JULY 2022 understanding of the principles around the circular economy which provided clarity, not least in the language they could use to articulate the Urban+ purpose,” Simon explains. “In many ways Urban+ was already living and breathing principles of a circular economy, but there was more that could be done.” “Fast forward to today and Urban+ has completely shifted its focus to a purposeled business with a circular businessmodel, the perfect way to do good for our customers, our planet, and our future generations.” In addition to helping the company shift towards a circular business model, Simon also helped the company grow. When he came on board, he says business had already been growing on a “double digit scale for many years,” even without the benefit of sales or marketing. He believed they still had “the capacity to quadruple within three-to-fiveyears, easily.” In particular, Simon saw a lot of opportunity in the international and export market. “When I joined, we were getting approximately 20 unsolicited requests from North America per month. That was without any advertising. There was a gap over there. We were confident that growth would come if we connected with the right people. We saw massive potential.” Soon after Simon came on board, however, the pandemic started. According to Simon, that meant they had to pause their plans and “take a good hard look at ourselves” – though he believes “that was perhaps the best thing that could have happened to us.” “When you have a business model where you are just reacting to what customers want and you’re just servicing orders, you perhaps don’t have a clear identity,” he explains. “What COVID forced us to do is take a step back. It made us realize that if we really wanted to grow then we really had to understand what made
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