A Scottish start-up saw an upsurge in sales after receiving a major accolade from investor Deborah Meaden, star of the BBC’s Dragons’ Den.
POTR, the company behind “the world’s first origami self-watering plant pot”, said its sales soared after it was named Sustainable Garden Product of the Year at the Chelsea Flower Show by The Royal Horticultural Society.
It led to the company selling more than £60,000 worth of pots at the flower show, which runs over five days and ended last week.
READ MORE: Meet the Scottish engineer selling origami to the Japanese
Competition judge Ms Meaden described POTR’s products as "deeply sustainable from the word go".
Ms Meaden, an environmental campaigner and host of BBC Radio 5 Live’s Big Green Money Show, also said: "You can see that they’ve thought about absolutely everything – sustainability was designed in."
READ MORE: Sales soar for Scottish surfing-inspired start-up
She added: "It’s a brilliant material that they’re using, it’s recycled, and it can be recycled again. But it looks cool, and it’s flat packed, it can go through your letterbox. I’m in."
The company’s co-founder Andrew Flynn, a former Dyson engineer, gave up his job last year to focus on POTR full time after seeing early success.
READ MORE: Surfing trip inspires ‘world’s most sustainable plant pot’
Mr Flynn, who guest lectures at Glasgow School of Art, said: "Winning this award and seeing the reaction from customers at the Chelsea Flower Show once again showed us we’re heading in the right direction – everyone is thinking about the impact of everything they do and buy, environmentally and socially.
"And our products certainly seem to catch people’s imagination."
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