Sustainability in textiles is an important topic for many consumers today. Clothing and other fabrics should be produced in the most environmentally friendly way possible. Another trend of this time is the do-it-yourself principle. With recycled crochet yarn from textile industry waste, the Swiss start-up Lalana wants to satisfy the demand for both of these trends and bring customers in the D-A-CH region to sustainable fabric processing. The young company, founded this year, sources its material from various companies and turns it into material for private crochet pleasure.
"Crochet is a good leisure activity".
As with many other start-ups, the idea to found Corona arose out of personal need. The three founders Manuel Nyssenegger, Petra Bieri and Jürg Moor were all severely affected financially by the Corona crisis. "We basically had the idea at home out of boredom. Crochet turned out to be a good leisure activity. But it was difficult to find good material in Switzerland. With Lalana, we want to offer a sustainable solution with high quality," says co-founder Moor.
Lalana does not produce the crochet yarn itself, but has commissioned a Swiss recycling company to do so. According to Moor, the production of recycled yarn is an elaborate process. "The textile waste has to be chopped, washed and then the threads spun together again. No chemical additives are used in the process. Also, our partner uses renewable energy so as not to produce heavy CO2 emissions during production," Moor explains.
Lalana sells yarn in the online shop
In an online shop, Lalana sells the crochet yarn created in this way. Individual rolls of the material usually hold about 250 grams and come in different thicknesses and lengths. Depending on the material, they cost between three and twelve euros. The start-up also sells the product in larger quantities to other companies. Customers can buy the sustainable yarn throughout the D-A-CH region. In addition to the main product, the young company also offers accessories and crochet instructions.
At the moment, the still very young company has no specific expansion plans. The search for investors is also not lalana's top priority. Instead, the start-up is concentrating on growing its customer base. But co-founder Moor does not rule out expansion beyond the D-AC-H region in the future. One of the company's goals is for as many people as possible to rediscover the hobby of crochet and to use environmentally friendly materials.