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Jeremy Piercy founded Shared Earth in 1986 when he opened his first shop in the centre of York. He later introduced Shared Earth’s own brand of Fair Trade gifts which were sold in the shop and also to wholesale customers.
Shared Earth is now the largest wholesaler and retailer of non-food products in the UK and has 10 shops (York, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Liverpool, Bristol, Stratford-upon-Avon, Canterbury and Brighton) as well as an online shop, and is a member of IFAT (International Fair Trade Association) and BAFTS (British Association for Fair Trade Shops). Shared Earth is passionately committed to Fair Trade principles and buys from 37 overseas suppliers in 15 countries, the majority being fellow members of IFAT.
Jeremy has recently written a book about how his business began, what it is like to be a Fair Trade buyer and where Fair Trade is going.
Read Jeremy’s views on Fair Trade and related issues below…
It’s over now, but what a fantastic thing it was to see so much going on this year! Who would have dreamt, 10 or even 5 years ago, that a whole market could be devoted to Fair Trade products? If you missed the market in Parliament Street, don’t miss it next year!
Britain is at the top of the Fair Trade league in Europe, with more people aware of what Fair Trade means than in any other country. We have more Fair Trade organisations, more Fair Trade products and more people earning their living from Fair Trade than anywhere else in the developed world. We’re streaks ahead of the USA and Japan.
We can be rightly proud of this achievement. It was in 1994 that a supermarket, Sainsburys, took its first Fair Trade product. Now, the Fairtrade mark is common on supermarket shelves, and is recognised by 75% of the public.
Sainsburys and the Co-op in particular have led the way – Sainsburys’ bold step in making all its bananas Fair Trade proved successful, now all of its own-brand tea has the Fairtrade Mark, and who knows what will follow?
I noticed a big display of children’s paintings on Fair Trade in Sainsburys Monkgate branch last week, I believe they’re not just trying to make money by latching on to a popular trend, they’re helping to lead it in a responsible way. Fair Trade is improving countless lives in developing countries. It means shops buying ethically, not just going for the lowest price, using child labour and so on. It’s clearly working for supermarkets like Sainsburys and the Co-op who take it on board.
Are the other supermarkets learning the lesson? I say – buy from small local shops if you can. And if you’re buying from supermarkets, don’t just shop where you think you’ll get the best price – support Fair Trade!
Jeremy Piercy
Gift Today - February 2010
Q. How can you make the most of a trade show?
This is something that you often read about, and one thing I remember reading is that you should plan carefully ahead. I’m afraid I’m not very good at this. I write down the stand numbers of companies whose advertisements I’ve liked, and then when I visit them, more often than not I find clever photography has made their products look far more attractive than they really are.
I’m not a retail consultant, these are just my personal views. I find the most useful way to benefit most from trade shows is to approach them in a completely open way. Have a look at the trade press beforehand and see if you can get an idea of trends, but be cautious. You know your shop best, and just because red with yellow stripes may be the height of fashion, it doesn’t mean it will work for you. The important thing for any retailer is to introduce new products throughout the year, not to slavishly fit in with the fashions – your customers may not be aware of them anyway.
Having said that, there’s a difference between a fashion and a trend. Bags and wallets made from recycled juice cartons were the height of fashion a couple of years ago, but now everyone’s seen them, and they’re no longer novel. The trend towards eco-friendly products however is one that can only grow. Global warming will not just go away, and in all sorts of ways, we will be thinking about how we can reduce CO2 emissions. I predict that sustainability will become more and more of an advantage in marketing products, and conversely, that plastic and other oil-based materials will be harder to sell. Fair trade is another fast-growing trend.
Another thing you’re supposed to do at trade shows is allow plenty of time. No wonder, given the way some people seem to wander around, first in one direction, then another. This is something I do like to be systematic about. If you start at Row A of a hall (or Z or whatever the last letter is), then go up one, down the next and so on, you won’t miss anyone. Obvious? Judging by the arbitrary way some people walk around, perhaps not.
I’m amazed at how slowly people often walk. It’s as if they were strolling at the seaside. Personally, though they make a change from everyday routine, I find trade shows quite tiring and I like to get them over as soon as possible. By walking fast, and not lingering too long in conversation, I can manage, if I need to, to complete even the Spring Fair in one day, covering half a dozen halls. I only stop when I see something that looks especially interesting, and move on quickly if I realise it’s not what I’m looking for or the prices are too high. And by interesting, I mean something that might be of interest to my customers, not what my mother or my children might like for Christmas next year. Are free sweets an offer? Well I might be tempted to linger for a while. After all, if I can walk fast I can burn off the fat and not feel so guilty.
However I do usually like to take two days for a show like the Spring Fair, because trade shows are an ideal way to meet your present suppliers, see their new products, and get a feel for how business is going generally, both for them and for other retailers. You can learn about trends, get ideas for successful marketing, learn from mistakes and so on. You can even have a whinge about landlords or rates if you feel inclined. By forging close relationships with your suppliers, you can get so much more than just products to sell in your shop.
Do you like the person who runs the business (or their sales manager/director)? If they’re rude, or don’t seem interested in you, it may be best just not to get involved. Remember that you’re not just ordering goods. You’re starting a new relationship. Will you have to argue about credit notes when a product is missing from your order? Will they be sympathetic if you’re in trouble and need extra credit? Of course this is not the only consideration – their ability to supply you efficiently is very important. But good relationships with your suppliers are worth a lot. Trade shows are the place to make an excellent start.
Gifts Today January 2010-
Is it worth worrying where the products we buy and sell come from? Can the giftware industry really make a difference in the general scheme of things? Jeremy Piercy believes so…
Q: Can we make a difference?
Do our buying decisions matter? Why not just chill out and enjoy our pivileged lives? Ali Mafi believes the gift industry is insignifiant to most of the poor on the planet. I admire his column immensely – he sees humour in life and says what he thinks. But on this I disagree!
Our purchasing decisions make an enormous difference. Fair Trade, which aims to alleviate poverty in the Third World, is tranforming people’s lives.
Take Jagwali Devi, who makes jewellery for Tara Projects in New Delhi. Illiterate, with an alcoholic husband, she earned about 40 Rupees a day (50p) cleaning vegetables for a wholesaler, when work was available, and was often unable to provide even simple meals for her children. “Today I earn 100R a day and I can save money through our self-help group. Tara has taught me to read and now I can read the numbers of buses and see where they are going. My daughters attend school regularly – it is a great joy”.
Or Chakkali Bal, who works with Shared Earth’s handmade paper suppliers, GET Paper, in Nepal. At the age of 15, she was trafficked to an Indian brothel by her brother-in-law. “A blackish man with long moustache came and asked me to lie down in the bed but I refused but he rudely bit me and pushed with glowing cigarette in the chest and neck…
“Then started my living in hell by satisfying to many clients. Some of them were cruel and rascals. I lived in that for four years. I was rescued from the brothel by the help of local police and they helped me to return to Nepal. I was suffered from various illness and severe fever and diarrhoea. In Kathmandu I was tested blood and found as HIV positive.”
GET Paper (which is the Body Shop’s main paper supplier) gives 40% of its profits to HIV/AIDS charities, and helped Chakkali to settle back into the community. New she works for them, helping to educate people about HIV/AIDS and to campaign against girls’ trafficking – which is all too common in this very poor country.
Such examples are a testament to responsible buying decisions on the part of retailers in this country – and they can be replicated across the globe. On a recent visit to Kolkata, I walked past a room on the streeet where children aged 10 to 13 ware making clothes. To create more space, the room had been divided in half, horizontally, making two “floors”. The children had to stoop whenever they left their sewing machines. They were like battery hen, except the product was clothes, not eggs, and I was looking at children, not hens. I gathered such children are sometimes made to work for 16 or 18 hours a day, when orders were urgent.
If the clothes we wear, the food we eat and the gifts we give cause suffering to children, do we just turn our backs and say, “I don’t care”? Moon Sherma, who runs jewellery and soapstone exporter Tara Projects, is passionate about opposing child labour. She has risked her life taking hidden cameras into workshops where children were employed, to publicise the issue of child exploitation. “In the West,” she says, “you have a different kind of poverty. I had a friend in Denmark who took me to see his mother, who was in a sheltered home. Everyone there just seemed to be waiting to die. Her mother wanted to be with her family. My friend was giving money to Mother Theresa, but she hardly saw her own mother at all. You need people to talk to and love; it’s human relations that make you rich.”
I believe we have a duty to do all we can to find out where and in what conditions the goods we sell are made, and if possible to buy from Fair Trade suppliers. If won’t harm us in the gift trade because so many of our customers would support us if we did! Fair Trade sales are now approaching £1 billion and tens of millions of artisans and farm workers are benefiting. I believe we can make a difference – on my buying trips abroad , I have met so many people whose lives have been transformed.
I don’t like being preached to – but we have to have morals somewhere. I can’t enjoy my privileged life if my conscience isn’t clear.
Gifts Today - December
Job satisfaction is often considered irrelevant if you’re the owner of a gift shop. But in reality, it’s vitally important, writes Jeremy Piercy.
Q. Do you enjoy your job?
This is not the sort of question a consultant would usually ask a retailer – or a wholesale for that matter. It’s the kind of question you’d expect to get asked when you phone the Samaritans or go to see a psychiatrist because you’re feeling depressed.
So why ask it? Well, I won’t say that you have to enjoy your job to run a successful business. But I will say it gives you a much better chance. For a start, it gives you a lot more energy, so you get a lot more done, which of course saves wages.
Shared Earth has just opened two new shops in Brighton and Canterbury, which we’re running as franchises. I’ve rarely seen a living dynamo like our new franchise in Canterbury. He’s so keen that you’ve hardly finished suggesting he should do something that it’s already been done. He’s already reporting fantastic sales. Would they have been as good without his enthusiasm? I doubt it.
If you enjoy what you do, you also convey your feelings to the people around you, and in the gift trade this of course includes customers. You become more friendly, helpful and attentive, and you sell more, because your customers like you. There’s a stall in York market which until recently had a sign above it, “Service with a Smile”. Wonderful sentiments! The only thing is, I’ve never seen the couple who run it smiling. I wonder whether that’s why they took the sign down. I stopped buying from them when they complained because I was choosing my apples to check they were not bruised. “Do you mind?” I was told in an angry voice, as if it was a crime. “Just take what you get!” Their stall is often empty. In contrast, a nearby stallholder who’s always friendly attracts a roaring trade.
One of our suppliers, Agung Alit in Bali, Indonesia, has built up a big Fair Trade business. Is this despite the fact that he’s always joking, or because of it? The first time our buyer went out to Bali, he was careful to dress smartly, despite the heat. Agung sauntered out to meet him, dressed in a T-shirt and surfing shorts. “Why so formal?” he asked, laughing. “You think I’m some kind of businessman or something?” Agung later told me how he started up his business. “I went to see some producers to tell them how they could benefit from Fair Trade. But they thought I was some kind of weird hippy. Maybe my hair was too long? So I got Hanni, my wife, to take me again in her posh car. She always dresses smartly too. “Hanni’s an important buyer,” I told them. “She’s an agent for some large companies in Europe and America. They could be placing some big orders.” He laughed at the memory. “They then started treated me seriously.”
He recalled his visit to Shared Earth a few years ago. “I think you must be very good at recruitment, Jeremy,” he said as we walked to the pub with some of our staff at the end of the day. I was flattered, and smiled. “Your staff are very friendly,” he continued, and went on, “very beautiful – I like. Your designers – wahey! When can I come back to see them again?”
The moral of this story? Don’t get bogged down in marketing, ordering and cash flow projections. Certainly they’re important, but enjoy your life too! You’ll motivate your staff better, you’ll be more creative, and you’ll attract more customers! We live in a materialistic society where for most people a higher wage, a better house and a more expensive car are more important than a job you enjoy and a happy life at home.
Yesterday, I led a workshop in Leeds for teenagers from different schools who were all concerned about ethical issues like racism, climate change and unjust trade. One wanted to be an accountant, another an actor – one girl even wanted to be a fighter pilot. “Having ideals is great,” I said, but whatever you decide to do – make sure you enjoy it. In the end, you’ll find that’s far more rewarding than making money.”
Gifts Today – October
Climate change – so what? I’m trying to run a business, not change the world.
It’s a good question, and in case you think I’m one of these people who campaigns and goes on demonstrations all the time, I’m not! With two new shops, and all the ordering for Christmas, I’m pretty busy. Sometimes people who don’t understand business seem to think you have endless time to discuss their pet concerns.
So does climate change matter? And how should we respond as businesses?
I believe climate change is the key issue of this century. The whole of our society is going to change, and if we respond now, we can avoid the doom-and-gloom scenarios which some scientists predict. Are we thinking of our businesses in terms of short term profit, or of long-term, sustainable sources of income?
It all comes down to reducing our carbon emissions and transforming our economy to low carbon energy production and infrastructure. The latter will require investment – but on the former, we all have a part to play, both in our own lives and at work. Often people feel powerless in the face of such an enormous global problem, but we CAN make a difference. I am a great fan of the new 10:10 campaign (www.1010uk.org), which aims to get all of us to reduce our carbon emissions by 10% in the year 2010. Launched in September, 1,000 businesses, 20,000 individuals and a variety of celebrities have already signed up, as has the whole of the Cabinet, Shadow Cabinet and other political leaders. The basis of the campaign is that we should not just leave it to politicians and that we CAN effect change ourselves.
I was fortunate and caught on to a trend in the early days. Fair trade has grown from a niche market, selling coffee which “only vicars would be mad enough to buy”, to a multi-million business. My own small shop in a side street in York has grown to a chain of ten shops around the country. And the next major trend? Protecting our environment doesn’t just apply to the “beard and sandals brigade” – it’s becoming a major trend that will affect us all.
Many successful businesses have started up recently either wholesaling or retailing “eco” products. Many others are improving their sales with “eco” ranges. I believe the transfer to a low carbon economy will start a revolution akin to the growth of information technology in the last 30 years. In Gordon Brown’s words, “the economies that embrace the green revolution earliest will reap the greatest rewards.”
This is also an issue about what customers will want, long-term. As a retailer, are you reacting to trends? I’ve seen countless retailers fail because they keep selling the same old things. Others succeed because they constantly try out new ranges, even completely different types of product. Garden centres and local farm shops are good examples.
Acting to reduce climate change through your business is a win-win policy! By reducing energy consumption, you will save costs. You could well get publicity in your local paper, or be interviewed on tv or radio. Your customers will respond positively because they will see you acting responsibly; you’re not just out to make money. Your staff will be positive too, and show greater commitment to you; their enthusiasm and therefore their customer care could improve immensely. Sign up to the 10:10 campaign and ask them if they’d like to sign up too! At shared Earth we’ve had an amazing response (and most of our staff are not enthusiasts like me). People come in early and leave late because they see what they’re doing as worthwhile.
It may not be conventional business thinking, but I believe acting responsibly will also make you a happier person. In turn this will give you more energy. As we all know, this is very important when you work in retail!
Shared Earth has signed up to a new campaign that aims to tackle global warming in a way that everyone can help.
Its aim, instead of relying on politicians, is to start doing it ourselves – each one of us – by reducing our carbon emissions by 10% in the year 2010.
We all know what a future with climate change may bring. Carbon is the problem, and starting to reduce it is something we all can do. This is a grass roots campaign which we can all support – individuals and organisations alike. Businesses, schools, councils, ourselves in our personal lives – we can all make a difference, and reducing our emissions by just 10% should not be difficult!
As founder of Shared Earth I have always been passionate about the environment, as you will see in my recent book Coffins, Cats and Fair Trade Sex Toys. Our carbon emissions at Shared Earth are already low, but there are still simple things we can do. For instance, I shall be looking at whether all the lights we turn on are really necessary.
The 10:10 Campaign launched on September 1st in the UK, and within 3 days had signed up 10,000 people, 400 businesses, and the leaders of all three major political parties.
I invite you to join us and help create a brighter, healthier future. It’s easy to sign up, and there’s no fee. Just go to www.1010uk.org, fill in your name and click the button!
Jeremy Piercy
As consumer awareness about global warming grows, we are faced with all sorts of labelling to prove the “green” credentials of the products we are being offered. If we don’t want to be conned - and just as important, if we wish to show our customers that we understand and care about the issues involved - we need to be aware of some of the terminology being used. Let’s have a look at these in more detail.
Green and eco-friendly - what do they mean? These are vague terms which by themselves don’t mean anything. Look for more detail!
Natural - this is usually used to denote that chemicals, additives etc have not been added. But as with green and eco-friendly, it’s often used to promote a product when there’s nothing all that special about it.
Recycled or reused - what’s the difference? Recycled means that a manufactured product has been re-made, turning it into something different. Reused means that a product, used once, is then used again when normally it would be thrown away. For instance, if tin cans are collected and used to make ornaments, that’s recycled. If you are given a plastic bag for your shopping, and then take it with you on your next shopping trip, that’s reused. But if plastic bags are collected and melted down to make new shopping bags, they are recycled - some forward-looking supermarkets are starting to do this.
The term recycled is the one we see most. It may not mean a product is completely recycled. Sometimes a product is made from 50% recycled materials (or less) and is still promoted as recycled. This is better than not being recycled at all, but if we are looking for the best, we need to be aware of this.
Again, if we want the very best, we should look for products which are recycled from post-consumer waste. This means they been made from products already used, and then recycled, by the final consumer - from the papers we put in our recycling bins, for instance. Pre-consumer waste means leftovers from the manufactoring process, which are then used instead of being thrown away - offcuts from a printrun, for instance. If you see either of these terms on a product, it almost inevitably means the supplier is genuinely concerned about environmental issues.
Recycleable - this is a totally meaningless term! It usually means a supplier is trying to con you into thinking their products are “environmentally-friendly” when in fact there’s nothing special about them at all. ALL paper is recycleable for instance. It’s a term that’s used a lot in the greetings card industry and it means absolutely nothing - it’s just a sales ploy.
Biodegradable and compostable - more terms we should be wary of. They mean the product will break down naturally. But when? Will it be in 2 years or 500? Legally, you can use these words for either, and suppliers who are trying to jump on the green bandwagon sometimes do so, when there’s nothing special about their product at all. Watch out, for instance, if you’re buying plastic bags from a manufacturer.
It may seem like a minefield, but we all want to sell quality products, and our customers want to feel they can trust us and the products we sell. “Eco” is a trend that is only going to get bigger, and it’s in our interests to be ahead of the game.
You read a lot in the press at the moment about how to survive the recession. What about the longer-term?
I believe the key to business success is not so much succeeding against your rivals, as succeeding in partnership with your customers and suppliers – partnership being the key word. When I started Shared Earth in 1986, I had little capital and was taught on a business course that you should manage cash flow at all costs. I took this to an extreme, ignoring reminders from my suppliers, often final reminders, sometimes even waiting for the threat of court action before paying.
If sales are dire and you don’t have the money, that may be your only option. But my sales weren’t dire and I started to think, I’m running a fair trade company, is this fair? Clearly it wasn’t and I decided to make it a principle to pay on time. This has paid off many times. Business is not just about cut-throat competition, it’s also about creating good relationships.
Like many, Shared Earth is suffering from cash flow problems in this recession. One principle of fair trade is that you pay suppliers in advance – usually 50% - so they can purchase raw materials and not fall into the hands of loan sharks. So when we had a large order from Oxfam in April, I was worried. It would take 3 months to produce, two to reach our warehouse, and another month until we received payment.
Cash flow was a big issue – but it’s hard to turn a large order down. In the UK we worry about redundancy or bankruptcy, but at least we have a social security system. In countries like India there is none. Producers who are out of work will sometimes, literally, be unable to feed their children. I didn’t want to turn the order down. So I approached our suppliers for help.
The rewards for paying on time became apparent immediately. Most of our overseas suppliers either reduced our advance payments or offered to accept payment on receipt of the goods. In the UK, most agreed immediately to extended credit. “Don’t worry – pay your bills in September,” said one in April. That’s five months credit! Two others followed with the same generous offer. “Pay half as you order, half when you can afford to,” said another. Instead of grabbing extra credit by waiting for final reminders, we’re being offered it gladly, and more.
Business is about partnership. When times are hard, if you have good relations with your suppliers, it’s a lot easier to work together to keep each other going. We have had such support from our suppliers that we haven’t even needed to take up all their offers of help.
For the wholesalers who may be reading this, it works the other way too. If suppliers are generous to you, you almost always repay them with greater loyalty, often with larger orders. In a recession, that’s important!
(from Jeremy Piercy’s regular column in Gifts Today)
Gifts Today, July 2009
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If you’ve been watching Mary Queen of Shops on BBC2, you’ll realise what a struggle it is for retailers in some small market towns – if you’re not struggling already yourself, that is.
Q. How do you cope as a retailer in a small town?
The effect of out-of-town shopping centres can be horrendous. Towns become “ghost” towns when footfall reduces to the extent that you just can’t keep doing. The advent of multiples attracts custom, but if independents can’t compete, and an important multiple like Woolworths closes, it can have a negative effect in the long run. In a recession, head offices don’t care about the local town, they care about their overall profits. A new out-of-town shopping centre is the worst threat of all.
There’s no easy answer. Action is needed at both local and central government levels; this is not just an economic issue. It’s a social issue about the type of country we want to live in. The greed of developers whose only concern is to make money should be curbed.
Mary’s suggestion – if things haven’t already gone too far – was to act together with other retailers. We need to think of creative ideas to market our towns and high streets, not just our individual shops. She took the example of Tewkesbury in Devon, and showed how much extra trade they could attract by working together.
The issue of saving costs was not really explored, an unexciting topic for TV, perhaps. Asking for help from landlords, Mary said, was almost pointless. But let’s be optimistic – if their properties are empty, they’re not making any money. In Bristol, where Shared Earth opened a shop in the Mall three years ago, sales plummeted by 25% last autumn when the Cabot Circus shopping centre opened nearby. Our landlord – ironically another shopping centre – has hinted that substantial help may be on its way.
Marketing is key, and I firmly believe that fair trade, preventing climate change and other ethical issues are ingredients in marketing today. Another small town in Devon recently became internationally famous. “On May 1st, 2007”, its website states, “every trader in Modbury joined together to make Modbury plastic bag free. The first town in the British Isles to do so” Its 40-odd shops have seen a definite increase in footfall.; the website goes on, “Please DO NOT telephone the shops directly, we have been inundated.” It’s worth a look. With reports on national TV and media, this was a marketing coup as good as getting Mary Portas involved.
A sustainable jute bag with the logo “I love Tewkesbury” – or any other town – would promote Tewkesbury and the environment. I have given our Bristol shop manager the task of approaching local shops to ask if they’d like their own, individually designed, jute bags – Shared Earth has a supplier in Kolkata which makes them fair trade as well as sustainable. Acting effectively as a wholesale agent, this will provide an extra income to a shop that is struggling.
Can you think of similar creative ideas that will either increase footfall or increase income whether footfall increases or not? Can you do something on the Internet? Can you work with one of your suppliers to promote their goods, locally or in neighbouring towns, to increase your income and maybe your margins by obtaining a better discount? Can you harness the public concern about climate change as you market your business? And can you work together with other retailers to increase your chances of success?
Finally, a challenge to this magazine. Can it act as a forum for ideas from retailers on the ground – what are we doing that works, that will save our towns and help us beat the recession?
Gifts Today, May/June 2009
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I recently attended a talk about how to publish a book, by Kate Lock, author of Confessions of an Eco-Shopper. This may seem irrelevant to the gift trade, but there were some interesting parallels. Just as designers in the gift trade are finding it hard to attract work as the recession deepens, with many being made redundant, so are authors being shed by publishers. Many are finding it hard to get their latest work commissioned, and if you’re a new author, it’s especially difficult.
The book industry apparently has fashion trends just as do gifts. “Terrible childhoods” are now out, “uplifting personal stories” are in. “Eco” is out temporarily because too many books have been commissioned in the last couple of years; fairy and escape stories are in. What do you do if you’re an author and it takes two years to write a book?
Q. How do you keep up with trends – and is this important?
The answer for the author, says Kate, is to do what you really believe in. Follow your passion! If your heart isn’t in it, you won’t write a bestseller. This set me thinking. Is it the same as the gift industry? Many gift retailers will say it’s not. Gift retailing, they will say, consists of keeping up with the trends, giving the customers what they want.
They’re right of course – you need to know what the customer wants. But if you’re passionate about customer care and keeping up with the latest trends, that’s a passion in itself. The worst thing in retail is not to bother, not to change – to get stuck in the same old routine, without realising it.
If you’re really passionate about something, you may even start a new trend. Can you respond to something in the public eye that is not yet being catered for by current retailers? Taking risks, of course, is risky – especially in a recession! But that’s how the supermarkets, the Body Shop, and fair trade, one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK at present, started. They all started not with products but with a belief and with passion.
What’s next? I know of only two eco-shops in the UK, in London and Glasgow. I suspect there may soon be many more (will they be run by campaigners whose experience of retail is limited, or will they be started by people who know what they’re doing?) The issue of climate change is already high on the public agenda, and will become more so as the Copenhagen summit, which will replace the Kyoto protocol, approaches this autumn. Concern about global warming can only grow, and I believe sustainable, recycled and fair trade products are going to attract increasing support. Canny retailers are already taking note! If you show your customers you care, and you’re not just doing it to “greenwash” your business, you should thrive.
Gifts Today, February 2009
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Jeremy Piercy founded Shared Earth in 1986 when he opened his first shop in the centre of York. He later introduced Shared Earth’s own brand of fair trade gifts which were sold in the shop and also to wholesale customers.
Shared Earth is now the largest wholesaler and retailer of non-food fair trade products in the UK and has eight shops (York, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Liverpool, Stratford and Bristol) as well as on online shop and is a member of IFAT (International Fair Trade Association) and BAFTS (British Association for Fair Trade Shops). Shared Earth is passionately committed to fair trade principles and buys from 40 producers in 15 countries, the majority being fellow members of IFAT.
Shared Earth has recently launched a franchise opportunity for new or existing retailers to get involved. Next month Jeremy launches a book about how his business began, what it is like to be a fair trade buyer and where fair trade is going.
In this monthly feature, Jeremy will be imparting his views about retailing and revealing some of his secrets to success that you can benefit from.
Q. How do you choose fair trade gifts to stock and how do you know they actually are fairly traded as well as environmentally friendly?
Fair trade and environmental issues are closely interlinked and it’s a good idea to see what organisations, institutions or agencies a wholesaler belongs to. If you buy from an importer improved by BAFTS you can’t go far wrong.
I always try to visit overseas suppliers myself to ensure that our products are being made ethically in fair working conditions. While it is not always feasible to do so, I recommend that you know the origins of the products and make a few calls to make sure everything checks out.
Many wholesalers have an environmental policy, often published on their website. Have a look through this as it will give details of their company standards and code of practice and you can see if this matches with what you are looking for. Above all, do you trust them? If you think they’re just trying to “greenwash” their business with a few ethical statements or products here or there, be careful.
Environmentally friendly and recycled gifts are becoming increasingly popular amongst consumers as they want to know that the products they buy have been sourced and made ethically. They simply want to feel good about their purchase. Many experts are forecasting that recycled products will be a big trend this year. Add them to your existing stock and see how well they are received.
Price is important in a time of recession, but it’s not everything. Do you believe in your products? Are you proud of your business? With fair trade and recycled in your shop you can be even more proud. You will be following a customer trend and helping create a better world too.
I’ve just returned from an illuminating trip to Japan, where I saw sumo wrestlers on TV, travelled on the bullet train, admired the cherry blossom, and went to a Karaoke bar – wondering at the smart businessmen who took off their jackets and sang rock songs without any trace of inhibition. My girlfriend Mary, who speaks Japanese fluently, guided me through the complex railway system on a tour of the Fair Trade scene in Tokyo and Yokohama.
One person we spoke to almost exactly echoed our American visitor in York. “Fair Trade is growing fast in Japan,” he said, “but we’re still about 20 years behind you in the UK.”
And indeed, we had to visit about ten supermarket branches before we found just one Fair Trade product, a single packet of coffee. The Fairtrade mark is hardly used at all, and unrecognised by the Japanese public. A wholefood shop we visited was listed as a ‘Fair Trade outlet’ on the basis that it sold a couple of packets of Fair Trade coffee and 3 or 4 chocolate bars.
“The Japanese tradition is to care for one’s immediate family and community,” a local businessman told us. “It’s similar in China too. The Christian and Islamic values of giving to the poor and helping those who suffer, wherever they might be, is simply not a part of our culture. So the values of Fair Trade are more difficult for us to understand.”
This may explain why Fair Trade developed so much earlier in Europe, where many of the Fair Trade ‘pioneers’ were members of the churches.
However, we met some wonderfully dedicated people in Japan. I particularly admired Kanji Tsuchiya and the staff at Nepali Bazaro, one of the two IFAT members in Japan (the other being People Tree). We made an appointment at short notice but could not have been received in a more courteous and hospitable manner. Nepali Bazaro is a wholesaler which buys from over twenty producer groups in Nepal, specialising in clothes. During our visit they had two trainees from Nepal staying with them on three-month contracts, learning the techniques required to produce the clothing.
Kanji has sent all of his 24 staff to Nepal and they even learn to speak the language. “We have a meal together once a week where no Japanese is allowed!” he told us.
The other IFAT member, People Tree, also specialises in clothing. Much of it is made from organic cotton. It became clear why they receive so much attention in the media – they have four full-time staff working exclusively on PR! (most Fair Trade businesses don’t have any). Undoubtedly this has helped put Fair Trade on the map in Japan, but one wonders whether the wage bill has also contributed to People Tree’s financial problems.
Bali is often referred to as a tropical paradise. I like to think of it as the island of cats. Its economy rests on tourism and crafts – wherever you go, you see shops by the roadside selling them. And an awful lot of them seem to be cats.
Mitra Bali, based near Ubud, is one of the foremost Fair Trade organisations in Indonesia. Agung Alit, its founder, is a sort of Fair Trade ageing hippy; indeed his long hair and laid-back attitude belie his intense desire to combat rural poverty, and some people don’t treat him seriously when they meet him for the first time. His staff love him not least because he frequently gets drunk with them and shares the most outrageous stories. When Michelle, Shared Earth’s head designer and I arrived in Bali on 10 March, a workshop on finance for Mitra Bali staff and producers had just ended, run by a British consultant.
“I met him at the airport,” said Agung, “picked up his bags, you know, carried them to the car. He thought I was the driver. I didn’t contradict him, why should I? I just pointed out things to him like all good drivers do – this is Kuta, that’s the president’s palace, that sort of thing. At the hotel he thanked me and said I’d been very helpful. ‘No problem,’ I said.
“Next day I heard him talking to Rah Aji, our Assistant Director. He’s an elite kind of guy, suit and tie, you know? He nodded in my direction. ‘Who’s your driver?’ he asked. ‘He was very helpful last night. You have a good member of staff there.’ Aji looked a bit surprised. ‘That’s Agung, our founder and M.D.,’ he replied. The consultant was very embarrassed.” Agung roared with laughter.
Agung became an activist in the late 1980s, when Suharto’s top-down, centralist development policy benefited his cronies in Jakarta a lot, and those in Bali very little. In 1991 he started working with Pekerti, a Fair Trade exporter in Java. But he kept wondering if he could do a better job exporting direct from Bali himself.
Then in 1993 Shared Earth’s buyer visited him and encouraged him to set up on his own. It was a challenge. “It’s so tempting - but I don’t know if I can,” he said. “Will you place an order if I do?” The answer was yes. And the most popular product we bought was carved wooden cats.
It wasn’t long before he was taking orders from Oxfam too, and soon there were other customers in Holland and the USA. One room in his house became an office, another a packing room, the third for living and sleeping in – until his wife, now with a young son, insisted he find separate premises elsewhere. Today, Mitra Bali has a large purpose-built office/warehouse/showroom complex, and works with hundreds of different producers.
Agung embodies the attitude that Fair Trade is not just about paying fair prices – it’s also about relationships and building respect and self-reliance. He drinks coffee and jokes with producers, lends them money interest-free, and recently even started buying some of them cows when orders were short.
He’s also passionate about the environment. Shared Earth has always been keen on using Albesia wood for its products – a softwood which grows to maturity in only 7-10 years – and in 1995 Agung started planting them for future use. A breakthrough came in 1994 when a woodcarver’s family got into serious debt and were about to be forced off their land. Mitra Bali paid off the debt in return for use of the land for ten years to plant trees. When they are harvested, the family will receive 70% of the income, and will have free timber to use for its carving. In the meantime, the ground in between the trees can be used for planting cassava and potatoes. The project has expanded to include 27 families, and 2,000 trees have now been planted. Planting symbolically takes place on World Fair Trade Day each May.
It’s all about trust, and working together. Mitra Bali has had a huge impact on the lives of hundreds of artisans and their families, and Shared Earth is proud to have helped Agung to get it going, and to have worked with him for so long.
More stories about Agung and Mitra Bali will be included in Jeremy’s forthcoming book, ‘Coffins, Cats and Fair Trade Sex Toys’, to be published in January 2009.
“Do you want a bag?” the sales assistant asked. But our customer was having a bad hair day.
“Compared to what,” she responded angrily.
The answer to this could have been, “compared to not having a bag (you silly old fart).” But staff at Shared Earth try to be polite, and hopefully, the customer went away satisfied.
High street stores give away 13 billion plastic bags each year in the UK. That’s 15 a week for every family. They are used, on average, for 20 minutes, and then thrown away. They litter our streets and the countryside, and are a huge danger to wildlife. Worldwide. over 1 million seabirds and 100,000 dolphins, whales and other sea animals lost their lives last year, their wings, beaks or legs caught in plastic or their digestive tracts blocked because the plastic was mistaken for food.
In Ireland, a bag tax introduced in 2002 reduced usage of plastic bags by 90%. In many other countries, measures are in place to restrict usage or ban them completely. The largest bag manufacturer in China announced last week that it was closing down its factories in response to a decision by the Chinese government to ban plastic bags from June.
On 27 February, the Daily Mail launched its heavyweight ‘Banish the Bags’ campaign. M & S responded by announcing it would charge 5p a bag. On Friday, the Prime Minister took up the cause. Retailers are to be given a year to introduce charges or be compelled to do so by law.
Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer, opposes change. It gives out 3 billion bags a year, and its voluntary scheme to reduce usage by 25% by 2008 was a flop – it reduced them by only 7%. Sainsbury’s, which uses 1.6 billion bags, is also dragging its feet. A survey of online grocery shopping last week found it was the worst offender of all, using 10 bags to pack only 30 items. Some – like a box of eggs and a packet of fish – had a bag all to themselves.
Yet 76% of shoppers support the introduction of charges or want an outright ban on plastic bags. According to Wastewatch, a levy would reduce usage by 11 billion bags each year.
What are Fair Trade shops doing? Some of us have been caught hopping. If we use plastic bags, they’re usually biodegradable, but most of us don’t charge for them. Shared Earth will introduce a charge of 10p this week. We also intend to charge for paper bags. They’re recycled, but it still takes energy to make and transport them.
Most Fair Trade shops sell jute or cotton shoppers, for instance Shared Earth’s, which have slogans like ‘I’m Not a Plastic Bag – and I’m Fairly Traded Too’ and ‘Use Me Till My Bottom Wears Out’. We are now selling one design at half price to encourage shoppers to take the responsible option.
Charging for bags could soon become the norm, which will raise substantial sums for environmental charities. Shared Earth will donate the money to a tree-planting scheme in India. The workshops where our wooden boxes are made are, of course, Fair Trade; in time, we hope the trees will be fairly managed and felled too.
Is the Daily Mail jumping on the bandwagon with its campaign against plastic bags? I say – all power to them. If it brings about change, that’s what matters.
Monday 25 February is the start of Fairtrade Fortnight – one of the highlights of the Fair Trade year. But is it Fairtrade Fortnight or Fair Trade Fortnight? And does it matter??
Fairtrade (one word) is the “mark” which now applies to over 3,000 products in the UK – a fantastic achievement. It has enabled more and more Fairtrade products to appear in the supermarkets, which in turn raises awareness of Fair Trade (two words!) in general. 52% of the public recognise the mark, and this percentage is increasing all the time.
The mark appears almost exclusively on food. Two other commodities have been recognised – cotton and flowers – and one manufactured product, footballs from Pakistan. There are two reasons for this.
First, the procedures and paperwork make obtaining Fairtrade certification a time-consuming and expensive process; one importer told me it takes the profit from two containers of coffee, for instance, for the producer to cover the cost of obtaining the mark. That’s a lot of coffee! Orders for handicrafts are usually tiny in comparison. A container holds about 100,000 keyrings, for instance, or 25,000 spectacle cases. Shared Earth places orders for less than 500 of these items. Also, fashions change quickly, so products would often go out of date before the cost of obtaining the mark can be recuperated.
But the main reason handicrafts don’t have the mark is that the certification system was set up only to deal with agricultural products. The aim was to get Fair Trade products into the mainstream – and getting food into the supermarkets was the way to do this.
What about clothing? you may ask. Doesn’t M & S have a clothing range which carries the Fairtrade logo? It does – but it only applies to the cotton, not to where and how it’s made.
This is all set to change. The two main Fair Trade bodies worldwide are IFAT (International Federation for Fair Trade, which includes buyers and sellers of both food and crafts), and FLO (Fairtrade Labelling Organisation, the umbrella organisation for labelling initiatives worldwide – the Fairtrade Foundation is its UK representative).
IFAT and FLO have started talks with the aim of creating a single mark which could apply to all products. A committee is setting up pilot projects, and by autumn, concrete proposals should be in place.
It’s not going to be easy. The system has to be credible, or businesses which are not committed to Fair Trade could take advantage of it. But it also needs to avoid complexity and bureaucracy, or small producers will not benefit from it.
Solutions to these problems will, I am sure, be found. Soon, I hope, Fair Trade will receive an excellent boost from a new mark, which will increase market access for handicraft producers, and raise awareness even further amongst consumers.
At Shared Earth, we celebrate Fair Trade Fortnight (not Fairtrade). We want all trade to be fair, not just food.
Long live Fair Trade!
The Birmingham Spring Fair, which ended on 7 February, is the UK’s largest trade show for home and giftware. It’s massive, with over 80,000 trade visitors attending. Walking round all the halls is like running a marathon.
The catalogue for the Fair included, for the first time, a section listing Fair Trade exhibitors. I was disappointed that only 9 of the 43 on the list were importers which had been accredited by BAFTS (British Association for Fair Trade Shops). And indeed, there were some who were jumping on the bandwagon. “Can you tell me about your Fair Trade policy?” I asked one exhibitor of Christmas decorations from the Far East. “Oh, I don’t think you could call us fair,” he said, adding quickly, “though we don’t buy goods made by children.” This was the perception of other exhibitors too – that Fair Trade just means avoiding child labour.
But the majority of exhibitors not recognised by BAFTS were genuine about what they were doing, and knew a lot about Fair Trade. Some had wonderful products too. There were, for instance, some fantastic ceramic pots from Indonesia, selling largely to garden centres; some beautiful jewellery from Kenya, selling to upmarket boutiques; and some cute woollen dolls from Bangladesh, selling to craft and children’s shops. All supported worthy projects and were giving excellent support to the producers and communities involved. And they were selling to the mainstream market, not just to Fair Trade shops.
Fair Trade exhibitors were still a small minority overall, but there were significantly more of them than there were just two years ago. The organisers of the show were also aware about Fair Trade and keen to promote it. A big change from two years ago when they were either suspicious or just not interested, and an excellent sign that consumer demand for Fair Trade is growing fast. This was backed up by sales at Shared Earth’s stand, which increased by over 50% on last year. Fair Trade is on a roll!
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