nkuku

Like so many of the best things in life, nkuku began with an adventure. It was 2002, and Ali and Alex were on a round-the-world trip when they found themselves smitten with the artisan products they came across in East Africa. As they journeyed on through Africa and into India, they started shipping bits and bobs home with the plan to sell them when they got back.

Moving to rural Devon on their return, the couple set up a travelling market stall – and when that took off, they started collaborating with a family they'd met in India to design and produce beautiful handcrafted homewares. In those early days, they operated out of an old hayloft on Dartmoor, packing orders late into the night while their baby daughter snoozed in a cardboard cot under a pile of coats.

Fast-forward 20-odd years and the business might have outgrown the market stall, but Ali and Alex are still working to the same three principles they started out with: striving to make their products ethical, eco-friendly and handmade. Manufacturing mostly in Asia, nkuku works with social projects, co-operatives, charity partners and small family firms, and they smashed their B-Corp certification right out of the park with a score of 96.4 (you only need 80 to make the grade). Closer to home, they’re also supporting initiatives to clear up plastic pollution on the south Devon coast. They’re all-round good sorts, making beautiful handcrafted products.