Responsibility

We have no factories of our own. This is a choice, not a limitation: it lets us find the right materials and methods for each object, rather than fitting objects to a fixed process. We work with an extensive network of workshops and suppliers, 89% of them within 400 km of Barcelona, through relationships built on shared knowledge and long-term trust.

From porcelain to wood to alabaster, one demand remains constant: that materials be noble and honest. Chosen for how well they last and how cleanly they can return.

Since 2021, a code of practice supports our suppliers in raising their environmental, social and technical standards.

Making well has a cost. When that cost does not appear in the price, it does not disappear: it moves. It is paid by the material, the craft, the working conditions, the environment, or the object’s useful life. There is no trick: someone, somewhere, ends up paying.

A copy can imitate a form, but it cannot reproduce what gave it meaning. The difference tends to show itself quickly — in an uncomfortable light, in a joint that gives way, in a piece that doesn’t age well. But the most important difference is earlier: an original piece belongs to a chain of responsibility. A copy does not.

If you have doubts about the authenticity of a Santa & Cole product, contact us.

Our objects are designed with their future in mind: parts that come apart, standardized components, elements that can be replaced without undoing the whole. More than 70% of our catalog has spare parts readily available, and we stock over 400 original replacement pieces.

Keeping an object alive also means keeping it in circulation. Since 2003, we have held El Mercadillo twice a year — an archive sale where pieces from trade fairs, exhibitions or discontinued collections find a second life. Checked and refreshed by our team, they go back into use.

And when that life is finally over, the same logic that made the design repairable makes it easier to take apart, separate and recycle.