About Brew Tree | Building the Future of Materials

Grown from conviction

Brew Tree is a materials company from Perth, Australia. We grow the things products are made from — and we're changing what that means.

What if we could make the materials we need without destroying the
ecosystems we love?

Matt has been thinking about this problem his whole life. Growing up with a deep conviction that the way we make things is fundamentally broken, he studied environmental management at university and spent years working in the field — not as a career, but as a calling.

So he went looking for something different. Something that didn't ask people to sacrifice beauty or quality for conscience. He found it in bacterial cellulose — a material grown from living cultures that has the strength and texture of leather, the workability of paper, and the structural properties of wood. All from the same source. All without harm.

7days

To grow the material

98%

Less land & water required

0trees

Cut down. Ever.

Every year, millions of hectares of forest are cleared to meet the world's growing demand for cellulose-based products. We see an opportunity to rethink that system from the ground up.

Instead of harvesting forests for wood, paper, and leather-like products, we grow pure cellulose using natural microorganisms — transforming low-value waste streams into high-value materials.

By combining biology, fermentation, and material science, Brew Tree is creating materials designed for a future where production works with nature — not against it.

Matt Barbour

Founder & Material Director

Matt is the brain behind Brew Tree — the researcher, the formulator, the person who spent months getting the material exactly right before a single product was made. With a background in environmental management and years of field experience, he brings the same rigour to growing cellulose that he's always brought to reducing our impact on the planet. Brew Tree is his life's work made physical.

Frankie Barbour

The Creative Half

Frankie leads the design, brand, and everything that makes Brew Tree feel considered — the product forms, the visual identity, the way the brand speaks. The belief that beautiful things and responsible things don't have to be different things.

The people behind
it

Brew Tree is Matt and Frankie Barbour, from Perth, Western Australia. The brain and the build — between them, the science and the soul.

This is just the beginning

Brew Tree started with accessories because they are tactile, personal, and easy to experience. A daily reminder that the way things are made can be different. But the material ambition has always been larger than that.

Grown Leather

The material behind our first collection. Dense, flexible, home compostable. Grown from bacterial cellulose in approximately 7 days. No animals. No petrochemicals.

Grown Paper

The same cellulose process, grown into sheets with the properties of paper. Stationery, book covers, packaging, and objects where sustainability and storytelling matter as much as performance.

Grown Wood

Structural cellulose grown with the properties of timber — without a single tree. CNC-ready. The potential to change how furniture, interiors, and architecture are made.

We're not making things differently for the sake of it. We're making things differently because the old way is running out of time.

Matt Barbour, Founder — Brew Tree