Strulch Limited was founded by Geoff and Jackie Whiteley in 2004 to market the new straw-based mulch. The process used to make Strulch was developed by Dr Geoff Whiteley in the School of Biology at the University of Leeds. It is distributed in the UK under license. Geoff has won a number of prestigious awards for the product including an Innovation Award from NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts) and a Home Grown Cereals Authority Enterprise Award