Giving old stock a new lease of light

Since Tala’s inception in 2015, we’ve produced a lot of light bulbs. With each passing year, our technology improves, our practices are polished and new designs make their way into the homes and workplaces of customers around the world.

But while progress is inevitable, what happens to the old stock that doesn’t make it out of the warehouse and into use?

As part of our commitment to reducing waste and preventing products from heading direct to the recycling plant, we realised we needed a plan.

In Kind Direct

After a bit of digging online, we came across In Kind Direct.

Founded in 1996 by HRH The Prince of Wales, In Kind Direct distributes donated new and unused consumer goods to charities working in the UK and overseas, helping to ensure that everyone has access to life’s essentials and that no usable product goes to waste. This was a light bulb moment to us.

So, after a lovely conversation with a Chris from the In Kind Direct team, a partnership was formed allowing Tala stock to be included in their distribution network and a pallet of discontinued items was sent on its way.

Since our first donation, Tala products have been delivered to 17 charitable organisations across the UK, from Glasgow to Dorset, supporting a diverse range of causes including housing and homelessness charities, community groups, child and youth care organisations and a disability support charity. Charities have great need for good quality light bulbs to help keep costs down while running their services, and to offer to service users who may be setting up new homes after times of hardship.

Warehouse

After our various donations we still had a little stock to spare. So, inspired by how far and wide our stock travelled and how many organisations we were able to support, it got us thinking about how low energy lighting should be accessible for all. We’ve therefore opened a warehouse section on our own website offering discounted stock at reduced prices.

If you have a project that could benefit from discontinued Tala stock we would love to hear more. Send details across of your project via email to help@tala.co.uk