Getting to Know: Carbon Gold

Ahead of exhibiting at Glee from 14-16 September, Carbon Gold explains more about how the company works with garden centres and what you can expect from it at the trade show this month

Can you give us a brief outline of the brand?

Carbon Gold was founded in 2007 by Craig Sams, who is also the founder of Green & Blacks Chocolate.

We sell a unique range of biochar-based products, including composts, fertiliser and soil improver – I’ll say more about biochar later. All of our products are 100% peat-free, contain no synthetic chemicals, and are Soil Association Approved for organic growing.

The efficacy of our products and their ability to permanently improve soil conditions and boost plant health helped Carbon Gold take off among the commercial crop growing, tree care and sports turf sectors. 

Now, we are bringing our biochar products to consumers. We want every gardener to be able to reap the benefits of biochar and give their green spaces a boost.

What makes the company different to your competitors?

That’s simple – it’s the addition of our enriched biochar formulation that puts us in a category of one.  

Biochar is a high-carbon form of charcoal that is produced by baking organic matter at an extremely high temperature in the absence of oxygen.

By using our enriched biochar, you can bring a physical and permanent change to your soil. It is amazing stuff as it improves soil structure, aeration, water-holding capacity, and nutrient retention, and provides a refuge for beneficial microbes, which we add to our products to improve plant health.

Not only is enriched biochar good for soil and plants, but it also has environmental benefits. It locks away carbon permanently in the ground rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. Biochar is very much win-win.

What support are you offering garden centres?

We have completely redesigned our product range to make it more suitable for people that are walking in and out of garden centres. Our new packaging is distinctive and eye-catching – we’ve already added Dobbies to our list of stockists and we can’t wait to see our products on the shelves.

We have also reduced the size of our packaging making it much easier to handle. Our entire peat-free compost range is now available in 10L, 20L and 40L bags – we only used to have a starting size of 60L which wasn’t ideal for your casual gardener.

Why should a garden centre work with your brand?

For garden centres who are looking to offer their customers a really compelling selection of high quality, sustainable products then Carbon Gold has to be part of that. Right now, more and more gardeners are looking towards sustainable gardening practices, and they want that choice.

Carbon Gold is all about promoting soil health, if your soil is healthy then that is reflected in what you plant and grow, and our soil improver range is designed specifically with this in mind. Our enriched biochar is proven to benefit soil health and help produce resilient and vigorous plants and has the benefit of being able to sequester carbon in the ground rather than it being released into the atmosphere as CO_² which as we know is so damaging to our environment, so it is a win win situation.

Furthermore selling peat-based composts to gardeners will be banned from 2024. Carbon Gold’s products offer a real alternative for garden centres that want to get ahead of the curve and give their customers the chance to put the environment first while looking after their garden.

What’s the next step for the brand?

We want to spread the word about our products to gardeners across the whole of the UK. Commercial and professional growers have been using our products for years and now we want to grow our retail-based distribution so that everyone can benefit from the power of biochar.

We’ve already added Dobbies to our list of stockists and we’d now like to work with more national, regional, and independent garden centres. We’ve linked up with Decco, the gardening distributor, to help achieve this.

What will you be showcasing at Glee?

Glee will be the platform for the official launch of Carbon Gold’s rebranded product range. It will be the first time that people can come and connect with us face-to-face and see our products at the same time – come and see us in the GIMA Business Village (6 F17) and say hello!

Who are the key contacts at the company?

If you want to learn more about our products, feel free to drop me an email at michael@carbongold.com. You can also reach the company at info@carbongold.com or by calling 0117 244 0032. If you’ve already a working relationship with Decco, you can contact your local Decco for more information and advice.