Fairtrade Fortnight Press Release - 22 February 2010
Visionary Soap and Township Trades Team Up to Produce Fairtrade Certified Soap
Visionary Soap Company is very proud to announce  that we have received official approval from the 
Fairtrade Foundation to add Township Trades to our supply chain for our Fairtrade certified cosmetic 
products, starting with our organic range of soaps!  We see this as an incredibly groundbreaking achievement 
within our industry and for the past year we have been really pushing to make this happen.  Being a 100% fair 
trade-dedicated company, the 'vision' for us has always been to take fair trade into the manufacturing arena and 
create further jobs and training opportunities for our suppliers. 
                        										   		 
Township Trades is a not for profit community enterprise serving Khayelitsha township, in South Africa.  Their mission to 
is lift young adults out of poverty by providing them with real jobs and business skills to become independent through trade.  
Township Trades boasts the largest handmade soap production facility in southern Africa and aside from producing their
own range of award-winning soaps, will now increasingly be producing Visionary Soap Company's Fairtrade certified
soaps.
											
We have been telling the story of our relationship with Township Trades for nearly two years now.  There have been many ups 
and downs, of course, and grassroots development, along with the increased demands of producing a handcrafted item en 
masse (and with various Fairtrade ingredients involved), is a huge enough challenge.  Combine that with the task of having our 
products appeal commercially in the highly competitive cosmetics industry, achieving economies of scale as a small but rapidly growing 
company, constantly having to adapt to the needs and demands of our ever growing customer base AND simultaneously working 
tirelessly to get the word out about what we are trying to achieve and how that makes us different...Well, you can probably imagine 
that it can feel quite daunting  at times!   We have worked very hard to establish our partnership with Township Trades, just as 
we have with all of our other fair trade suppliers, and this has been one of the the biggest challenges that we would have ever 
imagined to experience on both a personal and company level.   We take great pride in being able to share this with our customers!
  
Press Relase - 12 November 2009
Visionary Soap Founder to Present Fair Trade Case Study at Sustainable Cosmetics Summit
Monica Norley, founder of Visionary Soap Company, will be speaking 
at the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit (16th – 17th November 2009) in 
Frankfurt, Germany. The company has become a leading Fairtrade certified 
soap and body care company, with all of its products now carrying the Fairtrade 
Mark. A range of Fairtrade certified ingredients in the finished products are 
sourced from producers in Palestine, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Sri Lanka, Nicaragua, 
The Dominican Republic and South Africa.


Monica started Visionary Soap Company as a dedicated fair trade enterprise 
in 2005. Her vision has always been for the company to take Fairtrade one 
step further through its manufacturing processes and has therefore been the 
driving force behind establishing a fair trade partnership with an inspiring 
social enterprise in South Africa, called Township Trades. 


Monica will present a Fairtrade Case Study of Visionary Soap Company and 
discuss the potential to use Fairtrade ingredients in Visionary’s products, what 
ingredients and what sources, the opportunities and challenges and will review 
the impact of using certified ingredients in Visionary products on third world producers.

To learn more about the summit, visit http://www.sustainablecosmeticssummit.com/. 
To learn more about Fairtrade Beauty, visit www.fairtrade.org.uk/beauty.                                                                               
Recent Media/Articles/Newsletters
Ethics Girls Fairtrade Office Christmas Party Article
Ethics Girls - From Bedroom to Big Time
Ethical Consumer
Natural Products Online
Green My Style
Ethics Girls - First Fairtrade Marked Beauty Products
All Voices
TriodosNews - Spring 2009
October 2009 Newsletter
November 2009 Newsletter
December 2009 Newsletter
   
Other News
We are thrilled to announce a fair trade partnership with a very inspiring
social enterprise in South Africa called TownshipTrades.  All of the 
participant trainees in this enterprise have had their lives impacted in 
some way by HIV/AIDS and unemployment levels are at a staggering 70% 
in Khayelitsha township.  By working with Township Trades, we hope to 
make an immediate positive impact for this group and help them develop as 
well as have them help us with our soap making!  We are currently in the process 
of helping the group get FLO Certification which will then allow them to be 
in our supply chain as our primary soap manufacturer. Please take the time 
to watch the 6 minute video in the left sidebar.