What did Safia give her Mother for Mother's Day?
Wow! What a Fairtrade Fortnight it's been — with so much press and media coverage of ethical fashion, Fair Trade fashion, and People Tree.
We've been in every national newspaper, and regional ones too — The Guardian, Independent, Financial Times, Sun and Metro amongst others, and across TV channels and the radio with interviews and features including GMTV, Channel 5, BBC Breakfast, Radio Five Live and Radio 4’s Today programme! If you’d like to catch up on some of our press coverage if you missed it, click here.
Other exciting news is that People Tree's sales at Topshop have been much higher than expected — thanks to all of you lovely people who have gone along and bought something. Please keep doing so!
Last week I was shortlisted for the Women in Ethical Business Awards — the first year of these awards — which have been launched by Triodos Bank and Eve Magazine. I joined a great celebration at the Spitz in Spitalfields Market in London, and met up with many old friends and kindred spirits including Romy Fraser, founder of Neal's Yard Remedies. The winner was the fabulous Juliet Davenport, founder of Good Energy, which is a service we can all painlessly switch to, whilst reducing CO2 and promoting greener energy. Could this be the perfect Mother's Day gift? I've recently switched from sending cut flowers to fair trade clothes and fruit trees. Here's to greening our mums!
Candy floss tulle scarf £25 — place your order by midday on Thursday for express UK delivery in time for Mother's Day
Fair Trade Fortnight: Can you help grow a new habit in Fair Trade Fashion?
Between events held to celebrate Fair Trade Fortnight, I went to check out People Tree's 'mini concession' in Topshop on Oxford Street (in the basement, next to the vintage shoes). It's great to tell the world that Fair Trade Fashion has come to Topshop and that Fair Trade clothing is worn by fashionable twentysomethings (but we all knew that anyway). It's a good start, although the concession is too small to reflect the relevance of Fair Trade Fashion and the huge improvement it can bring to people in the developing world and to the environment.
Of course I hope that the size of our concession in Topshop won't put you off going there, trying on, and buying an item or two — and meeting one of the lovely People Tree team who are there most days. It is vital to show the big retailers that customers care about the way their clothes are made. If it is good business they will stock more and more Fair Trade Clothing, and it will be easier for you (and everyone else) to find.
That was how Cafédirect took off...
About ten years ago, several Fair Trade pioneer companies encouraged customers to go and buy directly from the shelves of supermarkets. As sales grew, Cafédirect secured more and more shelf space and went on to become a Fair Trade superbrand. Today Cafédirect has acheived an incredible 16% market share of the roast and ground coffee markets — changing the lives of hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers and pushing the multinationals to change their trading practices.
We are only in Topshop till the end of March this time, but next week I'll meet with the Topshop team to plan how we go forward. I already have the dream concession planned out in my mind's eye — it's four times the size, a wall-less version of our Fair Trade Fashion store in the heart of the most fashionable area of Tokyo!
Spring/Summer Collection out!
People Tree's catalogue is finally out! Producing all the products by hand in villages and marginalised communities around the world, at the same time as producing the People Tree catalogue takes precision co-ordination.
People often ask what is the hardest thing in running a Fair Trade fashion company and I'd have to say that it's ensuring the products are made in time for the launch of the catalogue. And cashflow — we pay producers 50% in advance on placing our order for products - often 8 months before we sell them! Of course the work doesn't stop there — we're constantly in touch with the producers, working alongside them to help give technical advice and ensure that environmental standards are met too.
But why pay producers in advance? The producers we work with are small groups and organisations and have difficulty getting a loan to buy the materials and working capital. If a loan is available the interest rate is often double what we would pay in Britain and can be as high as 40%. This means that even prompt payment from buyers in the Developed World can often make the difference of whether an individual producer gets paid promptly or not. That's why we often say in the Fair Trade movement that it's not only the price paid to the producer for the product but also the 'terms of trade' that make the difference to help build people sustainable livelihoods and strengthen small businesses and social projects in the villages.
When I am travelling in Bangladesh I often meet garment factory workers to find out how conventional fashion works. I meet people who have not been paid their wages on time and have three months overtime outstanding to them — and people who have been dismissed on the spot for asking for what is due to them. Unfair terms of trade, low prices and lack of buyer interest in basic human rights and safety standards are the background to the horrific fire in the cotton mill in Chittangong in Bangladesh that broke out last week in the middle of the night, trapping and killing an estimated 60 people, because the gates were locked.
For People Tree the advance payments are a central part of the Fair Trade relationship with producers, paying a fair price and commiting to a long term relationship.
So please do buy from the catalogue the moment it's out, as we're really rather tight on cash right now. Why? Well if you really want to know People Tree has paid 50% advances on Autumn/Winter '06 orders, and in June we'll be paying final balances on the earliest among them, and at the same time we'll be putting advance payments down on orders for next spring! Sorry if I'm making you feel dizzy — but running a Fair Trade fashion business is dizzy-making! (But you do get used to it).
