Environmental Substitute To Timber Products

Natura Fibretech, markets coir (coconut fiber) as an inexpensive, sustainable alternative to wood. Natura now has been growing at a rate of 40 percent per year by popularizing a technology rooted in the base of India's economic pyramid.

Natura is the first company in the world to manufacture this material into coirply, a multipurpose wood that is 30 to 40 percent cheaper than common plywood but with a quality that is comparable to teak, the most expensive wood in common use. The company is also developing a new line of coir mattresses. The uniqueness of Natura's business model is that it relies on a product that found its original success in the towns and countryside of rural India and so is naturally oriented to best benefit the people living there and their environment.

The business makes sure of the efficient use of the value addition to coir, but also decreases deforestation and provides rural employment. Natura employs thousands of villagers at above average wage rates, 80 percent of whom are women. It supports local SMEs by selling them the technology to harvest coir and buying back 100 percent of production. The company has also received eco-housing ISO 14000 certification and is tapping into the Indian housing sector, which is growing at 18 to 20 percent annually part of an overall growth strategy to expand the company that includes building twelve new facilities in the next three years.