Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 22nd May 2025 Issue no. 1163
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Composty targets 1-million sales as demand soars for eco-friendly cleaning products
An award-winning family firm is targeting more than one million sales of its eco-friendly cleaning products over the coming year - as it looks to secure investment for further growth.
Kingswinford-based Composty says demand is soaring for its range of fully compostable cleaning products as we increasingly turn to more sustainable items. And Matt Guest - who founded the company with wife Helen four years ago - says his long-term ambition is to build the business into a £10million concern.
Matt, a former teacher who gave up the classroom to concentrate on the business, was speaking after winning a pitching competition at the recent West Midlands Business Funding Summit organised by Oxford Innovation Advice.
"I was up against three other businesses and won a package of business support worth £3,000 after impressing the judges with my vision for Composty," says Matt. "In the four years since we launched we have sold around 500,000 of our compostable cleaning sponges, but such is the demand that we are targeting sales of one million in the next 12 months alone.
"The average sponge can take 500 years to degrade in a landfill site whilst ours can compost within three months. And one single plastic sponge - like you use for washing the dishes - can release 6.5million microplastic fibres into our waterways.
"Recent research has shown how these forever plastics can end up inside the human body and even the brain.
"Consumers are increasingly turning away from products which are not environmentally responsible, and I think there is real potential for the business to become a £10million concern in the years to come.
"We are currently seeking investment to help us scale up and grow the business to meet some of this demand."
Matt says the idea for the business came when the couple had a daughter in 2016 and wanted to start living more sustainably. It had launched during lockdown and since generated £0.5million in sales.
"Our hero product is a magic pop-up sponge which is currently the best rated of its kind on Amazon, and our loofah scourer sponge was named best eco sponge and best plastic-free sponge by the Good Housekeeping Institute last year, so we know we are on the right lines and demand is there."
Jane Galsworthy, managing director of Oxford Innovation Advice, says: "Matt impressed both our panel of judges and everyone in attendance with his passion, vision and business sense at our pitching competition.
"Composty is ideally placed to take advantage of a growing and important market and I wish Matt and Helen every success as they continue to grow the business."
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