About Coloplast
Simple solutions with great impact
We’re here to make life easier for people with very personal and private health conditions. Founded on passion, ambition, and commitment, we produced the world’s first ostomy bag in 1957.
Today, we provide innovative solutions for a wide range of medical needs, helping over 2 million people around the world. Our business areas include Ostomy Care, Continence Care, Bowel Care, Voice & Respiratory Care, Wound & Tissue Repair, and Interventional Urology.
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Innovation is empathy
Only when we think from a user’s perspective – understanding the full context of their lives and not just their medical condition – can we innovate and develop solutions that really meet their needs and move care forward.
Our mission
We’re here to make life easier for people with intimate healthcare needs.
Our values
Closeness
We work closely with users of our products to find solutions that are sensitive to their needs. This requires a willingness to listen, an ability to empathise, and a commitment to act on what we learn. This is also how we work with our colleagues: fostering a culture of closeness and listening to each other's needs.
Passion
At Coloplast, we all share the same passion: making a real difference to people’s quality of life. This passion drives us to do things better, and to bring the best ideas quickly to the people who need them.
Respect and responsibility
We make respect for our users, each other, and the world around us the cornerstones of our culture. As the market leader, we take our responsibilities seriously. This means finding medical solutions, while tackling intimate healthcare taboos. We act with honesty, openness and integrity in everything we do.
The Coloplast story
Our story begins back in 1954. Elise Sørensen is a nurse. Her sister Thora has just had an ostomy operation and is afraid to go out in public, fearing that her stoma might leak. Listening to her sister’s problems, Elise conceives the idea of the world’s first adhesive ostomy bag.
Based on Elise’s idea, Aage Louis-Hansen, a civil engineer and plastics manufacturer, and his wife Johanne Louis-Hansen, a trained nurse, created the ostomy bag. A bag that does not leak, giving Thora – and thousands of people like her – the chance to live the life they want.
It was this idea that marked the beginning of Coloplast’s history.
