Business is busy for Green and Blue’s bee bricks
GREEN and Blue made headlines when Prince Charles chose its products for his Nansledan town project and asked that bee bricks become incorporated into the new homes.
Founded by husband and wife Gavin and Kate Christman, Green and Blue is based in Perranporth, and business is on the up.
As well as selling its innovative and award-winning bee bricks online and in various outlets, the company is increasingly talking to housing developers to see that wildlife habitats for bees, bats and birds are encouraged not destroyed.
“There are three different markets out there for us,” Faye Clifton, the sales and marketing manager at Green and Blue said.
“Online sales through our own website. Shops and galleries. And increasingly the construction sector.
“That’s the most exciting market for us, as we feel that’s where greater change can happen. We want housing developers to shift towards promoting greater biodiversity net gain.
“We find that SMEs in that sector are a lot more responsive simply because in larger businesses there are so many tiers to go through before it gets done on the ground.”
She insisted that while Prince Charles had indeed purchased some bee bricks for the Nansledan development outside Newquay, he certainly did not spend £50,000 on bee bricks as claimed by some newspapers.
“We wish he had!” Faye added. “But it has certainly raised our profile and credibility and what we are trying to do. It has helped increase awareness.”
Legacy Property is one such developer to have incorporated bee bricks and bee posts into its homes at its Crantock housing development.
Gavin and Kate launched Green and Blue in 2005 with a ceramic bird ball design, which they continue to sell and are made by a ceramicist in Stoke-on-Trent. But it is the bee bricks which really transformed the business.
“Our product is aimed a solitary bees who are not in hives. They tend to love nooks and crannies offered by rotting woods and hedgerows,” Faye explained.
“When we destroy more and more of our hedgerows and fix things up rather than leave certain things to decay, we are destroying their natural habitats. Our design is about bringing back some of these nooks and crannies.”