Spinnova Plc and ECCO Investment Corporation have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) regarding the future plans for their 50/50 owned joint venture company Respin Oy. The development work of Respin’s leather waste-based fibre has shown good quality results during the current year.
ECCO has successfully made a prototype shoe, which includes fibre from the Respin pilot line produced using Spinnova technology. A product launch by ECCO, using the fibre produced by Respin, is expected to take place before the end of Q1/2025.
Spinnova and ECCO see significant opportunities in scaling up Respin’s production volumes to a commercial level. According to the LOI, both parties are committed to scaling up operations and will work together in order to achieve a final decision, at the latest, by the end of Q1/2025 on how to proceed with the production scaling and commercialisation of Respin.
In line with Spinnova’s strategy and the Respin joint venture agreement, Spinnova will be the technology provider for any production scale-up. Furthermore, as stated in Spinnova’s strategy, Spinnova does not itself expect to raise further external financing to fund the increase in Respin’s production capacity.
“We are happy to move forward with our joint venture Respin. I am proud of the progress we have made with Respin’s fibre quality, which now meets commercial requirements and demonstrates the versatility of the Spinnova technology, which can use multiple different feedstocks, including protein-based leather waste. We now have a clear plan with ECCO for the next steps to reach the decision for scaling the leather waste-based fibre production,” comments Tuomas Oijala, Spinnova’s CEO.
“We are optimistic about the fibre quality reached at Respin and see a clear potential using the fibre in our future products. ECCO is committed together with Spinnova to continuing to work towards scaling the production of the leather waste-based fibre, and we are looking forward to the international scaling of the fibre,” comments Thomas Gøgsig, ECCO’s Chief Commercial Officer.
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