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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!

 

Township Trades Photos 213Township Trades Photos 204

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.


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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.

 
 
 
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