media whoever wants to express a voice regarding health,
transport, security, education and the environment will be
able to do so, gathering the right information, make up their
minds and expressing their desires.
How did you go about identifying the market for the
project?
Well, again, no thorough business planning but we
developed a strong capacity to respond to market
opportunities.
At ?rst we could only produce simple bags, a hessian
shopper. I thought, well, where can I sell this bag... I
approached Mrs Ackerman at Pick 'n Pay and she opened
the door of the stores for us. This year we will produce more
than 150,000 bags to be sold in more than 300 stores
nationwide.
2006: a turning point for the second business line. We were
selected to supply the 12,500 delegates' bags for the World
Diabetes Congress which was held in Cape Town. We
managed to train the women at our cooperatives to produce
the bags in a record time and today we export 50% of our
production and all together the cooperatives are capable of
producing more than 10,000 units a month.
But in the back of my mind, I always knew that the story
would not be complete if I could not translate into fabrics the
inner beauty, the colours, the life that I had discovered in the
townships in my early years in Khayelitsha. This was done
in 2010 when we launched our ?rst collection and today we
are exhibiting at Maison&Objet, the International Design
Trade Show in Paris.
Yes, we have come a long way.
Do you have a business support model through which
you run the project?
The business model combines the energy of multiple
entities:
The NPO mission is to support the job creation activities by
putting in place all the necessary training, ?nancing, ongoing support processes for the co-operatives to become
ef?cient and well organised.
This NPO also offers manufacturing services for other
brands that have the same ethos than us and want to
access the fair trade network of co-operatives. This is a
critical point for our future growth.
The co-operatives are autonomous, independent entities
and duly registered with the DTI. They are high quality
manufacturing units and operate within the township
network while at the same time engaging with their own
customers when they can. They are not exclusively tied to
Township.
The marketing company, Township Patterns, is in charge of
the design, marketing and sales of the township® products.
It is the missing link in many aborted projects in the country.
Thanks to the brand growth, the co-operatives get regular
orders and the whole network has become sustainable.
What would you say are the social, and consumer
bene?ts that this project will deliver?
Let's talk about the women from the co-operatives ?rst. The
main bene?t for them is to be in control of their own destiny,
to create their own jobs and to work in a professional
environment close to where they live. It is a huge bene?t:
Masizakhe
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