Bag-swapping success and your chance to win £50!
March 9th, 2010
We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who sent in ten carrier bags to claim their free Myakka fair trade jute bag and supported fair trade fortnight.
We have been truly overwhelmed with more than 550 people sending in over 5,500 carrier bags. We’re in the process of sending out hundreds of fair trade jute bags in return so if you haven’t received your jute bag yet please be patient it should be with you shortly! Please do make sure you register your swap on the online ‘swap-o-metre’ to help reach the nationwide target of one million and one swaps – click here to visit the Fair Trade Foundation website.
Because of the success of our Big Bag Swap and all those lovely Myakka bags in use around the country, our customer service expert Heather had an excellent idea… to ask you to submit a picture of yourself with your Myakka bag in the most exciting / exotic / unusual / interesting place possible.
We’d love to see all the good uses that our bags are put to, so please use your imagination and take a picture of yourself (or ask a nice person to take it for you) with your Myakka jute bag and send it competition@myakka.co.uk. Our trusty dog Floe has a very artistic eye and will select a winner each month who will receive a £50 Myakka voucher to spend as they choose on our great selection of fair trade Sheesham & Acacia furniture, home accessories and giftware. We will post the winning picture (along with any close contenders) on our blog each month for everyone to see – the first judging session will be on 31st March so get snapping!
Tags: carrier bags, ethical business, Fair trade fortnight, fair trade foundation, fair trade swaps, jute bags, Myakka, recycling, The Big Swap
Posted in Fair Trade, News & Press | View Comments
India Visit – new furniture lines for Autumn 2010 and our next SKSN donation
March 3rd, 2010
Simon has just returned from India this week where he was visiting our suppliers and SKSN School. The main purpose of this trip was to work the next batch of new designs for Sheesham furniture which is due for release in the UK in September 2010, as well as to see the latest developments at SKSN School and pledge our next donation for this year.
This was the first visit of 2010 after our two successful visits in 2009. These regular trips help us to sustain our excellent relationship with our suppliers as well as oversee the development of our new lines. We also use the visits to monitor production techniques for our hard wood furniture, visit sub contractors premises and improve quality control measures. Simon was also lucky enough to lend a hand in loading one of our latest furniture shipments being prepared to leave the factory!
During the visit to SKSN School, we pledged our next donation of £5,700, which will help cover the cost of shoes and socks for all pupils, toiletries, six months medical supplies and 10 days food supplies. Our continued involvement with the school started in 2008 and is two-fold, offering direct donations from our company profits and also working to set up long-term trade links to provide a future earning capacity for the children of SKSN. Follow this link to see our new Kota Cushions – just one of the great ranges of cushions in production at the vocational training centre at SKSN School.
It wasn’t all hard work though and Simon was lucky enough to be in Jodhpur to celebrate Holi, the festival of colour, with the SKSN crowd who got him well and truly decorated…we’re not sure how quickly that pink paint is going to wash off!
To hear about the arrival of our great new lines and get more of the latest news and promotions, please register for the Myakka newsletter on our homepage – click here to sign up.
Tags: Fair Trade, Hard Wood Furniture, Holi, new lines, Sheesham Furniture, SKSN school
Posted in Exceptional Furniture, Fair Trade, News & Press | View Comments
Exciting NEW Lines for 2010
February 18th, 2010
We are particularly excited about our brand new Spring 2010 Catalogue which will be released on 1st March and features some fantastic new furniture lines. The culmination of six month’s hard work, we’ve developed our ranges so they are even more appealing and purposeful to our discerning British customers. Here are just a few of our favourites that we hope you’ll love:
As with the rest of our hardwood furniture collections, these new pieces have been designed specifically for the British market and produced in India following fair trade principles. Marrying computer controlled machinery with traditional carving techniques ensures both character and consistent quality. This combined with the beauty of Indian hardwoods results in great value & great looking pieces of furniture. A particularly exciting new range extends the appeal of our popular Thakat Elephant Cupboard, which has now been joined by the Elephant Bookcase, the Elephant Small Cabinet and the Elephant Blanket Box (we had to restrain ourselves from calling it a ‘trunk’!).
If you’re not already on our mailing list and would like to request a copy of our latest catalogue just follow this link and submit your details. Alternatively, all these great new products are just a click away – visit the Myakka website for a sneak preview.
Tags: blanket box, bookcase, elephant cupboard, Fair Trade, Myakka, new catalogue, new lines, Sheesham, small cabinet, thakat, trunk, wood furniture
Posted in Exceptional Furniture, News & Press | View Comments
Myakka have Fair Trade Fortnight in the Bag!
February 15th, 2010
We’re once again supporting Fair Trade Fortnight, an annual event co-ordinated by the Fair Trade Foundation. Running between 22nd February and 7th March this year’s Fair Trade Fortnight centres on a campaign called ‘The Big Swap’.
Myakka are supporting the Fair Trade Foundation’s big swap by encouraging customer’s to swap their plastic carrier bags for reusable, fair trade jute shopping bags. For every ten plastic bags sent in, we will send customers a brand new, hard-wearing jute shopper completely free of charge. All the plastic bags collected will be sent for recycling.
“It’s not quite as easy to swap your furniture for a fair trade option as it is your tea, coffee or chocolate but we wanted to show support for this increasingly important annual event co-ordinated by the Fair Trade Foundation and came up with the ‘big bag swap’ as a way of taking part,” commented Simon, director of Myakka.
To claim your FREE jute shopper, simply send ten carrier bags with a return address to:
Myakka Ltd, Tythings Commercial Centre, Wincanton, Somerset, BA9 9EQ
You will then be sent a reusable, fair trade jute bag completely free of charge – we would just ask that you register your swap with the Fair Trade Foundation’s online “swap-o-meter” at http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/thebigswap. This year’s ‘Big Swap’ is aiming to generate over one million and one swaps over the two week period and change the lives of millions of suppliers around the World.
Last year, Myakka’s team were part of the record breaking fair trade banana eating campaign which took place between 6th and 7th March 2009. Over 380,000 campaigners each ate a fair trade banana during the 24 hour period, smashing the previous record.
Georgie concluded, “Most people associate the fair trade label with tea, coffee and chocolate production. There are many more items produced following fair trade principles which help to offer the people involved what we in the UK take for granted. Fair Trade Fortnight and ‘The Big Swap’ campaign is a great opportunity to raise awareness of this.”
Tags: ethical business, Fair trade fortnight, jute bags, Myakka, recycling, swaps, The Big Swap
Posted in Fair Trade, News & Press | 52 Comments
SKSN School featured in Channel 4 documentary
February 5th, 2010
SKSN School is featured in one of the latest episodes of channel 4’s Bodyshock series, “The Girl with Eight Limbs Grows Up”. Lakshmi Tatma was born with a conjoined twin, attached at the front of her hip, giving her the appearance of eight limbs. Immediately she was worshiped by her parents and village as the Hindu Goddess Lakshmi, the eight limbed goddess of wealth and prosperity. She is now happy and flourishing at SKSN School after having endured an 18 hour operation to remove her half formed twin. Since her operation last year, Lakshmi and her family have received care at SKSN School where her father works in the school kitchen with Lakshmi and her older brother attending school. This is a rare opportunity to see the great work of SKSN School, but hurry the documentary is only available on channel 4OD until the end of February http://www.channel4.com/programmes/bodyshock/episode-guide/series-19/episode-1.
Over the past 3 years Myakka has been supporting the SKSN School in Rajasthan through financial donations, provision of equipment and development of the School’s vocational training centre. The school is home to 550 physically challenged children and around 50 fully able students. This programme gives everyone involved with Myakka a chance to see the exciting work that SKSN does and the benefit they have within the community and wider area.
To read more about the fantastic work at SKSN or make a donation directly to the school, please visit www.sksn.org.
For more information on how Myakka has worked with the SKSN Schoool please see previous blogs entries Myakka provides new desks for SKSN students and Indian Supplier Visit: SKSN update.
Tags: Channel 4 BodyShock series, Fair Trade, Lakshmi Tatma, Myakka, SKSN school
Posted in Behind the scenes, News & Press | View Comments
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