The company has been making the mattresses since 1989, when Paul Efmorfidis and his brother Michael invented a coconut fiber and natural latex mattress and founded the company. The company's principles are based on a commitment to social responsibility. In its manufacturing operations, Coco-Mat produces almost no waste, sometimes through very clever means. Scrap mattress-covering cloth, for one example-is used to stuff old-fashioned rag dolls. And leftover latex from mattress production is shredded and becomes the stuffing of pillows. The raw materials themselves have to be sustainable, Efmorfidis stresses. Coco-Mat uses cotton rather than synthetic cloth to cover the mattresses, while the interiors consist mainly of virgin latex and shredded coconut fibers, which arrive in the factory in great coils from another Coco-Mat facility in Sri Lanka. Also included in the mattresses is seaweed, which Coco-Mat gets pretty much for nothing from the nearby Aegean, and horsehair, both of which are believed by some to have health benefits. Aside from sustainability, Coco-Mat places great emphasis on employee involvement, which it couples with an incentive program that rewards everything from attending TQM seminars to participating in company sporting events. Theoretically, employees can increase their pay by 40% if they check off every item on an incentive list, but Efmorfidis says no one has pulled off that feat yet. "We have a continuous sort of university in our company," says Efmorfidis. "We teach our people things over and over again." Coco-Mat also goes more than the extra mile to hire people with disabilities. In the Athens headquarters, the woman answering the phones has cerebral palsy, and had never worked before starting with the company. She and all the other employees not only work together, but they also vacation together. Their accommodation comes courtesy of the company at a coastal resort called Manor House, which Coco-Mat set up a few years ago.

Pursuing a socially responsible model of doing business has won Coco-Mat praise from the Greek Ministry of Development and the European Union, and won the company first place in Cambridge University's Research, Business & the Environment Programme. But Coco-Mat excels at more than ethical practices and social responsibility, proof of which exists in the company's achievements in the prestigious European Quality Awards competition staged by the European Foundation for Quality Management. Coco-Mat captured the award in 2001, 2002 and 2003.