Our story
Thestoryofbrewedfurniture.
Instead is a supply chain born in Nantes to turn a brewing residue into durable professional furniture. Here is how, and above all, why.
Eco-industrial
A low-carbon approach suited to industrial scale.
Renewable
We give local waste new value through a circular approach.
Innovative
We are the world's pioneers of brewed furniture.
Local
All our partners are based and selected on home soil.
The beginning
It all started over a drink on a terrace.
In November 2017, Franck Grossel - cabinetmaker, designer and beer lover - was looking for the subject of his final-year project. Chatting on a brewery terrace with one of his teachers, he began to wonder what lay behind the production of beer.
That very evening, he dived into the brewing industry and discovered spent grain: a malt residue made of wet cereals. The idea of turning it into furniture never left him.
Three years of research later, Instead came to life. In 2022, the workshop moved to Nantes and Franck partnered with Christophe Pilcher, a marketing director looking for a new project with impact. Today, eight of them keep the supply chain running.
2 billion
litres of beer consumed every year in France
600,000 t
of spent grain generated, brewing residues to be given new value
-58%
carbon impact vs a market equivalent, LCA across 71 criteria
Two billion litres.
A hidden logistical problem.
In France last year, more than 2 billion litres of beer were consumed. Behind every pint there is a stage no one talks about: brewing.
The result is 600,000 tonnes of spent grain · the solid residue of the grain. For brewers, this spent grain is a headache: costly to remove, prone to fermentation, and often sent to animal feed for want of anything better.
Petrochemical materials have had their day.
We decided to stop doing things the old way.
Professional furniture still relies heavily on melamine panels, epoxy resins and virgin plastics, all with a heavy carbon footprint and an opaque end of life.
Faced with dwindling resources and growing regulatory pressure (AGEC, REP Bâtiment), we wanted to start from a blank page. To find a locally available material and make something noble and durable from it.
A circular supply chain
From glass to furniture, in a closed loop.
We don't start from a tree, but from waste. Brewing spent grain becomes a noble material, and when a piece has had its day, it goes back into the loop.
- 01
Brewing the beer
Every brew leaves a solid residue: spent grain.
- 02
Drying the spent grain
Collected from neighbouring brewers, dried using waste heat.
- 03
Brewing the Balt®
Spent grain + recycled bio-based packaging. Zero petrochemical binder.
- 04
Professional furniture
Crafted in Nantes, powder-coated recycled steel frame.
- 05
Closed loop
At end of life, the piece is ground down and fed back into step 3.
The Balt® : spent grain becomes furniture.
An innovative circular supply chain.
Balt® is a composite material made from brewers' spent grain and recycled bio-based food packaging. Zero petrochemical binder, zero epoxy. 100% recycled and 100% bio-based.
Developed in our Nantes workshop, Balt® offers mechanical and aesthetic properties suited to intensive professional use · hospitality, office, public sector. And it comes in natural shades (brown, blond, white, amber, stout) or marbled.
A local, low-carbon approach.
Short-circuit frame, solvent-free powder coating.
Our steel frames are made less than 20 minutes from our Nantes workshop, from 30% recycled steel. Welding, cutting and powder coating (solvent-free) are all carried out in France.
The result: professional furniture, , recyclable. And a short, traceable, resilient production chain.
The furniture brewers.
A French industry in full transition.
Instead was born from a conviction: the ecological transition happens not despite industry, but with it. Green reindustrialisation is not a slogan - it is a business model.
Material brewed in Nantes, steel frames made 20 minutes from the workshop, local assembly: every Instead piece relies on a network of French partners we keep working over the long term. Jobs rooted in a region, a supply chain built to last.
Today, Instead brings together 8 people (and a dog) driven by a shared mission: to offer durable, environmentally friendly furniture, drawing on the know-how of a French industry in full transition.
Rated A by Éco-Impact.
Because impact is meant to be measured.
Every Instead product is rated by Éco-Impact, an independent body that carries out a Life Cycle Assessment across 71 criteria: raw materials, transport, electricity use, CO₂ emissions, end of life.
Our ranges are rated Éco-Impact A, with on average -58% impact compared with similar products on the market.
Want to be part of the supply chain?
Browse the collection or discuss a bespoke project · we reply within 48 working hours.