Circulose shares learnings from Renewcell failure
Circulose has announced four new brand partnerships with Eileen Fisher, Marimekko, Samsøe Samsøe, and King Louie. Image: Circulose
Jonatan Janmark, CEO of Circulose, shared insights with the conference audience at Textiles Recycling Expo in June as the Swedish textile-to-textile (T2T) recycler builds on the experience of its loss-making predecessor Renewcell.
“We have the privilege of standing on the shoulders of Renewcell, learn from what they did well and their mistakes and take a second chance on scaling up T2T recycling with our factory,” said Janmark. Using a proprietary process, the
company recycles cotton-rich textiles into dissolving cellulose pulp, from which fibres are produced that are equivalent to virgin grade and so can replace viscose, modal and lycell. Circulose counts more than 150 textile producers and more than 30 brands as partners. Janmark outlined four learnings from
Renewcell’s experience that is informing its successor Circulose in its business model and future plans. “One of the key learnings is that
up-front brand demand is absolutely necessary,” he said. Renewcell mainly had direct contracts with fibre producers, and only a few with brands, which subsequently fell through. “We see brands as our primary
customers, and we work really closely with them, on securing demand and building a solution around the brands.” Circulose has this year launched a new
commercial model. The second learning from Renewcell’s failure is that it is not enough to offer pulp because it is not a drop-in solution for brands, and so Circulose contracts are priced on fibre. Janmark said: “We agree with our fibre producer partners the price we can offer on the fibre to the brands. We never talk pulp.” He said: “Scaling next-gen materials is
hard. It’s a long value chain. We are basically Tier 5.” This indicates the third learning: Circulose must ensure availability, traceabil- ity and avoid price amplification.
Premium de-coupling The fourth learning: the price premium is the No 1 challenge, in particular in the early years of the business. “The price amplifica- tion challenge is not to be underestimated,” said Janmark. “If we were only to look at the pulp price premium, the brands would be able to cover that; but we’ve seen instances where the impact of a garment for a brand, on the price, is 20 times higher than if you calculate what should have been the premium based on the pure pulp
premium.” So Circulose decided it needed to
innovate the price model. “In essence it is about premium de-coupling,” said Janmark. Using rounded numbers, he said, “Let’s say normal viscose is $2 per kg, maybe Circulose would be $3 per kg: what we then do is separate the price into two parts. We have a base price, which is the price that goes through the value chain, which is much closer to the virgin price, so $2.20 here [in this example]. The rest is paid as a licence fee to Circulose to cover the trademark licence and the solution we offer to the brands. This is often paid as a fixed annual fee based on the volume the brand is planning to commit to.” The advantage of Circulose’s new model is that it mitigates the price significantly by tackling price amplification. “With the lower premium early in the value chain, there is less of that snowball effect,” he said. In addi- tion, a large part of the premium exposure is shifted from the individual buyer to a corpo- rate level responsibility, where he said it might be met from within a sustainability budget or other budget area. The new price model also rewards
brands that go for more volume. •
www.circulose.com
Textiles Loop • Autumn 2026 21
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34
