We turned 7 this year and finally had our break out party. Last year was great, a double on the one before, but it’s 2020, and a 350% rise in our sales has allowed for a minor bright spot in a difficult year – not to mention a sigh of relief at the suggestion that our efforts might work! There is a very long way to go, and we’re happily refreshed and excited for the opportunity, but many of the dark and hard yards seem to have finally paid off.
We actively sell to vanlifers, homeowners, and distributors. Our batts are becoming a favorite for DIYers and professionals alike; and our loose-fill is finally getting its due at R4.3 / inch. We had sincerely high hopes for cracking some of the industry codes with regard to (further) testing, life cycle analysis’ and environmental product declarations; those hopes came crashing down under the weight of a continual death march to the lowest common denominator where the bar seems to get set. Nevertheless, our efforts shall persist even as acceptance continues to expand across multiple marketplaces.
Fortunately, as a start-up in a tough and nonsensical space, we are not easily dismayed, though frequently disappointed. Nevertheless, we have always had great products, because they are made of wool – the most dynamic fiber on the planet, full stop, and therefore an outsized willingness to wait for the market to come to its senses. It has.
We have a backlog that is annoyingly hard to shed though we are adding two production lines that should solve that problem. And with any luck, we will break that system in time, just as we did the last.
Please know we are intimately aware that none of this happens without you. In the face of a difficult, frustrating, and annoying 2020 we were lucky to come to work and to grow. For that, we can only say thank you and offer a promise that we will continue to put our best foot forward every day.
Keep well friends.
In a strongly traditional and highly codified industry like building science change comes very rarely. It’s like a train – you can’t make it go anywhere else except where it’s going. Yet, over and over, stubborn idealists have been able to derail the train a little bit here and there and allow for new tracks to be laid heading in a better direction.
Up to the 80s the industry and “experts” declared it was not possible nor economical in Austria – especially in the mountains – to use the sun to heat the water. Some stubborn idealists ignored them and experimented building solar hot-water collectors. And, it worked – especially in the mountains! Today, if you have a home built, it comes with hot-water solar and PV automatically! The architects include it by default in their designs!
You guys, and your colleagues across the planet who are pioneering wool insulation, are another generation of stubborn idealists, who spend their life-energy, their talent, time, money and everything else it takes to help the industry “come to their senses”, are another generation of such change-agents that are so urgently needed in this world!
A big thank you for your work and dreams! I thoroughly enjoyed putting your insulation in my 1916 home during our renovation. I sometimes go up into the attic just to touch and smell the awesome stuff that’s laying there keeping our home warm in the winter and cool in the summer!
All my best, and much success!
Thomas
PS: there’s a guy in Austria who developed a system to build homes out of wood, which doesn’t rot, doesn’t attract wood eating insects, and can last for centuries – just like the old, old farm buildings high up in the mountains. The industry laughs at him. Yet, for 20 (?) years he’s built these kind of buildings and gets amazing results! I think there’s a company in Canada who’s using his system. Might be a great symbiosis for you to work together with them. Imagine! A whole house without toxic materials!
The guy’s name is Dr. Erwin Thoma, and his system is called wood100. (Here’s a link, if it’s cut out by the comment-software simply google “wood100 thoma”: https://www.thoma.at/wood100/?lang=en)
Just ordered some Havelock Wool from a “local” distributor in NC for my van conversion! Will pick it up next week. Very excited!!
Well said Thomas Hutegger! ☝️🙌
i am thinking i would like wool insulation that can be removed from the van to wash out with a hose the inside of the van. the wool would be in a curtain or curtains or thick blanket that would hang against the side of the vehicle. the curtains ,blankets would be sized to be washed in a dry cleaner, tub and hung to dry .probably a air space behind the curtain to enable verticle air flow to remove condensation from the van sides.
We not only like to stand out from our competition of renting motorhomes and now camper vans by offering some form of a solar alternative on all our rentals with great success and customer satisfaction. We are outfitting a few vans to bring to the market in our town for rent and have done the research to offer some form of insulation and will make a order of Havelock Wool. As we will choose this product due to it being a great insulation material that is the most healthiest to our customer and second for the great insulation properties it has. Even though I find the price high on this product as well as the alternatives out there but we will gladly pay the price since in some cases its actually cheaper then the best synthetics out there. Our vans will stay within the optimized threshold of humidity since we only rent seasonally even though we live in a high humidity region in the Pacific Northwest. Excited for the day we install this wool insulation into our vans as in the future we may show some build pictures where we rent at http://www.outdoorsrvrentals.com but for now we are closed for the season until next year and will have some pictures posted then. Thanks Mike
Does Havelock have any plans to become a publicly traded company? wsb
Not yet! We are a small company, enjoying making a bit of a difference for now! Thanks
If I wanted to do a small project like finish my basement, can we get your product at one of the big box stores?
You can order directly from us or one of our distributors. As of now we do not have product with the big box stores. Thanks!
Do you support and donate materials to nonprofit home builders?
At this point we do not. Thanks.
Curious as to when I might receive my order. Is there someone I can contact? Looking forward to getting started on my van build!
We will be in touch with you directly! We are at a 4-6 week delivery time from when you place your order. Thanks!