Espressogrow

Notable achievement: Turning one man’s trash into treasure.

Mark Henderson was sitting in a coffee shop when he asked a barista what happened to the used coffee grounds. After being told they were put in the bin, he investigated further and discovered that at that shop alone about 10 kilograms of grounds were thrown out each day. “I went back to my office and thought there must be a better way,” he says.

He discussed it with a former colleague, Geoff Howell, and the pair then spent 10 weeks investigating the nutrient value of coffee grounds and the possibility of using them to produce fertiliser. They spoke to retailers, manufacturers and marketing experts before deciding to quit their high-paying positions as IT consultants and going into business together.

“Geoff and I were really hoping someone would tell us it was a stupid idea and that we should concentrate on our day jobs,” Henderson says.

Instead they set up Espressogrow, which is about to finalise its initial funding round. Espressogrow plans to pay coffee shops for their used grounds, then take them to a central manufacturing plant and turn them into organic fertiliser.

Henderson says there has been keen interest in Espressogrow from investors and large coffee chains. He says the production of the fertiliser is relatively straightforward and that once funding has been secured, they can begin making it quickly.

He says coffee grounds are high in nitrogen and can be used to produce a product that behaves similarly to slow-release fertiliser but without the bad smell.

Manufacturing plants are planned in Australia, Europe and the US. “The business is not hugely expensive,” Henderson says. “We have to move rapidly to take hold of the opportunity.”

Andrew Heathcote

BRW

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