Flowers made of pencils convince Ikea & BMW

Dusseldorf Michael Stausholm earns his living with pencils and eyeliner that grow plants. That sounds crazy – and that’s what friends called the Dane when he left his well-paid job as a consultant in 2013 and founded the company Sprout World. The idea: to offer companies an alternative to disposable pens as a promotional item.

Only the company development is crazy today: Sprout World has sold 45 million pencils in 80 countries to date, and the company has been in the black since 2017. In Germany, Stausholm’s customers include Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Bahn, Porsche, BMW, Mercedes and Ikea.

Stausholm’s idea of ​​the “Sprout Pencil” fits better than ever at a time when consumers are paying more attention to sustainability and companies are also pushing this topic more. In the capsule at the end of his pencils are different types of seeds that users can put in the ground when the writing utensil has had its day. Depending on the seed they sprout into flowers, vegetables or herbs, there are a dozen different varieties.

According to Stausholm, 135 million plastic pens are produced every day worldwide and are often thrown away. “With a pencil from which a plant grows, we can tackle the throwaway mentality.” Companies can design the pencil in their corporate colors and have it individually inscribed. Sprout World can help businesses better tell their own sustainability story, says the 52-year-old owner.

The founder and his workforce, which now numbers 40, manage to generate sales in the millions with a sustainable pencil: Stausholm wants to achieve seven million euros this year. With the exception of one dent in the Corona year 2020, Sprout World says it has grown every year. The Danes are benefiting from the current corona easing, the pens are being used again at conferences or in the office. “Our pencil is a good way to start a conversation,” says Stausholm.

American students had the idea

Last year alone, the company sold 7.5 million units. The largest sales markets are Italy, Germany, France, Great Britain and the United States. In Europe, the pens are made in Poland – from certified wood, as Stausholm assures.

Students at MIT, the top US university, came up with the idea of ​​the up-and-coming writer. Stausholm discovered them by accident on a crowdfunding platform. In 2013, the Dane bought the business from the inventors and founded a company. Today he owns 80 percent of the company shares – and he owns the patent rights to the product. Most recently, he also got these for the Asian market.

For Stausholm is a analog writing instrument is no anachronism in the digital age: “Studies show that people can remember things better if they write them down with a pen.” Customers also reported that it was almost relaxing for them to write down thoughts with a pencil.

Sprout World gets three quarters of its revenue from corporate banking. Private customers can buy the pen for just under two euros each on the company’s website or via platforms such as Amazon. The most prominent customer is likely to be Michelle Obama. The former first lady used it to promote her autobiography, Becoming.

Sprout World is trying to break into the cosmetics market with a new eyeliner

Stausholm is now trying to serve the market for private customers more – with a new eyeliner. The management team discussed this idea a few years ago: Stausholm initially said it couldn’t be big business. His colleagues taught him otherwise in the meeting, as some of them had several of these cosmetic pencils in their handbags. In fact, more than 12 billion cosmetic pencils are sold worldwide every year, says Stausholm.

Initially planned cooperations with large cosmetics companies failed due to long development times and contractual issues. That’s why Sprout World has been selling the eyeliner under its own brand since autumn, also with flower seeds at the end of the pen. The ingredients for the eyeliner are supplied to the company, the production and Sprout World is responsible for distribution.

For observers, this step makes strategic sense because consumers pay particular attention to sustainability in the cosmetics and body care sector, as a recent survey by the sustainability portal Utopia showed. For two-thirds of those surveyed, natural ingredients were particularly important. That’s exactly what Sprout World has been certified for.

Sale in Eurowings and Tui aircraft

This is a new challenge for the company: “The private customer business is completely different,” says Stausholm. The Danes are initially focusing on digital sales channels. Launched in October last year, the product was already among the two top sellers in the eyeliner segment on the Italian Amazon platform in December. In Germany, too, one sees “nice growth,” says the entrepreneur. The Dane wants to achieve half of the sales with eyeliner in three to five years.

And Stausholm has opened up other sales channels. The cosmetic product has also been available on board Eurowings and Tui Fly flights since the beginning of April. The Danes are in negotiations with other airlines shortly before the holiday season. “The eyeliner from Sprout World is innovative and environmentally friendly,” explains Eurowings when asked why the pen is sold on board. The explanation here, too, is that one is generally observing an increasing demand in the sustainability segment.

For the time being, Stausholm does not plan to launch any other products. One wants to concentrate on the existing offers for the time being. New variants such as other colors and other plant varieties are in the works. The entrepreneur is also aware that he cannot save the world with his products, he admits. But: “We can hopefully inspire people to push sustainability with small things.”

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