Could you share a bit about your background before SURI?
I started my career at Procter and Gamble in their London office and was in sales and strategy. At an industry event I bumped into another guy and asked what he did for work. Coincidentally he also worked at Procter and Gamble in Geneva. The man, Gyve Safavi, is now my business partner and co-founder of SURI!
At the time, Gyve was managing Gilette and I was working for Pringles, and after some time chatting, we started considering the amount of waste we were generating as a consumer product company. At the time we asked ourselves whether we could do something about it, and years later we met again and turned SURI into a reality.
What inspired you to create SURI?
With mine and Gyve’s experience working at Procter and Gamble, we were selling billions and billions of products. It was incredibly striking how much plastic waste there is as a result of us hitting target numbers. We did some research, and we found out that every year, over 4 billion brushes get thrown away and end up in landfill. Over 1 billion of this is in the US alone, according to National Geographic.
When we looked at the product materials, we realised that virtually every brush you've used since you were a child still exists somewhere, and will do for the next several hundred years because of the materials it's made from. Think about how many people this applies to! There’s not many things that unite everyone in the world, but brushing teeth is something (most) people do consistently. So, if we can make that a bit more sustainable then we’ll have something truly meaningful.
Can you explain what makes SURI different from other toothbrushes on the market?
We did a survey on thousands of people to see what they thought was important in a toothbrush/things they didn’t like about their toothbrush. Most people complained about the battery life and the horrible gunk that collects at the bottom of our toothbrushes. Nobody mentioned they love the Bluetooth feature on their toothbrush or the seven different modes it offers.
This got us thinking, what if we could produce a brush that's both more sustainable and enjoyable to use but also gives you a really high quality dentist approved quality of clean. We have also done a lot of research with experts including as the Chairman of Milliman. He has tested all the clinical brushes and at the end of the testing, he kept SURI as his primary brush. So we've got some really great endorsements from the public as well as clinical studies to back it up.
In terms of sustainability, how is SURI better for our environment?
Sustainability wise, we're not perfect and this is not going to solve climate change, but we believe in the philosophy of moving towards a better future and that is something we will continue to evolve and do. But some of the things we did in the first instance was to create plant-based heads which are built of cornstarch and castor oil bristles. They are recyclable by using our compostable mailer bags.
The body of the brush is made with aluminium which is a lot more recyclable than the mixed plastics used in other brushes on the shelves. We’ve also made it so that at the end of the product’s life, we can take the brush apart to either recycle components if they're recyclable, or reuse them. So for us it's about recovering, recycling, reusing where possible.
Were there trade-offs you were faced with in order to make SURI more sustainable?
My co-founder Gyve doesn’t believe in the principle that if something is sustainable, there must be a compromise. He was clear that we must make a brush that is higher performing than any other brush. One that is lighter, quieter and better looking and more sustainable.
I think sustainability 1.0 meant a compromise of quality of material or performance which gave sustainability a bad name. But, we truly believe that the future of all brands will have more sustainability thinking from the offset, rather than it being an afterthought. If I was to make a bet, it's going to become more and more relevant in the next decade as environmental issues become more prevalent, and people are growing up understanding more about its importance.
For us, the future of brands is not about a compromise in return for sustainability, it’s about how we can make a product where there’s no compromise and it’s actually better.
Looking back at SURi’s journey so far, what stands out to you as the biggest achievement?
So many incredible things have happened and I’m always thinking it’ll stop at some point, but amazing new things keep happening! In the past few months we have launched in Boots and Selfridges which were big steps for us and we have also secured some incredible partnerships which are in the pipeline - so watch this space. My team has taken SURI from two products on the bottom of the shelves to having a whole branded bay which is a real ‘pinch-me’ moment. Boots has grown with us and supports us, even inviting me to speak on stage in front of thousands of people to share our story. This is such a huge privilege and all down to my team who I am immensely proud of.
So, what’s next for SURI?
We have just launched our much requested and long awaited coral colour, Sunset Bloom. We went through hundreds of variations to get right and I just love it. We also have some new products lined up, one of which uses a world-first material that is at the forefront of material science. It's not quite ready yet, but I feel that will be a breakthrough moment for SURI. In the immediate term, there are still a lot more people who brush their teeth that don’t have a SURI, so our short-term objective is to help people get a better toothbrush, which is keeping us very busy!
