Our story and mission
The Coloplast story
Our story begins back in the early 1950s. Elise Sørensen is a nurse, whose sister Thora has just had an ostomy operation. Moved by her sister’s fears about going out in public in case her stoma leaks, Elise comes up with the idea of the adhesive ostomy bag. Inspired by Elise’s concept, civil engineer and plastics producer Aage Louis-Hansen and his wife Johanne, a nurse, create the world’s first ostomy bag.
The ostomy bag helps Thora – and thousands like her – to live the life they want. And it also becomes the inspiration for our company.
1.50 min
Innovation starts with empathy
Our business today
Founded in Denmark in 1957, Coloplast is now a global company with about 16,500 employees in 41 countries. Today, we focus on a range of intimate healthcare needs: Ostomy Care, Continence Care, Interventional Urology, Advanced Wound Care and Voice & Respiratory Care. Our products now help over 2 million people around the world.
While much has changed, we’re still driven by the same spirit of empathy, innovation and collaboration that inspired Elise, Aage and Johanne seven decades ago.
100+
Countries in which our products are sold2 million+
Amount of people we help each year
Aage Louis-Hansen standing with a colleague in front of machinery, in a factory setting in the 1960s.
Our mission
We’re here to make life easier for people with intimate healthcare needs.
We develop products and services for people with deeply personal and private medical conditions. This is why we listen so closely to our users – understanding their unique needs, so we can develop the right products and services to solve them.
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.