See, we were kids once, so we know what makes a great playground or back garden. Speaking of the past, let’s go back to the start for a second. Picture us (looking a little younger than in our more recent photos), proud as punch, at the Home and Garden show at the RDS, Dublin, circa 2003, promoting synthetic grass for domestic garden use. People laughed at us. “That’s one thing we have plenty of here!”, they hooted. Nearly ten years later, over 1,400 families have chosen our synthetic grass because it solves a problem for them.
So how did it all begin? It started with Mark …
A bit about Mark O’Loughlin
Mark O’Loughlin is a true entrepreneur, a fact recognised by the formidable ‘dragons’ on the RTÉ television show Dragons’ Den. On the show Mark sought and won investment for another business, Hidbin, his invention for hiding unsightly wheelie bins.
Mark has run his garden design and creation business for more years than he cares to remember and, over the last eight, has become the go-to man for synthetic grass in Ireland. Even before he started his landscaping business, Mark was influencing outdoor living spaces by pioneering the importation of log cabins.
Find out about Hidbin here.
As you see, he’s been at the vanguard of our growing obsession with ‘the room outside’.
No stranger to (real) grass, Mark is the son of a farmer, and continuing his close association with turf, represented Leinster, Irish Colleges and Ireland in under-21s rugby. He worked in Germany, the USA and Australia before setting up Sanctuary Landscapes (now Sanctuary Synthetics).
Sanctuary Synthetics is based in a fetching log cabin (what else?) in Naas and employs seven full-time and two part-time members of staff.
Corporate responsibility
We believe in ‘conscious Capitalism’; Capitalism is the worst system, except for all the others.
But seriously …
- We pay our taxes
- We are fully insured
- All our employees are on the books, treated fairly, paid above the minimum wage and receive their due holiday entitlement
- We pay for proper disposal of our waste
- All recyclable materials are sent for recycling
- All biodegradable matter is typically mulched and aged (and sold back to the next customer!)
- Suppliers, both at home and abroad, are paid a fair price
- A (not insignificant) percentage of profits is contributed annually to our chosen charity, Concern
For more reasons to choose us, click here.
Source: Sanctuary Synthetics – Business Profile – Mark O’Loughlin & Sanctuary Synthetics
