Nov 16, 2007 | Clients in the Media, Coconut in the Media
Shared Earth held its first ‘Discovery Day’ on Thursday 15 November, to introduce potential franchisees to Shared Earth and explain what is involved in its franchise package. Seven people attended from a variety of towns around the country and feedback was positive, with almost everyone wanting to progress to the next stage of undertaking detailed interviews and searches for specific suitable properties.
Coconut Creatives has been working with Shared Earth since September to create and manage the public relations launch of the franchise package. With very little advertising undertaken, the campaign has been hugely successful with national, regional and industry specific PR and Media interest being aparent. Since the launch of Shared Earth’s franchise scheme in October, over 70 people have expressed an interest, including two current wholesale customers who have approached Shared Earth to discuss the possibility of converting their shops into a Shared Earth franchise.
To prepare for the opening of the first franchise, Shared Earth is undertaking a major re-branding exercise in their existing 7 shops. A new green colour has been agreed for outside walls and windows, and all shop signs are to be unified, hopefully with the letters made by Fair Trade supplier Mitra Bali in Indonesia.
Nov 6, 2007 | Clients in the Media, Coconut in the Media
With 20 new Fair Trade shops planned within the next 5 years, the UK can expect to see a huge increase in the sales of non-food fairly traded products.
Jeremy Piercy has worked within the Fair Trade industry for the past 20 years. He is well known in the industry for helping talented artisans create sustainable businesses to support entire communities in the developing world. When he relays his experiences, people listen with fascination about how his work of trading fairly has improved conditions for so many people in developing countries. His business has enabled him to benefit groups of individuals at the bottom of society. Jeremy talks fondly of his far reached friends and the passion, enthusiasm and kindness that they wrap into their livelihood.
Despite a difficult retail climate in the UK in recent years, Shared Earth’s 7 shops operate successfully. Three of these shops have opened within the last 3 years with sales and profit substantially increasing. With average sales from a Fair Trade shop being around £75,000 per annum, Jeremy’s Shared Earth shops generate an average of £300,000. His business alone is capable of doubling Fair Trade sales in the UK over the next five years with his growth plans through franchising the business model.
While most growth within the Fair Trade sector in the last 5 years has been focused on food, largely due to the supermarket chains, non-food products have yet to reach their full potential. Jeremy feels strongly that now is the time to capitalise on the opportunities to provide an array of fairly traded non-food products to customers who are hungry for ethical products. Shared Earth has become the most professional Fair Trade retailer in the UK which puts them in an excellent position to benefit producers. Whilst most other Fair Trade shops are run by volunteers Shared Earth employs a professional team to maximise the benefit to producers and enrich the lives of so many more people in developing countries.
“We have always aimed to address the imbalance of wealth, working together with people from different cultures while earning a decent living and, because we make good profits, we are able to offer our suppliers a good and fair price for their products,” explains Jeremy.
Shared Earth regularly travels with staff and designers to visit its overseas producers in countries like India and Nepal. Being specialists in recycled products, Shared Earth have established distribution channels which are heavily geared towards creating a sustainable and environmentally aware business culture. Being at the forefront of policy development in the Fair Trade movement has always been important, for instance the decision to travel by train rather than by car or air was taken. For example journeys within India which are less than 2,000 miles are made by train.
The products begin their creation with customer research that Shared Earth’s dedicated design team of three full time people undertake. This shows Shared Earth’s commitment to design and new product development. This knowledge is later transferred into designs for the artisans in developing countries so that they can work with Shared Earth to hand make products that UK consumers really want to buy. This process ensures that sales are kept high and Shared Earth can provide year round orders to suppliers, which in turn support whole families and communities. The product ranges include; unique jewellery, a whole host of fashion accessories, wood, ceramics, paper, soapstone and products for children.
With his first book being written at the moment, Jeremy endeavours to capture the wonderful experience that Fair Trade provides for all of its participants. Other books on Fair Trade are available, but this will be the first one written from someone actually trading, as opposed to a journalist, academic or campaigner.
Shared Earth link the customer with product origins through an enchanting retail environment with a vibrant atmosphere and colourful graphics. This gives them a sense of what their purchase means to the artisans who hand make the delights displayed. As well as 7 shops within the UK, a selection of Shared Earth’s products can be found online at www.sharedearth.co.uk.
Jeremy has been delighted at the huge initial response to the publicity about the franchise opportunity. The franchise has attracted national press interest from newspapers such as the Daily Mail and the Daily Express. Many individuals across the country have displayed an interest to come to Shared Earth’s orientation day at their York office, which is being planned for mid November to give people a deeper insight into what is involved.
“We are looking for individuals with the right qualities who want to own an ethical, profitable business. We are only looking for a small number of franchisees initially so that they receive an excellent level of care,” adds Jeremy.
Nov 6, 2007 | Clients in the Media, Coconut in the Media
Recently, Jeremy Piercy founder of Shared Earth decided to offer his business as a franchise package. In this article he explains why Fair Trade is so important and why consumers everywhere are making the choice more and more often to buy Fair Trade Products.
Fair Trade is a way of making sure that the goods we buy have a positive effect on the world around us. The main aim of multinational companies is to maximise profit, and generally in the past they haven’t been too concerned about how they make it. There are still millions of children in the world who work long hours in sweatshops, and millions of people working in unsafe, unhygienic conditions to earn a wage which is insufficient to feed their families.
In Britain, laws were passed in the 19th century to make slavery, child labour and other abhorrent practices illegal. Large companies have realised they can transfer production to countries where such laws don’t exist, or where local officials can be bribed to ignore malpractice. Multinationals have enormous power – often more power than the governments of the countries they buy from. All we see is the colourful goods in our shops. How they’re made is hidden away, often on the other side of the world.
The Fair Trade movement is making the multinationals sit up and take notice! Millions of people are realising that there is more to life than just money and material possessions. They are starting to care about where the products they buy come from, whether people are being exploited in the process and whether they’re damaging the environment unnecessarily. Consumers are saying, “We have power too!”
Fair Trade ensures that producers are paid reasonable prices for their work; child labour is avoided; working conditions are decent and sustainable materials are used wherever possible. Fair Trade companies also pay sufficiently upfront on their orders so as to ensure that producers don’t end up in the hands of unscrupulous moneylenders. This often happens because the producers just cannot afford to buy the raw materials for production, or the seeds to plant the next year’s crops.
Fair Trade tries to help those at the bottom of society, those who are least well off – such as the disabled. It also tries to support communities, not just individuals, by refusing to bargain producers down to the lowest price. Fair Trade companies often enable enough profit to be made to pay for wells (fresh water), schools or the development of other community projects.
Sales of Fair Trade products are increasing substantially in all areas. And the reason for this? It has nothing to do with price. It’s simply that people like to feel they’re making the world a better place.
Written by Jeremy Piercy, Fair Trade pioneer and founder of Shared Earth.
For more information on Shared Earth go to http://ishouldcoco.wpengine.com/portfolio/ to read the case study or visit www.sharedearth.co.uk
Oct 26, 2007 | Coconut in the Media
Vicki Cunningham editor of Franchisor News recently invited Sarah Dyer, Marketing Specialist from Coconut Creatives Ltd to write a regular marketing feature within the Franchisor News magazine.
“I’m thrilled to be writing for the magazine,” says Sarah. “There are so many elements to marketing and franchised businesses can generate so much benefit from employing just a few of the tools that I will be explaining through the features.”
The magazine is full of franchisor examples and news from the industry. Vicki has ensured that the tone is light and the text large so that it is an easy yet informative read.
Watch out for the next quarterly addition which goes to print later this month and is available from the beginning of December. For more information about the magazine go to www.franchisornews.co.uk
Oct 19, 2007 | Clients in the Media, Coconut in the Media
Recently launched natural toiletry company BABY Beautiful has established exclusive distribution with www.greenerliving.co.uk so that they can offer their products to a wider audience thanks to their marketing house, Coconut Creatives Ltd.
After last months launch at the BBC’s Well Being Fair, BABY Beautiful attracted a great deal of interest and support from members of the BBC. After the launch Sarah Dyer from Coconut Creatives set up a meeting with online green product giant, Greener Living to discuss stocking the products in their Portsmouth based shops and online through their popular website.
Ms Sangar, BABY Beautiful’s c0-founder is looking forward to getting the products on the Greener Living website at the end of this week. “It’s been almost 2 years since we decided to form BABY Beautiful and it is wonderful that the products are finally ready to be launched onto the market,” explains Ms Sangar who has been working on the product lines from her London base since early 2006.
Ms Sangar employed the assistance of Coconut Creatives to help them take the products to market and establish good affiliations with key organisations. “Coconut Creatives has certainly done their job. We are delighted to have established exclusive distribution and with a great and creative marketing strategy in place for 2008 we have high hopes for our natural products,” explains Ms Sangar.
The products which include a hair and body shampoo named Hair and Body Blossom, a thick moisturising cream and an oil are available in a variety of natural scents including orange and tangerine, lavender, rose Geranium and absolutely nothing. The different scents are made from natural essential oils which complement different people’s personality types!
“We’ve found that individuals are either a lavender person or an orange person,” says Sarah from Coconut Creatives. “It is funny to watch which scents people are drawn to. I especially like the orange and tangerine while Ms Sangar is definitely a rose geranium person!”
The products went live on Friday 19th October in time for the build up to the Christmas holidays.
Oct 17, 2007 | Coconut in the Media
Marketing specialists, Coconut Creatives Ltd. expand this month with the introduction of PR guru Sally Butters to their growing team. Sally comes over from BournemouthUniversitywhere she is currently a Marketing Manager and manages the Higher Education marketing strategy of their six partner colleges and The School of Conservation Sciences.
“I’m excited to be working with the Coconut team and get back to my PR roots. I am particularly eager to work with their clients who have so much newsworthy potential,” says Sally.
Coconut Creatives offers a total marketing solution for independently owned businesses and businesses specifically within the franchise sector. Services range from copy writing and branding to event management and online, as well as their core offering helping with strategic business planning and getting stuck in with the tactical marketing activities. And of course now an additional PR specialist!
Sarah Cook, founder of Coconut Creatives, is pleased to welcome Sally commenting,
“We already have clients earmarked for her when she joins us later this month and we are excited about the additional skills that she brings from her background in media relations”.
Sarah is an active member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and with Sally as a member of the Chartered Institute of PR, this has added to the Coconut mix.
With the growth of the business comes a new exciting website coconutcreatives.co.uk building on the previous design which was so popular.
