Harold Koh hit the denim jacket with a split collar that he placed on a conference table, with wide bows of contrasting stitching running across its surface. A set of corset laces adorned a panel at the back. On a label inside were the words “Nextevo x Bershka”.
“They gave us equal credit,” the CEO said with a smile at Nextevo’s headquarters at the National Design Center in Singapore, where visitors are greeted with a mini-exhibition of how the startup turns discarded pineapple leaves into textiles in fashion.
The process is neither quick nor easy. Although thorny leaves contain up to 80 percent cellulose, extracting these fibers is still largely a manual process. So are the steps of washing, sun drying and chemically removing the gum that must be followed to remove any remaining residue.
Only then does Nextevo end up with a fluff-like pineapple leaf yarn – PALF for short – that can be combined with other more conventional materials to be spun into yarn. Bershka, which shares a parent company with Zara in Inditex, chose to blend 22 percent PALF with 78 percent cotton to create its moto-inspired jacket and matching pair of jeans, which are available to ‘bought for $69.90 each.
Koh was clearly excited about the collaboration, Nextevo’s first major commercial launch, though fashion isn’t exactly his level. For nearly a decade, he ran one of the largest pineapple producers in Indonesia. After Koh left the company, a friend in the coconut business tried to convince him to do something about the waste. Koh wasn’t enamored of the idea of trading coconuts, but it got him thinking about how much of Southeast Asia’s agricultural waste was being burned, fueling pollution. air. In 2019, he decided to write a “quick and dirty” business plan, only with a product he was already familiar with.
Today, Nextevo has two nerve centers: Singapore, where sales, marketing and product development take place, and Thailand, where it has leased part of Siam Agro-Food Industry, the country’s largest pineapple cannery, to process its fibers. About 200 growers across Indonesia and Thailand supply the leaves. By 2024, the plan is to increase this number to 5,000, including from the Philippines. Beyond pineapple leaves, Nextevo can start harvesting corn husks and banana stalks. Koh is also considering growing abaca and other crops to build the health of the unproductive soil.
Like other basting yarns, PALF can be on the thicker side, though this is less of a concern for denim, which is originally meant to be a strong material. Using pineapple fiber also has advantages, such as the fact that it absorbs and retains ink approximately four times better than cotton.
However, there are limits: in a blended yarn, the PALF content reaches 30 percent before it becomes less suitable for garment production. While that could, of course, change with more R&D, it’s not Koh’s most pressing concern at the moment.
The Bershka denim set combines 22 percent PALF with 78 percent cotton.
With kindness
“We have to grow,” he said.
Next year, Koh hopes to exceed 200 tons of PALF, which, if blended at the 20 percent level, can produce up to 500 tons of yarn. It’s not much, he admits, but the company is still in its early days and Covid-19 didn’t help by hampering shipments of essential equipment. So far, Nextevo has a car humming away in its corner in Thailand. By next April, she plans to add three or four more.
Nextevo may move out of conservation eventually, but it’s not a priority right now. For one thing, there’s plenty of room for expansion, Koh said. For another, the facility is ISO 14001 certified for environmental management, something that came in handy when the Bershka team dropped by to verify Nextevo’s claims.
“They wanted to see that we have the right water treatment, they wanted to see that we really care about the farmers, they wanted to see the whole process — you know, because they’re a company that’s pretty serious about sustainability, ” Time. said.
Plus, the location makes collecting the raw material difficult. The nearest plantation is less than 50 meters away. And with the same growers supplying fruit to the cannery, its supply chain is as transparent as it gets, he added.
It’s another welcome sign that Bershka’s pieces exceeded Koh’s expectations. He thought the hand feel would be rougher, “but it turned out to be a lot better.” Future collaborations with Bershka or other Inditex brands may be on the cards, but Nextevo has plenty of other projects to keep him busy in the meantime. The new year may bring more denim products or perhaps a foray into upholstery. Shoes are another option.
And as the business grows, the cost of creating PALF will decrease, making the product more competitive. (Koh declined to specify the actual markup, only describing it as “not very good.”) He also has his eye on automating more of the business, which would similarly drive down prices.
“I hope the market can give us a chance to do that,” Koh said.
