History

The Fair Traders Co-operative was registered in June 2009 as an initiative by some members of the Holme Valley Fairtrade Support Group.

Firm supporters of Fairtrade we wanted to obtain a greater proportion of our weekly purchases of other products from 'ethical' suppliers who could tell us where their product came from and what impact it had on people and the environment.

The founder members

Elisabeth Bounds is diocese Fairtrade representative for St. David's Church, Holmbridge and a Traidcraft Fair Trader. A trained teacher, she cares for two young children with her husband Andrew. She has lived and worked in Central America, Czech Republic and Belgium where she was involved with the 'Stop the Traffik' campaign. She is a member of the Holme Valley Fairtrade Support Group.

Helen Robinson is a trained teacher, caring for 3 young children, who has worked as a biology and chemistry teacher for VSO in Kenya. She is secretary of the Holme Valley Fairtrade Support Group.

Mark Lewis (Secretary) is a chemical engineer with experience in Marketing and Logistics with ICI and 20 years in the textile industry, becoming MD of Shiloh PLC. As a management consultant, he has developed processes for fair textile supply chains with Twin and Oxfam GB. He is Chairman of Wooldale Cooperative Society, a member of the Holme Valley Fairtrade Support Group, and is supporting sustainable farming and eco tourism in Malawi.

Peter Beetlestone (Treasurer) is a retired comprehensive school headteacher, Treasurer of the Holme Valley Fairtrade Support Group, a member of the Kirklees Fairtrade Steering Group, and Convener of the West Yorkshire Methodist Fairtrade Group.

Stephen Sheard (Chairman) founded Rowan Yarns and became Group Creative Director of Coats Crafts before his retirement in 2008. He is a member of the Holme Valley Fairtrade Support Group.

Confused by a mass of standards, labels, etc we adopted a simple, consistent, approach to assessing the products that took advantage of modern technology to try and overcome some of the difficulties inherent in auditing suppliers. Raising money for such a project in the midst of the financial crisis presented a challenge, but we knew that local people and other Fairtrade suporters supported the idea of a fair trade shop run along these lines; so we adopted the co-operative model.

The share offer was launched on 30th November 2009 and we were able to announce that we had raised sufficient funds to go ahead on February 1st 2010.

The shop opened for business on 12th June 2010, and the eCommerce site launched at the beginning of September 2010.