Once upon a time there were two lads who studied materials science (Christian Fischer) and mechanical engineering (Julien Rion) at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Together with two more fellow students – we’re in the early years of this century – they indulged in the typical leisure pursuits of young men: skiing was big, and sport and recreation in general kept the students busy beyond the textbooks. In a garage, the four tinkered with skis. The aim: boards as light as possible, with the greatest possible performance. They puzzled over how to reinforce the ultralight balsa wood at the core of a ski so it wouldn’t break. The solution: light fibres for stabilisation. And since everything was to be sustainable, made from renewable raw materials, it was soon clear that flax was best suited.
Shooting Up
In 2011, Christian Fischer and Julien Rion founded Bcomp Ltd with a clear goal: to design and develop semi-finished composites based on natural fibres for the sport and mobility sectors. Very quickly it became clear that Bcomp had caught the spirit of the times. Everyone was looking – and still is – for ways to replace plastic, the lightweight material, with natural ones. The start-up became a scale-up; Bcomp won awards, generated worldwide recognition, fundraising worked; by 2016 Bcomp was already the seventh fastest-growing company in Switzerland and one of the most rapidly scaling firms in all of Europe. In 2017, Bcomp deliberately drew the attention of professional buyers and logisticians to the composite. One wish back then: to somehow gain a foothold in the car industry.
The Worth of Sustainability
Bcomp has long been the largest tenant in the Cardinal quarter; the company is bursting at the seams and is eyeing new space in a new building going up next door on the former industrial site. Christian Fischer, now CEO of Bcomp, has made time between two appointments for a talk. He’s bursting with energy and breezily outlines the astonishing steps Bcomp has taken. In hindsight, everything was set for success from the start – but what’s the most striking change when he rewinds to the beginnings twelve years ago? «Back then, no one was willing to pay for sustainability», Christian Fischer recalls. Now people scramble for solutions, whatever the cost. Sustainability has become one of – if not THE – most important marketing arguments.
Most Innovative Product
Bcomp is regarded as a «Global Shaper» and has been crowned with awards. And one wish came true: to gain a foothold in the car sector. There, where in construction every gram is haggled over: motor racing. As «Most Innovative New Motorsport Product 2018», Bcomp ends up in the bodywork of hundreds of cars across 16 different racing series. In parallel, efforts are under way to use the lightweight material in aerospace; there too, every milligram of weight counts, to be saved on the way into space in favour of energy consumption. You listen in amazement: this company, founded practically as a garage outfit and still in start-up-style premises in the repurposed industrial quarter, is a jewel, a flagship of Swiss appetite for innovation.
Christian Fischer, on the other hand, seems unfazed. He’s a passionate advocate for the material Bcomp produces, but also a methodical realist who neatly lines up decision after decision, like the fibres of the flax they process – in the end it makes a load-bearing structure. «We have a very good board», Christian Fischer praises his own company. They’re, he says, excellently advised, excellently positioned. The organisation subordinates itself to the company’s purpose, which, quite immodestly, is to decarbonise the world. Sounds grandiose? Perhaps. But perhaps it really is quite simple: just eliminate everything that burdens the world and replace it with nature. Christian Fischer smiles – that’s exactly how he pictures it: a dematerialisation of lifestyle, without giving up the fun. Porsche already uses Bcomp, McLaren built the seats for Lando Norris’s Formula 1 car with Bcomp, and for BMW, Bcomp is the most innovative newcomer supplier of 2022 – worth an award (one more).
Beauty Can Wait
One more factor is worth shedding light on, which was initially a huge topic in sustainable fashion: looks. Ten years ago, sustainable fashion was practical, mostly not really beautiful. That has changed. Bcomp – that is, the two materials ampliTex® and powerRibs®, currently available for all sorts of applications – aren’t really beautiful either. Normally you don’t see them anyway, and when you do, they look like Kevlar, just less high-tech and more natural. There are already designs, like chair shells, that are worth looking at; there’s surely still plenty of room for design freaks. For example in the Polestar Precept, where the designers play with the textile-like look of Bcomp’s ampliTex® and promise to bring the material into production. In the small new all-electric Volvo EX30, on the other hand, you can already choose it as an option. There you go. > bcomp.ch
This article appeared in MEN issue 1/24 (May 2024).
