Apr 7, 2008 | Clients in the Media
Shared Earth fans were delighted to see a Shared Earth jute bag being used on the Gavin and Stacey show on Sunday 6th April.
It was used in a scene with the actor Alison Steadman, who plays Pam; Gavin’s neurotic Essex mum, as she entered her house with her shopping stacked into one of Shared Earth’s reusable jute bags.
“We’re delighted to see the bags being used, especially on the TV,” comments Jeremy Piercy, founder of Shared Earth.
Shared Earth campaign heavily for the reduced use of plastic bags and currently offer the reusable jute bags in a variety of colours with different slogans including ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’, ‘Use me till me bottom wears out’ and ‘Say No to Plastic Bags’. They also backed the Daily Mail’s Banish the Bag campaign last month.
“We have always aimed to address the imbalance of wealth, working together with people from different cultures,” explains Jeremy who founded Shared Earth 1986 to increase the sales of fairly traded goods.
As well as being the UK’s largest independent retailer of non-food Fair Trade products, Shared Earth offer the best selection of recycled products, including bags made from crisp packets in bangladesh, toy cars made from tin cans in Madagascar, office stationery from computer boards in the UK, wall hangings from old saris in India and jewellery from recycled glass in Chile.
A selection of these products can be viewed at www.sharedearth.co.uk.
Feb 17, 2008 | Clients in the Media
Customers to Jon Thorner’s Farm Shop were in for a surprise from Saturday 9th to 16th February as they discovered the ‘purple wall of weird’ located within the shop along with a range of tastings of delicious local produce.
Back by popular demand for its third year, Purple Love Week, Britain’s largest coordinated tasting event aimed at supporting hundreds of independent food retailers right across the country during a traditionally quieter time of year. An idea that was forumlated between Coconut Creatives director Sarah Dyer and Giles Henschel founder national food retailer Olives Et Al. This year the theme seemed to be ‘weird and wonderful’ with many other shops embarking on undressing with food or organising an independent stripper-gram to put some spice into local foods!
Jon Thorner’s ‘purple wall of weird’ included a range of items such as one of the famous purple love t-shirts, purple love postcards, a purple cowboy hat and even a purple bikini! The idea behind the wall was to display a range of purple items highlighting the purple theme. The ‘Purple’ was inspired by the Kalamata olive and the ‘love’ as it coincides with the week that Valentines celebrate!
“It’s been a great opportunity to show our support for local suppliers in order to promote West Country foods… our purple wall of weird has certainly attracted attention from customers and allowed us to think and celebrate the wealth of local foods available in this area,” said Jon Thorner.
For further information about Purple Love Week visit the website at http://www.purplelove.co.uk
Jan 25, 2008 | Clients in the Media, Coconut in the Media
The India trip 5 – 18th January 2008 was organised by Fair Trade UK based retail company Shared Earth as a buying trip and to gain images of the manufacturing process to use in their marketing materials. Sarah Dyer and Chris Cook from Coconut Creatives accompanied the group to undertake interviews and gain images for press opportunities.
During the trip the Shared Earth team visited many different suppliers in Delhi, Agra, Saharanpur and Kolkatta. These suppliers are working with hundreds of Indian producers to offer fairly traded products world-wide.
The Shared Earth and Coconut Creatives team were taken to a slum, orphanage, villages, cities and funded schools travelling right across India to discover the real positive impact that Fair Trade is making on the workers and their family’s lives.
What we discovered…
Fair Trade projects have been set up by the Indian suppliers throughout India to give back to the community. Details of many of these projects can be found on www.sharedearthnewsandmedia.co.uk. A sample can be found below:
1. A school slum which provides funded education for 60 children from 400 families living in Delhi
2. A funded orphanage which cares for and educates former child workers, child prostitutes and abandoned children from the Delhi region
3. An E-Academy to teach children necessary computer skills in Kolkatta
4. A self sufficient project for deaf and dumb adults giving them a fair chance to work making handicrafts which are sold internationally
5. Many, many workshops that provide consistent employment, fair wages, pensions, healthcare schemes and safer working conditions for master craftsmen and workers throughout India
Dec 12, 2007 | Clients in the Media, Coconut in the Media
A trip to visit some of the poorest parts of India has been planned to expose the truth behind Fair Trade between 5 – 18th January 08. Coconut Creatives Directors Sarah Dyer and Christopher Cook will be accompanying Jeremy Piercy and a small team of his staff to New Delhi, India to see what impact Shared Earth’s Fair Trade work has had on developing areas.
On our return the full story will be featured in national, regional and green/ethical magazines.
Key Story Features include:
· True Stories; from children who were reduced to selling their bodies at train stations
· Fair Trade survey – what people in the UK understand about Fair Trade
· Facts & figures from the International Fair Trade Association
· Indian Artisan Interviews; life before Fair Trade and how it has changed them
Follow the India Trip Live!
To follow the India trip live visit the Shared Earth blog site through www.sharedearthnewsandmedia.co.uk. Gain access to daily interviews, images and quotes.
To receive a full report pre & post India trip please email sarah@coconutcreatives.co.uk or call 01963 31030 for further information.
Why is this trip so important?
Because we are reporting back on the positive impact Fair Trade has had on the lives of so many people world-wide. Examples of what we will be reporting on are:
1. Reducing Begging & Prostitution of Children
There is an orphanage for street children near New Delhi, where women from local villages come in to make bags and other products to fund the orphanage. Recently, 3 of those children, who had formerly just begged and sold their bodies on railway stations, had grown to the age of 18 and were confidently in charge of 3 of the craft workshops. “It was a real joy to see them looking so happy and fulfilling such responsible roles,” expresses Jeremy, Fair Trade campaigner and founder of national retail organisation Shared Earth.
2. Fair Trade Philosophy
Jeremy would like to see a change in our society away from its materialistic attitudes to life, “I’d like people, especially young people, to understand that it’s what you do and the way you work that matters, not just how much you earn. If people actually started to realise that caring about other people makes YOU more happy, as well as those other people, then attitudes might change and society could only be the better for it.”
Watch this space!
Dec 10, 2007 | Clients in the Media
Last month Tidy Thames Refuse Services attended the Thames Gateway Business Awards 2007 as a finalist for the Environmental Business of the Year. Since the company began in 1983 Chris Livett has picked up numerous awards for innovation and achievement, including winning the prestigious Queen Mother’s Birthday Awards twice.
The latest award was a result of the success of the ‘Recycling by Water’ initiative which not only reduces participating customer’s impact on the environment but also reduces their waste bills.
Chris commented “Following market research in 2005 a ‘Recycling by Water’ initiative was developed to offer customers an economically and environmentally positive solution to their waste disposal requirements. This has proved very effective and allowed us to reduce waste to landfill from our participating customers by approximately 50%.”
There have been many other positive environmental, social and economic benefits as a result of the Recycling by Water service to both the river Thames and London:
- Reduced lorry traffic on London’s busy roads
- Reduced pollution by moving larger quantities of waste in each trip
- Reprocessing of materials previously sent to landfill
- Innovation as this is the first service of it’s kind in the UK
- Increased awareness of environmentally responsible business operation
- Reduced waste disposal bills
The next stage is to develop the service further increasing the amount of waste that is recycled and reducing the amount that goes to landfill. Chris commented, “We are actually able to reduce our customer’s annual bills, against the ever increasing costs of fuel, tax and inflation. With landfill tax continuing to rise at such a huge rate we simply cannot continue to simply throw refuse away. All our customers need to recycle, those that are not are throwing money away!”
Nov 22, 2007 | Clients in the Media
Peter Hands and his wife Deborah Mackin have been working together for 12 years. Although it has its ups and downs, they wouldn’t swap it for the world. According to them, there are a few key rules to abide by to keep the peace at home!
Find or create a business that you both love
Based in Yorkshire, the couple own four high street boutiques called The Wharf which reflect Deborah’s 20 years of experience in the industry. Coconut Creatives has been working with The Wharf for about 3 months now on the launch of their franchise package.
The stores themselves display contemporary silver jewellery with home and fashion accessories that Deborah chooses from world-wide suppliers.
Take ownership of your business role
With Deborah being an expert buyer and maximising shop floor performance, Peter is just as adept in his field where he has developed a computer software package to manage stock and product ranges so that they suit the demographic of customers in the different boutiques.
Look for new challenges that you both can get enthusiastic about
It was partly this software that led them into franchising their business in September 2007 because they had something really unique to offer new franchisees. “We decided to look into franchising because we knew we could utilise our skills, software and our brand for the benefit of all involved,” says Peter.
How Franchising has brought them closer together
Franchising was new to Peter and Deborah so they employed professionals to assist them to prepare their business package. “The main benefit to people coming into our business is that the package is water tight. We invested carefully to ensure that the offer was correct. We ensured that the key information that makes it successful was packaged up appropriately through our operations manual and training programme and then offered to the franchisee,” explains Peter.
The benefits of investing in a franchised business
The best bit about choosing a franchised business is that you don’t have to come up with a new business idea yourself. Through the 12 years that Peter and Deborah have established The Wharf they have tested and trialled different products and service elements to form a profitable business model. This gives individuals buying into the business the benefits of belonging to a larger company with established suppliers, trends and a national advertising and marketing campaign.
With a backing like this, it would seem ludicrous to set up a business alone at a similar expense but with none of the training, established suppliers and years of experience close to hand.
Work with other people too
“I’m especially looking forward to working with like-minded people and hopefully we might even get to work with another couple too. We have all the systems and capabilities in place to welcome new people into this business so that they can grow and share in its success,” adds Deborah.
The Wharf also has an online shop at www.thewharfdirect.com which gives the viewer a good indication of the unusual silver jewellery and delights that can be found in-store.
Overall, working with your partner can bring about many benefits. Not only will you have endless topics to chat about over an evening meal, you’ll both be focused on the same goals which help keep you on the same wavelength and enjoying life together.
