. Cocogreen has been a manufacturer of coir since 1996, making it one of the most experienced producers of high quality coir products; it formerly had strong ties to the production of Dutch Brands of Professional Grade Coir, before the executive decision was made 10 years ago to cut out the middlemen and represent Cocogreen Directly to the Grower in multiple markets, from Brazil to the UK; where cost effective and high quality coir products are sold directly to the grower. A growbag from Cocogreen at 1m length will range from £0.90 - £1.50 depending upon its size, mixture, treatment type, quantity and the time of order.
Cocogreen has been working directly with Growers such as the Hall Hunter Parntership amongst others offering direct access to ethical, high quality coir products at low prices from a leading Global Manufacturer and supplier of Coir, with Exports internationally reaching 41,000MT in 2011; (including c.16,000,000 growbag modules); all of which are produced in-house by Cocogreen, which has a unique standing in the market place. Unlike other coir producers, Cocogreen has direct control over all of its supply chain. Cocogreen owns and operates the coconut plantations it uses to produce coconut husks, it processes these at its milling sites, and sells the fibres off to make door mats etc. The stage after this is normally where a coir substrate brand would come into play at the buffering and washing stages, or even later at the sieving, pressing and packing stages. However Cocogreen owns and operates all stages of the supply chain; reducing its overheads versus competitors. Cocogreen in turn passes these savings onto the end growers of Soft Fruits and Protective Vegetable Crops, whilst offering the widest range of Coir Products on the market. Cocogreen’s manufacturing facilities are ran by an effective team of highly qualified and experienced individuals who benefit from working under SA8000 conditions. The UK Professional team has dedicated pre and post technical sales support to growers.
Marketing and Sales Director, Thomas Ogden explains how high quality can be maintained and end sale prices undercut the competition, “Within the supply chain there are several middle men, all adding their margin to the coir products. Cocogreen simply cut out these middlemen right back to the raw material source and to the customers’ door. It also invests heavily in keeping 100% of its production in-house; which means the quality of the end product is high, and the production and quality control processes efficient. The technologies we use to produce and treat our coir are also ahead of the game, removing more fine dust particles than others, improving reliability. For buffered coir; Cocogreen uses well trusted brands like YARA at our calcium nitrate buffering sites; many others use cheaper, unbranded Chinese or Indian Calcium Nitrate. The financial savings that we benefit from by working in this way are key to the core of our business, and allow us to hold our prices significantly lower than other suppliers and maintain a consistently high quality in the short, medium and long term. Cocogreen is a believer in holding customers for life, which is why we work with growers gradually to switch to our products through trial (if they require it), as well as retaining their business by ensuring they always pay a lower price, receive high quality coir and benefit from aftersales technical support in relation to the substrate.”
Cocogreen regularly visits growers around the UK advising on its coir products for table top systems under tunnels, as well as protective vegetable crops under glasshouse, and pot grown soft fruits and protective crops.
For more information:
Thomas Ogden
Cocogreen
Tel:+44 161 242 6852
www.cocogreen.co.uk