Cocol

When you think about your business, what are you most proud of?

Our dream is to select and recover timeless objects worked by hands that preserve a knowledge passed down from generation to generation, a commitment to craftsmanship, small family businesses, unique projects and local designers.
There are lifelong products and others that reinterpret and renew tradition: from the botijo to the abstract poetics of esparto grass and stones, from an antique basket to contemporary craft designs.
We believe in a careful and quality neighbourhood commerce, with useful and beautiful objects that accompany us in our daily lives.
We propose an offer of responsible consumption, giving visibility to products made outside the usual circuits of commerce and mass production.

What is the history of your commerce?

Cocol was born three years ago but it is a project that had been years in the making, perhaps a lifetime.

It sprouted when I found the right place: to do what I was looking forward to, in the perfect place, at the right time, in the most beautiful square in Madrid. The premises are an old upholstery workshop and the Plaza de la Paja, the heart of the neighbourhood where I have been living for more than twenty years now.

Behind Cocol there is a passionate work of research and observation.

What is your professional experience?

The truth is that I come from a completely different sector, for many years I worked on hospital construction and equipment projects in developing countries. I travelled a lot and loved what I did.

I have always been a passionate person at work and I knew that at some point I would have to focus that energy on creating and supporting my own project that would somehow contribute to making the world a little kinder.

How has covid 19 affected your business?

The effects of Covid are at the moment devastating and uncertain for a small shop like Cocol. We have had a total cessation of activity and a radical change of scenery just when we were beginning to establish ourselves and consolidate as a business after three years of hard work and effort. As for almost all of us, this has been a real setback. We have taken the opportunity to set up the online shop, but we know that Cocol makes sense as a physical shop, as a small neighbourhood and local business. We will continue if we manage to overcome this setback, where societys awareness of other forms of consumption and production and the support of the people in the neighbourhood on a day-to-day basis will be fundamental. We will learn something from this experience that I hope will make us all a little better.