Local wool producer George Welch at Allerdown farm with Naturalmat co-founder Mark Tremlett. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The GuardianRecently B Corp certified, Naturalmat is the first bed and mattress firm to achieve the ethical status in the UK. We visited to see how it minimises the impact of production and supports local people
by Bibi van der Zee , photographs by Graeme Robertson“We’re control freaks,” admits Mark Tremlett. “We buy direct from the sources so that we have more control. We buy our wool from local farmers, we know where the timber that we make our beds comes from. We sell from our own shops; we try to control every single aspect of the process.”
It’s a control freakery that has paid off handsomely for the company Tremlett runs with his business partner Peter Tindall. Having started off as a teeny cottage company making mattresses for boats, Naturalmat is now the first B Corp certified bed and mattress company in the UK with five showrooms around the country.
A Naturalmat showroom in London
Tremlett had been working as a chocolate taster for Thorntons, but got fed up with that. “I grew up in a marine world. My father was a yacht designer, and I just couldn’t understand why you’d spend £500,000 on a boat and then have a crap mattress. So I started to look into how you’d make a good mattress for a boat – and the more I looked into it, the clearer it seemed to me that using all-natural fibres was the only way, really.”
Bailey Cochrane at work
Wrapping the core and applying the final Naturalmat label before the finished mattress is packed up
He and Tindall had no furniture experience whatsoever, but it was clear to them that although natural fibres were more expensive and harder to cut, they had many advantages over synthetic fibres. “The fundamental difference is that natural fibre is self ventilating. It wicks away heat and moisture. You lose up a litre of water per person per night. Meanwhile synthetics absorb heat and absorb moisture, so retaining all those elements next to your body.”
But in 1999 this was a pretty unusual approach. “We felt quite lonely in 1999, telling people about natural fibres and how much better they were. But the world has changed so much since then, it’s a very different place.”
Nevertheless, business took off. Tremlett was selling them, making the mattresses himself, parcelling them up, posting them out. Then a couple of years later, when Tremlett’s partner got pregnant, they started thinking about baby mattresses. And when the baby mattress took off too, they started looking into mattresses for hotels.
Naturalmat founders Peter Tindall and Mark Tremlett
The final step was moving into retail – selling mattress to normal punters. In order to do that, they had to begin making beds too because, as Tindall puts it: “You can’t just market mattresses on their own – a mattress on its own looks very, very dull.”
From certified organic wool and coconut fibre to natural latex, Naturalmat is rigorous in selecting only the most sustainable materials from suppliers they trust
When a Naturalmat mattress reaches the end of its life, the firm gives customers the option to refurbish, recycle or donate it
The business has gone from strength to strength. “Obviously the Covid pandemic was very difficult, but it was rocket fuel for the business: people were preoccupied with how do you stay healthy, and they were at home. And with the growing awareness of the climate crisis, people want, more and more, to be green and sustainable.”
A couple of years ago Tindall and Tremlett decided to apply for B Corp status. “We did a sustainability review of the whole business, it was a really cathartic process. We realised we were great at the big green picture, but there were other smaller things we could do.”
George Welch at Allerdown farm, who provides all the wool for the mattresses
The business gets its wool from local farmers. “We already knew a couple and then they put us in touch with some other farmers. We can pay them better than the British Wool marketing board, so it’s a good deal for both sides. We know where the timber that we make our beds comes from – we make it all ourselves, we deliver it all ourselves.”
The goals of the company include attaining zero waste: a fully closed-loop mattress. It provides plastic-free deliveries, having come up with reusable mattress bags which get taken back to the workshop.
The mattresses are delivered using reusable bags, helping to eliminate plastic waste
The firm is also investing in regenerative farming practices for the farmers that produce their wool, and became a living-wage employer a couple of years ago. Unlike so many ethical businesses that have gone to the wall, Naturalmat is thriving. What is the secret? Tremlett laughs and says: “Stubbornness.” More seriously, he adds: “You’ve got to be really patient, when you’re doing something no one else is doing. You have be evangelical about it, and you have to hold your nerve. You need a couple of lucky breaks. If it’s a good idea and you keep going long enough, it will work.”
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