Natural Fiber Welding is restructuring in the face of economic headwinds.
The Illinois-based material innovator, which traffics in plant-based, plastic-free materials such as Mirum and Clarus, is bidding goodbye to founder Luke Haverhals, who resigned as CEO at the end of October for personal reasons but will remain on the board of directors.
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The 2024 Earthshot Prize finalist also furloughed a “significant” portion of its staff last week—the result, a spokesperson said, of delays in customer contracting that have rendered it unable to close a bridge round of funding that was months in the works. Central Illinois Proud first reported the news on Saturday.
Natural Fiber Welding’s struggles with securing buy-ins are eerily reminiscent of the challenges that Renewcell experienced before it declared bankruptcy in February. The Swedish textile recycler’s demise—and nth-hour resurrection as the rechristened Circulose a few months later—sparked a spate of soul-searching about how the industry could allow such a mature and scaled solution to fail at a time when so-called preferred fibers are most needed to meet the rising tide of legislation. The same could be said for Natural Fiber Welding, which had been slowly ramping up its production capacity, though its new head hopes it doesn’t come to that.
“NFW’s employees have been on an incredible mission in the heart of Peoria, working together to create non-toxic, plant-based materials to take on the plastics industry,” said Steve Zika, who previously served as Natural Fiber Welding’s president. “We are encouraged by the number of people globally, and especially here in the local Peoria community, who are committed to our long-term success. Our team will do everything we can to secure additional funding, and we will keep our employees informed.”
The move comes more than a year after Natural Fiber Welding laid off 10 percent of its workforce, though this was described more as a “reorganization” than a sign of financial strife. Since then, geopolitical turmoil has only deepened, creating a climate of uncertainty that has proven detrimental to sustainability’s prioritization on the corporate agenda. But the company still has some heavy hitters behind it: Ralph Lauren, which debuted a line of polo shirts made with Clarus in 2022, is a minority investor, as is Allbirds. Other collaborators have included BMW, Levi Strauss & Co. and Stella McCartney.