Image: Sugru
The new product from Sugru is safe for children as young as eight to use without supervision.
Sugru is one of many positive tales of entrepreneurship and ingenuity to come out of Ireland, with more than 6,000 retail outlets stocking the mouldable glue, most of them in the DIY market, including Adeo and Kingfisher.
Most recently, the company has launched in France and South Africa, with wheels in motion to see Sugru sold in Canada, Australia and New Zealand by the end of 2017.
The new family-safe mouldable glue formula will be available alongside the original Sugru, which was created by Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh with a simple goal in mind: to repair and improve things.
“When I first had the idea for Sugru, I imagined this space-age rubber that could fix and improve almost anything.”
She wanted to build a product that was useful in people’s day-to-day lives and would in some way “help tackle today’s throwaway culture”.
A natural evolution for the company
This new product was a natural evolution for the company: “The first step was to make something strong and durable, and the second step was to make something everybody could use. The new family-safe formula truly allows us to realise this dream, and extending our reach into retail is the only way we can achieve our biggest ambition: to get the next generation fixing and making again.”
Ní Dhulchaointigh spoke at this year’s Inspirefest about her professional triumph so far.
Rapid expansion
More than 14m single-use packs of Sugru have been sold since the product first launched in 2009, and the company has experienced an average growth rate of 30pc year on year from 2013 to 2016.
Two successful crowdfunding initiatives played a large role in funding the research needed to create the kid-friendly product, with Sugru raising more than £5m since 2015.
The new glue for little makers and fixers launches on 20 September.
