Today, Floreon is in an exciting stage of accelerated commercialisation, engaging with opportunities to partner with leading brands but it has been 10 years in the making.
Floreon began as an initiative of CPD plc, which was founded and run by Shaun Chatterton for a subsequent 28 years. During that time, CPD became the largest independent distributor of cleaning, janitorial and hygiene products. It was through the distribution of 15 litre PET water cooler bottles, that Shaun realised there must be a more sustainable option.
As such, Shaun began this journey by first obtaining collaborative support funding from Innovate UK for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with the University of Sheffield. It was from this turning point that Shaun became aware of the potential for Polylactic Acid (PLA); a sustainable bioplastic, often found to be too brittle to work with. Intense research into enhancing PLA began and 2 years later a patent was granted internationally. With this breakthrough, Shaun took the decision to sell CPD to the Management Team to channel all of his energy into Floreon.
These days, Floreon is going from strength to strength, with a new office and additional members of the team added in just the last 2 months. We now have a tough and high performing formula of PLA which is being trialled in a number of different applications including automotive, horticultural solutions, consumer electronics and additive manufacturing.
Floreon is contributing to the circular economy by introducing a material which is fully compostable, with a much lower carbon footprint than oil based plastics. Shaun is just as enthusiastic about Floreon today as he was 10 years ago, and is going into 2021 with a readiness for commercial and technology partnerships.
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