WEBVTT

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Hi, I'm Catharina.

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I'm here with Dennis today.

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We're going to talk about a very
exciting new scale-up,

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RE&UP, and the opportunities
of circularity.

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Hi, Dennis, thank you so much
for joining me today.

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Thanks for having me.

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Dennis, we have heard so much
the last days and during Climate

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Week about this opportunity of
circularity and scaling that globally.

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As a European company, what is
your plan to take advantage of

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that global opportunity?

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As a European company, we
obviously get a lot of news, you

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know, about the need for
circularity, especially in the

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textile space.

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And we've been building a
circular business model in our

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factories that is now operating
for, you know, several years.

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The end product is proven to be
able to use in the fashion

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industry, where the requirements
are very high, and we are ready

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to scale now.

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And in order to be able to
tackle the waste problem in

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Europe, we are in very advanced
stage now to start scaling and

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building factories in Europe to
be able to actually handle the

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domestic waste.

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And after Europe, what are your
next plans?

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We have concrete plans moving
into Middle East, Asia, and, of

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course, United States as well.

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Obviously, you know, we need to
really make an impact and the

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waste problem in the textile
space is amazingly big.

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So, in order to be able to
really address that problem, you

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really need to scale, and you
need to scale fast. Because if

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we don't do anything today, the
problems will just accumulate,

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they will be much bigger later
on.

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So our intention is to scale way
beyond the million tons, you

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know, of textile waste to be
handled, and we can do that in

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many different locations.

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What do you think is the key
success factor of RE&UP?

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What really makes you one of the
companies at the forefront of

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textile- to-textile recycling?

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I wasn't around at the time, but
the founding company and the

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shareholder of RE&UP, is a
textile conglomerate and we are

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celebrating our 120th
anniversary this year.

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We were born in a textile
environment having all the

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knowledge of what is needed in
the textile industry to produce

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the right product in terms of
quality and pricing to be used

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again in the textile industry at
scale.

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And I think that makes that
makes a tremendous difference.

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You know, we know what we're
talking about.

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We use actually our textile
engineers that were dealing with

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yarns and fabrics to start
developing processes that can

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deliver the right end product in
terms of textile-to-textile recycling.

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The other big advantage is what
we did is we started to find

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ways how to use post-consumer
waste because this is really

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where the problem is.

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So we are able to handle blends
of materials, colored materials

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and turn them into white,
near-virgin materials that can

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really be used in the textile
industry.

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Again, I think these two
factors-- really know what we

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talk about and really addressing
the real problem in the industry-

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that's what makes us, you know,
who we are.

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It's incredible.

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And I think the RE&UP story
has gotten a lot of positive

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feedback generally throughout
the last months and years, but

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also throughout the last days
here in New York at Climate Week.

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What are you going to take away
from this week?

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What are you going to take home
from Climate Week, and what will

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help you on your journey
forward?

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Yeah.

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I want to say something else
first.

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Sure.

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You know, I mean, you're right.

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We get a lot of attention and.

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in the early days, it almost
sounded too good to be true.

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But we have factories running
now, and a tremendous capacity

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is available to recycle textile
waste.

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When you look at the big scale,
it's not big enough yet.

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We . . . but we really want to
grow our business.

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But the proof is now out there,
we can do this.

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So it's not too good to be true.

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It's available.

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And I think New York is a
fantastic city.

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There are great people here
today, like-minded people.

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And what I understand is that
from all the conversations that

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I attended and the people that I
met, people are looking for

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action because there's been a
lot of talks, but we really need

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to scale this industry now so
that we can really make it circular.

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And we are about action.

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So that's really what I like.

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What I will take home is
networking opportunities.

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So there's a lot of great people
that we meet, that we can

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collaborate with because we
can't obviously do this alone.

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We need to do this together.

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It's a circular economy that we
are dealing with.

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So that, and I think maybe the
most important thing is that we

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also here to educate people
because people need to

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understand what is actually
possible in order to brainstorm

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about how we can scale this
further.

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And there are a lot of unknowns
still.

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And I think we are here to
explain to the private sector,

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but also to the governments,
what is possible.

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And from there, we can design
models in order to make it

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actually work and scale this
business further.

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Thanks, Dennis.

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Any final thoughts?

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Yeah, I mean, obviously, it's
hard work.

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In order to do this very
quickly,

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it requires a lot of dedication
and a lot of networking.

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We need to reach out to many
different people, but we need to

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focus a lot on execution as
well.

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So we have a fantastic
partnership with BCG, Boston

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Consulting Group.

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You know, there's a core team
now that is working, you know,

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fully and dedicated with
RE&UP in order to make this possible.

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It's a door opener, but also on
the execution side, you know, a

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fantastic help.

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Well, thank you very much,
Dennis.

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We're very much looking to the
next steps together as well.

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Thank you.