Flocus Your Attention: A Novel Initiative is Resurrecting a Forgotten, Regenerative Fibre

Though the initial response to the kapok yarn was not very encouraging, the co-founders hung on to their conviction. A decade or more back, sustainability too was not as mainstream as now and it was “not easy to get our message across but we persevered because we were clear about the potential of kapok fibres comes as it does in a fibre form on a regenerative tree.”

In fact, in every application, during the production process, and at the end of the product's life, it is regenerative. Indeed, over-consumption of kapok would actually help the planet by increasing the number of kapok trees and reducing deforestation.

Besides owning many functional properties, its touch to skin is positive. The wow factor when people touch the fibre/textile is fantastic. “All of that included, we have two young children and we want a better world for them,” says Sara, a multilingual expert with more than two decades of experience in cross-culture luxury commercial field, operating in America, China and Europe.

“At that point we had to make a big decision because we could not bring ourselves to sell the most sustainable fibre in the market with an outdated supply chain. So, we decided to industrialise the process. After two-and-a-half years of delay due to COVID-19 we opened at the end of 2022, the very first and only automated facility for kapok in Central Java in Indonesia. We are applying for certifications.”

With a supply chain as was in 1800 or so, labour intensive, and with no social responsibility, Flocus really made a difference by creating the first automated facility for kapok sorting adding social responsibility and innovation and industrialising the entire process from picking, cleaning to the making of the fibre. At present, the fully functional factory gives to the world its maiden ethically sourced kapok fibre with new guidelines for safe harvesting. 

Flocus sources kapok from local communities, purchasing closed pods from sorters which are then taken to its facility to be processed where it is machine-sorted and cleaned. Machine-cleaning ensures that the fibre is of a consistent stable quality. The fibre is processed at high speed, never touches the floor and therefore not contaminated, and the resultant “consistent quality is the best in the market.” Fibre bales are sold from the facility or shipped to affiliated spinners to make yarns and then fabrics or to nonwoven facilities to make nonwovens.

Jeroen elaborates: “Flocus is to kapok what happened to cotton with the industrialisation in the 1900s. We have industrialised a process that was manually intensive with no social standards. Flocus is changing all that by applying standards for security, safety (also in harvesting) etc and creating volumes never available before with a stable fibre standard quality, and this is what differentiates us from anybody else selling kapok. We not only create the demand for the fibre by using it to make filling, yarns, fabrics and nonwovens, we also plant trees and help local communities.” 

With a “wild scattered growth” as unique as the kapok, Flocus is creating its own certification method. Traceability is a key issue. There is no way that “we can follow the standard rules and certification. There are very small plantations with small holder farmers and it is difficult to trace, let alone fence them, and certifying them may not be economically viable. We have been working on that for a decade and have probably just found a key and aim to be fully certified by the next harvest season in August.”

Plans are also afoot to get the factory audited by a multinational company. By mid-2024 “we hope to get factory certification for social compliance.”

Currently based in Italy, the Flocus headquarters is in the Netherlands with a sales office in China and the sorting factory in Indonesia which can produce up to 250 tonnes per month of machine-cleaned fibre.

While the classic method can process 30 tonnes of kapok fibre per month, the CSR-automated breakthrough fruit-processing facility with ethical production can do a humungous 250 tonnes in the same period. It also ticks a whole lot of boxes ranging from worker safety to wages, to being CSR certifiable, less dust in the fibre. “We are building our supply chain with innovation on fruit processing which will be at CSR standards and unlock the demand for kapok fibres. The current work is to further improve the situation within the supply chain from farm till our fruit processing facility in Indonesia. Upstream we will be setting up distribution hubs.” 

Flocus now creates yarns and fabric with licensed affiliate partners. It has also been nominated by big brands as fibre suppliers. 

This naturally versatile fibre for textiles is now spun into the thinnest yarn counts, and blended to create a wide range of fabrics and insulation materials. Products containing Flocus claim to be naturally comfortable, lightweight, hypoallergenic, and soft to the touch—and, without any additives—featuring a host of amazing properties such as moisture management, temperature regulation, insect repellence, and much more.

The most natural properties of the kapok fibre are held in the Flocus nonwovens because of the high percentage of fibre that can be applied in its formula, informs Sara.

The natural properties of the Flocus nonwovens are the same as those of the fibre—hydrophobic, moisture management, anti-moth, anti-mite, antibacterial, oil absorbent characteristics without any human tempering.

Because of its low density, kapok is one-fifth times lighter than cotton. It performs incredibly well in thermoregulation because of its hollow cavity up to 70–80% of its diameter so it holds cold in hot temperatures and heat in cool temperatures never reaching freezing point. Its hollowness makes it very suitable for acoustic and sound absorption of high as well as low frequencies.

Applications can cover many industries from garment insulation to car, construction, home textile, hygienic, etc. The Flocus kapok can blend with other fibres, for example organic cotton, wool, recycled polyester, PLA, low melt, etc.

There are plans to expand to wherever the trees grow, and India and Central America are on the radar. In India, in fact, a partner has already been signed on. The density of the trees is not enough in other places to be able to support a processing facility. Besides, the farmers are scattered and have limited availability since the trees grow mostly in the wild. The process of looking for more local partners and across geographies is on. 

Flocus has also begun work with a number of designers. “We have designed a small range of fabrics—but going forward this will be done more in collaboration with the supply chain. Our approach was to pitch and showcase our samples on fairs to brands which in turn are nominating Flocus to their production supply chain. Because we are vertically active this can be on fibre, yarn or fabric and on nonwovens, in various countries.”

For instance, work with an emerging designer Andrea Ramos came about as Flocus was chosen by a textile expert which had a running project with her and their aim was to utilise only natural fibres with natural dyes.

Another designer, Nuong Nguyen, was part of a development of natural design for which she had won a competition and was chosen to create some garments for Fashion for Good in the Netherlands. “We were nominated by Fashion for Good to supply her the material with which she worked.”

CSR

“Developing the production of the kapok fibre, a pure and natural, non-food, vegan product, in the countries where kapok trees grow, will help to involve communities and develop economic prosperity, as also having a positive impact,” says Jeroen.

With this aim in mind and following requests from some partners, KRAF or Kapok Regenerative Agriculture Forestry, a non-profit foundation was created by Sara in 2021. It operates with nurseries and takes care of the small trees from seed for about a year and once the trees are strong enough to be planted donates them to local communities, farmers and small landowners, creating a synergy between them and other agricultural crops as kapok is a suitable tree for intercropping. The intercropping plants include coco, banana, coffee, vanilla, cardamom and several others. This way Flocus creates opportunities for extra income by guaranteeing the purchase of the pods. 

What Flocus also does is introduce social impact in harvesting by bringing about safety measures and towards this has created a pilot course for safe harvesting.

By planting kapok trees, KRAF generates an efficient ecosystem which avoids erosion, avoids deforestation, sequesters carbon and increases O2 in the atmosphere, preserves water, supports poly-cropping, organically fertilises the land, saves agricultural land, and is sustainable and regenerative.