Flatworld

“I was a student on a backpacking trip and like many travellers I was forever wrestling an unwieldy mug and plate in and out of my rucksack.  I kept thinking: someone really ought to come up with an easy fold-away version for people on the road or for campers and outdoor events.”

So recalls young Sheffield entrepreneur, Jay Cousins, who is now the owner of Flatworld UK which designs and produces folding plastic picnic sets, including cups, bowls and assorted containers. That backpacking trip back in 1999 turned out to be the inspiration for a business that is now attracting a growing number of clients at home and abroad.

The innovative heat-resistant product uses Orikaso (based on the Japanese words Origami which means folding paper, and kaso which means plastic) principles. The technique of plastic folding came about after a lot of research during his days as a design student at Sheffield Hallam University.

The sturdy, brightly-coloured Orikaso ware with its life-time guarantee, even attracted an offer from the formidable Dragon’s Den TV team which Jay ultimately declined. He says: “The offer from Dragon’s Den was very tempting, but I realised I wanted to keep my independence and overall control of the company. However I got involved with UK Trade & Investment’s Passport to Export programme two years ago to raise Flatworld’s international profile. We already had some overseas sales, but the Passport programme gave me a lot of useful information about all the angles we needed to consider when exporting. It also helped us visit the States where I learned a lot about the importance of packaging. I now know that the right packaging for the right market is a fundamental part of the product and crucial to attracting sales.”

Working with the UK Trade & Investment team based at South Yorkshire International Trade Centre (SYITC), Flatworld UK has had access to the Targeted Export Support Scheme (TESS) run by Yorkshire Forward.  This funding has helped the company further develop the US market where it already has a growing client base, as well as to explore other markets

Says Jay: “The TESS funding has been very useful in helping us develop and reach more overseas markets. It’s enabled us to make trips to the US and to China and given us a greater understanding of the business environments there.”

Flatworld is also participating in the US Marketing Scholarship Programme supported by UK Trade & Investment at the British Consulate in Chicago.  The programme allows UK marketing executives to attend a short course at the prestigious J L Kellogg Graduate School of Management and then undertake a week-long attachment with an American firm.

Says Irene Escudier-Balina, international trade advisor at SYITC: “I’m delighted that Flatworld has won a place on the intensive five-day Kellogg programme in Chicago. It will give them an opportunity to find out about the latest management theories and case studies from world-renowned lecturers. The second week of the programme will give them hands-on experience from the inside of an American company, and expose them to practical marketing ideas in the US.”   

The course at Kellogg was voted the number one executive management programme in the world by Business Week and is sponsored by Ellis Goodman CBE, a British businessman who has lived in Chicago for over 30 years. The Scholarship aims to ensure that UK small and medium businesses and their managers understand the importance of effective marketing in the US.

Adds Jay: “I’m really looking forward to the course in the US where we are already doing business and would like to expand more. I’m hoping to spend my attachment week with a firm that produces designer thermos ware and works with big international outlets like Starbucks.”

All this is a long way from the design student who started out experimenting with folded bits of paper a few years ago. Now the Flatworld products which are hugely popular with campers, walkers, climbers and for outdoors events are being sold in over 22 countries.

Website: www.flatworld.co.uk