With a little help from the pandemic, Pieter Pot is rapidly winning the hearts of the Dutch

The Dutch. We really love riding our bicycles, e-bikes and cargo bikes. We have an ambition to become a fully-circular economy by 2050 and are already a circular frontrunner globally. Our economy is 24.5% circular, according to Circle Economy’s latest Circularity Gap Report for The Netherlands.

Yet...as consumers, reducing our reliance on single-use packaging, for example, can be quite inconvenient and often be like painting the Forth Bridge. For FMCG brands, switching to a fully-circular packaging system can be challenging. And for (r)e-tailers, such as supermarkets, there practically is no alternative when it comes to durable groceries, while in-store refilling stations and “zero-waste” stores have minimal uptake.

“We all want to get rid of packaging, however very few (of us) make the effort.”—Jouri Schoemaker, co-founder, Pieter Pot, who in 2016 became the Dutch National Champion Pitching

Clearly, there is still a very long way to go to achieve full circularity. And, admittedly, there are many roads that lead to Rome when it comes to transitioning from a linear to a circular economy. So imagine a Dutch new kid on the block determined to making circular shopping the standard and to building a return system in an “econvenient” (eco-friendly and convenient) way for both consumers and retailers. Wouldn’t this be a game changer?

The old normal: business as usual. The new normal: circular shopping

Martijn Bijmolt and Jouri Schoemaker, two Delft University of Technology students who met each other on campus, were frustrated about not being able to buy their favourite groceries packaging free. With an entrepreneurial and impact-driven mindset, they founded Pieter Pot in Rotterdam last year with the aim of becoming an on-line circular marketplace delivering selected quality, branded and private-label products in its own beautiful, reusable, durable, glass “Pieter Pot Jars.” Built around a smart, durable, circular jar—which is central to a tight circular process, including a cleaning and filling facility and selected strategic partners in merchandise supply, distribution and logistics—the Pieter Pot model is as follows:

Image: Pieter Pot.

1. Pieter Pot receives products from suppliers in bulk quantities (e.g. in 20 kg. paper bags), making all small packaging unnecessary. In future, Pieter Pot will have its dispensers filled directly at the producer, so no more packaging will be needed.
2. After you have placed your order, Pieter Pot will immediately start filling the glass jars. Once all the jars you ordered have been filled, the entire order will be packed in a jute delivery bag.
3. Delivery: PostNL Food will pick up your order from Pieter Pot and deliver your package-free groceries to your door.
4. Eat what's in the pot and enjoy your order.
5. Empty jars are collected: when your jars are running out, it’s time for a new order. When PostNL Food comes to your door to deliver the new order, you give the bag with the dirty empty jars to the delivery(wo)man.
6. You don’t have to wash the jars. It is taken care of by Pieter Pot’s industrial dishwasher. It costs twice as much water if you were to wash the jars as well, which is not sustainable, so just leave it to Pieter Pot.

And the circle is complete.

The first groceries were personally delivered to Pieter Pot’s first 300 customers on a cargo bike in the Rotterdam area. Following an oversubscribed Dutch crowdfunding campaign raising EUR 293,432 (exceeding the initial goal by 195% and backed by 938 investors), Pieter Pot’s leadership discovered that there is demand for their innovative, very clever, fully-circular and sustainable business model.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and consumers started to stockpile food. In April, Pieter Pot made a bold move: the company decided to deliver nationwide, “unlocking” other Dutch cities and towns outside of Rotterdam, and forged a collaboration with PostNL Food. With its specially-designed food box, PostNL Food is specialised in delivering groceries to customers’ homes in The Netherlands and parts of Belgium on behalf of a few supermarkets, meal subscription box companies such as Marley Spoon and providers of niche products. PostNL already is one of the world’s most sustainable logistics companies, with a strategy focus on becoming the logistics and postal solutions provider in the Benelux.

Scaling up a start-up is not easy, but scaling up exponentially during COVID-19 lockdown is a mammoth mission.

Due to the great enthusiasm for packaging-free groceries and propelled by the Dutch “intelligent lockdown,” Pieter Pot’s national waiting list of consumers wanting to come on board swelled from 2,000 to 21,000 within a timeframe of less than two months, with 500 new ones signing up each week. This represented quite a challenge for a newcomer the size of Pieter Pot, since new customers also mean ordering more new pots, more people needing to clean and restock them, more working capital required, etc.

The opportunity: a truly circular packaging system

The Pieter Pot Smart Jar will enable a global transition to a truly circular packaging system. In addition, Pieter Pot will be developing its own smart jar to provide better insight into the durability of products, recipe tips based on products in stock as well as nutritional tips. For consumers, circular shopping needs to be “econvenient,” while for brands, it needs to be a plug-and-play system that enables them to offer their products in circular packaging to consumers. For (r)e-tailers, it needs to fit their existing logistics solution.

“Plastic has its place, but that place is not in the environment. We can only eliminate plastic waste by acting fast and taking radical action at all points in the plastic cycle...Our starting point has to be design, reducing the amount of plastic we use...This demands a fundamental rethink in our approach to our packaging and products. It requires us to introduce new and innovative packaging materials and scale up new business models, like re-use and refill formats, at an unprecedented speed and intensity.”—Alan Jope, CEO, Unilever

Unilever is currently in talks with Pieter Pot to explore whether some of its well-known FMCG brands can be integrated in the Pieter Pot platform. For example, imagine ordering your favourite Calvé peanut butter, which has an incredibly strong “cult” following in The Netherlands, on-line; having it delivered right to your doorstep in a durable glass jar; and then returning the same jar to Pieter Pot, which will clean and refill it, for the same price as you would buy the peanut butter brand at your local supermarket.

A prime example of how a circular pioneer can achieve commercial, sustainable and social success, Pieter Pot does not want to become a niche player, but go mainstream. Pieter Pot is currently raising capital to allow the firm to rapidly scale-up its operations in The Netherlands and, in the medium term, to develop a better, more sustainable, proprietary and circular Pieter Pot Jar. Leading by example. Pieter Pot has future plans to introduce its circular business model to other European countries as well.

Ketchup is being poured over at a certified social workplace in Schiedam, The Netherlands, where the Pieter Pot jars are being (re)filled, packed and cleaned (photo: Pieter Pot).

Pieter Pot collaborates closely with two Dutch social workplaces, where the filling, cleaning and order-picking are taking place. Big players are afraid that the quality of the social work delivered will be less, but for Pieter Pot, this is an ideal solution to make both circular and social impact. Next year, Pieter Pot wishes to work with 10 such social workplaces throughout the country.

As the next generation of circular economy pioneers, Pieter Pot’s co-founders Jouri Schoemaker and Martijn Bijmolt are key parts of the solution. Guided by a regenerative and restorative mindset, their entrepreneurial spirit, creativity and leadership will contribute to the mobilisation of a new circular shopping system. The circular economy is an opportunity to build back better.

Pieter Pot’s bottleneck currently is serving all the eager consumers currently on the waiting list. To drastically reduce this list, Pieter Pot is in need of a capital injection?to pre-finance the purchase of jars and for working capital. If you would be interested in collaborating with Pieter Pot or in participating in its current financing round, feel free to get in touch with me by E-mail or send a PM. I would be happy to introduce you to the leadership of this wonderful circular company with a very bright, hopefully fully-circular future ahead.