Piñatex, the pineapple-leaf material used in limited collections by Hugo Boss, Puma, H&M, and Nike, collapsed into insolvency in 2025. Its UK parent company, Ananas Anam, entered administration on August 19, 2025, after rescue talks with investors including Fresh Del Monte fell through. By March 2026, trade press was reporting the company had wound down after more than a decade of operation, with administrators citing an unworkable path to rescue.
Fast Facts
- What happened: Ananas Anam, the UK company behind Piñatex, entered administration
- When: UK parent entered administration August 19, 2025; the Spanish subsidiary entered separate pre-insolvency proceedings in July 2025
- Why: An accumulated debt of €3.22 million in Spain, a £1.14 million loss in the UK for 2023, and a failed rescue deal with Fresh Del Monte
- Brands that used it: Hugo Boss, Puma, H&M, Nike, Inditex, and Ecoalf, mostly in limited capsule collections, per trade press reporting
- Founded: 2013, by Dr. Carmen Hijosa, a Spanish textile designer
- Current status: Administrators state that rescuing the company as a going concern "is not considered a viable option"; the stated plan is liquidation
What Is Piñatex, and Why Did It Matter?
Piñatex is a non-woven textile made from fibers extracted from pineapple leaves — an agricultural byproduct that's normally discarded or burned after the fruit harvest. Dr. Carmen Hijosa developed it after years working as a textile consultant in the Philippines, where she grew concerned about the environmental impact of conventional leather tanning. She founded Ananas Anam in 2013 to bring the material to market; it launched publicly at the Royal College of Art in London in December 2014, with sales beginning the following year.
Notably, Hijosa herself asked that the material not be called "leather" at all — it's a different thing: a felt-like fiber mesh finished with a resin coating, not a collagen-based material. According to a 2021 profile by the European Patent Office (where Hijosa was a finalist for the European Inventor Award), Ananas Anam worked with a cooperative of roughly 700 Filipino pineapple-farming families who earned extra income supplying the waste leaves, and by that point the material had reportedly been used by nearly 3,000 brands across 80 countries.
Timeline: How Piñatex Collapsed
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2013 | Dr. Carmen Hijosa founds Ananas Anam |
| December 2014 | Piñatex launches publicly at the Royal College of Art, London |
| 2015 | Commercial sales begin |
| End of 2023 | UK parent posts a £1.14 million loss on turnover of £240,849, down from £419,849 the prior year |
| December 2024 | Company engages restructuring firm Leonard Curtis, warning of insolvency risk without short-term financing |
| Early–mid 2025 | Investors inject €300,000, then a further €100,000, to cover salaries during rescue talks |
| July 2025 | Spanish subsidiary enters pre-insolvency proceedings, shielding it from filings until mid-November 2025 |
| 2025 | Fresh Del Monte, the lead prospective buyer, declines to take over the company |
| August 16, 2025 | UK employees are dismissed after outstanding wages are paid |
| August 19, 2025 | Ananas Anam UK Limited enters administration; Leonard Curtis administrators appointed |
| March 2026 | Trade press reports the company has wound down after more than a decade of operation |
Why Did Piñatex Fail?
Based on trade-press reporting, several factors compounded:
- Capsule collections, not scale. Brand partnerships with the likes of H&M, Nike, and Inditex were largely limited to one-off or seasonal capsule collections — a small share of what a materials company needs to sell to stay solvent.
- A business model pivot. The company shifted from selling directly to fashion brands toward trying to supply industrial manufacturers as a raw-fiber producer, a transition reported to have strained its finances further.
- Reputational headwinds. Because Piñatex draws on a food-crop byproduct, some observers raised concerns about its potential effect on food-system economics — a reputational pressure point unique to agricultural-waste materials.
- A cooling market. Reporting points to declining retailer demand for alternative materials broadly, alongside what one outlet described as softening "sustainability momentum" in fashion by 2025.
If You Already Own Something Made From Piñatex
Nothing changes about an item you already own — the material itself doesn't stop existing because its maker went into administration. What's less clear is supply continuity: because most brand collaborations were already short-lived capsule runs rather than standing product lines, trade press reporting doesn't suggest most of these items were ongoing collections to begin with. No source reviewed states definitively whether the Philippine or Spanish production operations continue in any form after the UK parent's administration.
Does This Mean Plant-Based Leather Is Shaky?
One company's financial collapse isn't evidence that plant-based materials as a category don't work — it's evidence that building a profitable supply chain around any new material, agricultural-waste-based or otherwise, is genuinely hard, and that brand-capsule buzz doesn't always convert into durable commercial demand. The next-gen materials space has had other setbacks alongside real staying power in specific materials, and the two shouldn't be flattened into one story.
For what it's worth on our own side: Coneli doesn't use Piñatex and never has. Every Coneli bag, belt, and accessory is made from one of three plant-based materials — Desserto® cactus leather, Viridis® corn leather, or OLEATEX® olive leather — each of which we've separately verified has a documented, multi-year track record with other brands (see our pieces on Desserto and the automotive industry, Desserto in fashion, and how our three materials differ). We can't make guarantees about any supplier's future — no one can, including Piñatex's own investors a year ago — but as of today, all three remain in active use in our current, shipping product line.
| Material | Maker | In Coneli products? | Documented adopters | Status as of Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piñatex | Ananas Anam (UK/Spain) | No — never used by Coneli | Hugo Boss, Puma, H&M, Nike (capsules) | In administration; liquidation reported |
| Cactus leather | Desserto® | Yes — Fanny Pack, several Belt colors, Tote | BMW, Mercedes-Benz, H&M, Fossil, Karl Lagerfeld | Actively supplying Coneli's current line |
| Corn leather | Viridis® | Yes — Tote Edition Camel | Boutique fashion/footwear brands (per supplier) | Actively supplying Coneli's current line |
| Olive leather | OLEATEX® | Yes — several Belt colors | Not independently documented | Actively supplying Coneli's current line |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Piñatex?
Piñatex is a non-woven textile made from fibers extracted from pineapple leaves, a waste byproduct of the pineapple harvest. It was developed by Dr. Carmen Hijosa and brought to market by her company, Ananas Anam, starting in 2014–2015.
What happened to Piñatex?
Ananas Anam's UK parent company entered administration on August 19, 2025, after failing to secure a rescue deal. Its Spanish subsidiary entered separate pre-insolvency proceedings in July 2025. By March 2026, trade press reported the company had wound down after more than a decade in business.
Why did Piñatex fail?
Reporting points to several factors: brand partnerships that stayed limited to small capsule collections rather than scaling into standing product lines, a difficult pivot toward supplying industrial manufacturers, reputational concerns tied to using a food-crop byproduct, and a broader cooling in retailer demand for alternative materials.
Is Piñatex still available to buy?
As of the most recent reporting reviewed for this article (March 2026), the company's stated plan was liquidation, with administrators saying a rescue "as a going concern is not considered a viable option." No source reviewed confirms whether any production has continued in another form.
Does Coneli use Piñatex?
No. Coneli has never used Piñatex. Our bags, belts, and accessories are made from Desserto® cactus leather, Viridis® corn leather, or OLEATEX® olive leather.
Last updated: October 8, 2026.
Methodology & Sources
The timeline and financial details in this article are drawn from trade-press reporting: FashionUnited UK (October 29, 2025), Modaes, and Ecotextile News (March 4, 2026). Background on Piñatex's origins and early adoption figures comes from the European Patent Office's 2021 profile of Dr. Carmen Hijosa and Renewable Matter. Brand-adoption examples came from eLuxe Magazine. This article makes no claim about any law or regulation governing material-naming terminology, and it does not claim or imply anything about the long-term financial stability of Desserto, Viridis, or OLEATEX beyond their current, verified use in Coneli's live product line as of this publish date. All Coneli product facts (materials, colors, and current catalog status) were verified live via Shopify on October 8, 2026.