Turtleneck
Hello! We are Helmut and Philip, the managing directors of HalmBrüder GmbH i.G.
Helmut manages a medium-sized family business based in Heppenheim on the beautiful Bergstraße. Here he develops high-quality stainless steel components for various applications and industries. Philip is a student of media and business psychology in Frankfurt.
Sustainability connects generations!
During a family vacation in the summer of 2019, it became clear to us once again that we need plastic-free alternatives! Even the Mediterranean Sea is not spared from environmental pollution. This became apparent during a joint walk. Garbage bags, disposable cutlery, and plastic straws are now part of almost every beach landscape. This sad truth became our motivation. We asked ourselves why people buy single-use products for which alternatives already exist?
The answer to this question probably lies in convenience. With almost every alternative, you have to give something up – and the same applies to drinking straws. Some soften, others cannot be bent, and the next ones can break. This was also noticeable during a later visit to the hotel bar when little more than soggy cardboard remained of the paper straw.
Back home, we didn't have a concrete plan yet, but we had the goal of finding plastic-free alternatives without direct compromise.
Where there's a will, there's a way!
Once again, the well-known saying "Where there's a will, there's a way!" proved true.
Back at the company, Helmut reported on his experiences in the Mediterranean. Everyone understood this problem, and the solution was not long in coming. In the same week, Helmut and his development team (Jonathan Noack, Matthias Jahn, and Thomas Münch) came up with the idea of repurposing a cable protector made of stainless steel into a drinking straw. The trick: The cable protector consists of flexible stainless steel! Only the diameter, length, and shape had to be adapted to that of a drinking straw. Philip was always involved in this process and came up with clever design suggestions. In November 2019, the time had come: the first prototype was ready.
