We all have good days and bad days. One day, our IT guru Andrea came into work and was asked to take part in a photo shoot to show what her job is really like...
Another day, Richard, Adam and Jon got to embrace another slightly well known entrepreneur called Richard Branson at an awards do.
And today I got to write a blog about us winning the Microsoft award for 'Best use of Technology', as part of the Fast Track 100 awards. This year, innocent hit the top 100 companies again for the fourth year in a row. This means we are only 365 days away from maybe being the only company to hit the list five years running. And on that day, who knows what will have happened in the office? The suspense is definitely palpable.
Here's a very quick run down of some of the great music acts we've booked for our village fete so far (and a nice picture of a duck listening to music)...
It's time to dust off the bunting and straw hats again and start getting ready for the innocent village fete 2008. We've booked up our same little corner of Regent's Park, London, for the weekend of Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd of August this summer. The innocent village fete is back.
And so are our friends from last year, the brasstastic Faireys Band (we had to have them back after this)
and the marvelous Earl Okin.
Amongst many, many other musical and fete like highlights. Watch this space as they say.
Tickets are now available here, £7.50 for adults and £3.50 for kids (plus a £1.50 adult booking fee and £1 kids booking fee). Under 3s can come along for free. Both days sold out last year, so don't hang about, get yours sharpish.
From seeing the great work the Microloan Foundation are doing to working with fledgling businesses and spending time with the warm, friendly Malawian people, it's been an incredible experience and I'm really grateful to have had this opportunity.
I spent my last few days visiting some newly established groups in Southern Malawi where the Microloan Foundation have recently set up new offices. It was good to compare this to the other groups I'd visited who have already been through more than one loan cycle.
The new groups had smaller businesses and were less diversified which is quite natural when you have less money to invest. What was constant in both new and established groups was the desire to earn a better living either for themselves and their families.
One business involved selling small quantities of beans, maize and cassava.
My favourite moments from the overall trip are far too many to list but the laughter I got from trying to dance at Chigwirizano is definitely up there.
Both from me and the ladies.
Saying all this, it's not going to stop here. After an almost teary* goodbye to Alfred, we're going to speak regularly and make sure the juice business is on track against our plan. The next important step is to get accreditation from the Malawi Bureau of Standards so I spent Saturday reading through some rather dull paperwork and compiling a list of all the actions needed to get the factory in shape.
I'll keep you updated on progress over the coming months and there'll be a short video once I've had time to do my washing and take in the last couple of weeks.
Thanks so much for reading and for all tips people sent in about eating Marmite to ward of the mozzies - it worked a treat.
Our Gav is on his travels and is sending us the odd thing of interest now and then. Here's something from Argentina:
"Meet Juan, a cartonera from Buenos Aires. He works from 8pm until 2am recycling every night. There are hundreds of these guys around the city going through rubbish bags separating the plastics from the metals from paper. Juan deals mostly in white paper as the value is higher. He gets through a whopping 80kg per day.
Some cartoneras are joined by their wives and children, and through my western eyes it's sad to see whole families rummaging around in other people's rubbish. But it's a means to an end, and helps the environment as well. And on a local level, it's invaluable to a city where recycling
isn't exactly compulsory."
Richard "Wildman" Wildman has been an innocent institution ever since he started working here (and especially after his legendary performance in the panto at our Christmas party.) So we were stunned to find out that Rich has been diagnosed with cancer (a form of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, which is a form of cancer of the lymphatic system).
In true Wildman style, he has met his illness head on. For one thing, he has created an alter ego – Chemo Man (pictured above). You can buy Chemo Man t-shirts, beer mugs and other gear right here. Rich is also blogging the ups and downs of his treatment - definitely worth a read.
It was tough to know whether this post was relevant to our blog, and tough to write about something that's very personal for Rich and his family. But Rich was up for us talking about his exploits and linking to his blog (he's up for having a few more readers), and we hope that all innocent drinkers and blog visitors join us in giving Rich plenty of support for the rest of his treatment, which he's halfway through.
I thought I'd bring some footballs over to Malawi as gifts to say thanks for having me to all the people I've met along the way.
I only had one left and as we were driving through a village, we spotted this group of kids who were playing with a ball made up from plastic bags. We gave them this one which caused loads of excitement.
They politely endured ten minutes of watching me painfully try to play and then got on with the game in hand.
All the parents of the village came out to say thank you and one of them turned out to be a lady we'd met on an irrigation project we'd visited earlier that day, which made it doubly special.
Lovely Malawian lady and me. The end of another great day.
As I've previously mentioned, the innocent foundation support other projects in Malawi. These are mainly to do with irrigation, growing and juicing and yesterday, we visited the Michembo project which is an irrigation project close to the town of Salima.
We were greeeted by the ladies involved in the project singing "Those that do not love irrigation should not follow us". Again, this is the literal translation; it sounded much better when they sang it.
Here are the ladies singing in front of their field. Harvest has just finished which is why it looks rather bare. The trees you can see are mango trees which grow really well out here and help shade the maize crop from the hot sun.
With the expert guidance of Alfred, the Microloan Foundation has set up some very simple and sustainable methods to irrigate the land. The aim of is to increase the number of crops each villager can grow, meaning they can sell on the surplus for a profit.
Many of the projects surrounding this one were from larger donors and had fancy concrete irrigation channels. Alfred's idea was much simpler. He chose to use simple, V-shaped channels, shaped from soil and to bed each one with re-usable plastic sheets. The results have been similar to the bigger, fancier irrigation systems but the cost is much lower and the sheets are much easier for the villagers to mamage and replace as concrete channels tend to degrade with the heavy rains that come each year.
The ladies are now experimenting with new crops like mustard and lettuce. This is a picture of Alfred checking out the growing saplings.
The project was another example of the excellent work the Microloan Foundation is carrying out on the ground in Malawi. I interviewed the chairlady after this visit and she said that the project was not only helping to improve the lives of everyone involved but also helping push them towards self-sustainability by February 2009.
The next step at Chigwirizano was to help push the production to even greater heights.
To do this, we set up the following agenda of what we wanted to achieve before leaving the co-op:
1. Get a brand for the product and get the ladies behind it. 2. Understand the prices in the local market and what price point matters to people. 3. Understand the costs of production (fruit, packaging, labour, fuel and distribution) 4. Come up with a business plan for the next few months and some sales targets. 5. Understand the barriers that may stop us from delivering the plan.
We actually did all of this in two days. Alfred was pretty chuffed although there is lots more to do to make sure that we get the business on track for growth. It's not huge volumes compared to innocent but it's big news here and that’s all that matters.
My favourite session was the brand decision. On Monday night, we asked each person in the group to think of a name that embodied the drinks we were making. Then on Tuesday afternoon, we chose our favourite - "Muli Madyo" which means "Full of Energy and Richness" *. Then, I gave out some paper and asked everyone to draw how they wanted the labels to look. A few designs really stood out so we tried to bring this together into a final label.
We voted for our favourite design using stones.
And this is what we came out with.
Not bad for word art.
The next steps are to print out some labels, follow up on the actions we decided on (like branding up some bicycles and cool boxes and sourcing cheaper bottles) and to get selling.
The key learning from me in this process was making sure we went through every step very clearly so that each of the clients understood what was needed to grow their business. I guess it was quite similar to what we do at innocent, just different for a developing market and for a really local part of Malawi.
Making notes.
At the end of the day we had to say goodbye to everyone which was sad as we needed to visit more of the Microloan projects and get together with the head office team to make sure our findings were clear and well documented. We bought some bottles of juice and headed off, after a lot of fond farewells.
Happy campers. Asumani, me and Fajamadi.
Before we left, there was just enough time for some local community radio PR about the juice factory and how amazing the product is.
Brilliant. I spoke in English while Alfred was all over the Chichewa.
On Monday I spent the morning chatting to local shopkeepers about juice in the town of Kasungu. The general response was that people want healthy drinks and that most people don't know that concentrates aren't healthy for you. There are loads of South African imported concentrated juices available already so I was hoping that with a bit of market analysis, I'd have a better idea of what price we could suggest for the juice once I got to Chigwirizano.
So, Alfred and I hopped in one of the Microloan cars and headed through a game reserve/jungle to get to the lakeside town of Nkhotakota. We took a turn off the main tarmac road and arrived at the Chigwirizano Juice Co-op.
After a week of research, this was one of the main reasons I was here. Again, we were greeted with lots of singing and general happiness and, without sounding too gushing, it was a sight something everyone at innocent and all our drinkers should be pretty proud of.
After introductions, I told the ladies there all about innocent. That AGM booklet I'd nabbed before leaving has been so useful to explain to people here about what we do (you can have a look for yourself here)
Team Chigwirizano.
We then had a tour round the old juice factory and the new factory, which has been built through MicroVentures. Some of the money for this new factory was donated by the innocent foundation. MicroVentures is part of the Microloan Foundation and helps people with bigger projects or projects that require more capital to start (for example, beehives and sewing). It was really great to see something clearly tangible as a result of the funding. The new factory has a tin roof which means it’s a lot less dusty and the floors are of a much better quality of compressed concrete which makes it much easier to clean and therefore more hygienic.
The new factory is on the left. The old one will be used for material storage, change rooms and some knitting training.
The ladies had prepared a load of Bwemba and Malambe fruit for us so we walked through the process from start to finish. It was quite similar to the process I had seen before with a few minor tweaks. I'd never seen Bwemba before. Again, it is a crop that is grows in abundance in the local area. As well as the loan from MLF, the co-operative have also been trained for free in good juice making practice by a government agricultural department team. Everyone wears hair nets and aprons but with my fat head, I had to settle for this rather fetching scarf instead.
Crushing and squeezing the juice pulp from the stones. Here we are making Bwemba.
The tour made it very clear that capacity wasn't the issue to increasing the sales. They can make a lot more juice than they are currently making so we needed to come up with a few new plans for the business. Before doing that though, I shared a few of the learnings I had picked up in the last week.
One of the items that got everyone really excited was the Baobab jam I had picked up in a small refinery in Blantyre. This is made from the seeds of the Baobab and is therefore another useful side product that could be sold within the co-op. I bought a jar for my mum but everyone wanted to try it so out came the spoon and the chairman of the group dished us all out a huge clump (sorry, Mum). It was pretty funny watching everyone getting involved in the jam and lead to even more singing. You'll have to wait for the video for that.
I also picked up a few mini plastic bags from a bottle supplier I met when I was down in Blantyre. I thought might serve as an alternative to plastic bottles as bottles are expensive and not in regular supply. So, we packed juice into these bags for the first time ever and will be running a trial this week in the market to see if they take off.
Not quite the high tech filling machines we have in our factories but just as effective. Here's the juice being poured into the new bags.
Charles is the chairman of the Chigwirizano juice co-op. This is quite unusual for Microloan projects as the Foundation tends to only work with women and Charles is quite clearly a fine figure of man. He got involved in the project because his wife is in the loan group and thought he could help. Charles' story is typical of many people in Malawi. His parents couldn't afford to keep him in school so he had to leave early and work on the land.
Charles has been a great source of information and help in the business planning process and has had some brilliant ideas, especially around the cooling of the product as we have no electricty or fridges at the factory. He also has great business awareness; for example, he sorted out the PR in the next blog. He's one example of the countless other people who are touched by Microloan's work. Since Charles is not directly a loan recipient, he works on the project in his spare time, juggling this with his six kids and farming. It's been so good to meet him and share in his passion for juice as well as meeting yet another hardcore fan of flowery shirts.
It says so in Heat magazine. Our new big thickies are cooler than Gwyneth's shoes and various beards. What greater recommendation could you need?
(In case you need to know, uncool things to avoid at the moment are Rihanna's neck tattoo, bath oil, high waisted trousers and Britney's furry boots. Especially when all worn at the same time.)
We sent some drinks over to Save The Children last week, and as part of their Save The Children week, they sold them and raised £400.
Save The Children have just launched an emergency appeal in response to the Burma cyclone. They've already got 500 people on the ground and tonnes and tonnes of food and other aid being delivered. So if you feel like donating your lunch money to some people who really need it, click here.
Back in March, we were told that the government weren't going to be taking VAT off fruit juice and smoothies when Alistair Darling came out outside to wave his briefcase.
Just in case we hadn't got the message, they also said 'No' to our petition to drop this silly tax (as 22,045 of you who signed up will already know from the rather standard email No. 10, Downing Street sent last week)
Don't worry though. Like Madonna, we're not ready to chuck in the towel just yet. We've drafted a stiff letter to Mr. Darling, copying in Mr. Brown, to let them know just what we think of their response.
The lovely Alice made some delicious cupcakes from our thickies, especially for our AGM the other week.
We've had lots of requests on how to make them, so here's her recipe for the raspberry and white chocolate ones.
Raspberry and white chocolate cupcakes (makes 12 cupcakes)
Ingredients that you'll need:
100g unsalted butter 300g plain flour 2 tsp baking powder 100g caster sugar 2 large free range eggs 200ml innocent yoghurt, oats, raspberries and blueberries thickie 150g raspberries 150g white chocolate, chopped into chunks 50ml milk
1 excellent baker and a tidy kitchen.
What you need to do:
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6. Melt the butter in a saucepan and leave it to cool (or heat it up quickly in a bowl in the microwave if you're pushed for time.)
2. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and add the caster sugar and a pinch of salt.
3. Put the eggs into another bowl and beat them together.
4. Then add the thickie and mix well.
5. Next, add the eggy thickie mixture to the floury mixture and fold them together gently. Then add the melted butter and mix a bit more.
6. When the mixture starts to come together, add half the milk and fold in the raspberries and white chocolate. You might need to add some more milk. Don't overmix it though - it's meant to be a bit lumpy.
7. Divide the mixture between 12 muffin cases and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.
8. Try not to drop them on the way to the oven.
9. Do the washing up while you're waiting.
10. And when the cakes are golden on top, take them out the oven, cool on a wire rack and then find someone nice to share them with.
Some of you might know that we give 10% of our profits to good causes each year, some of you might not. Either way, we thought it was high time we gave you a quick update on where the majority of that money actually goes.
We set up the innocent foundation in 2004, to help build sustainable futures for the world's poorest people. We're now able to support 18 projects with 15 partners, mainly in countries from which we buy our fruit.
We had some updates from these projects towards the end last year, (which is part of the agreement, so everyone can be sure things are progressing properly), and we've now got them all up on the new website. Andrew D is currently out in Malawi with the Microloan Foundation and his final report will be up there soon.
He's updating us while he's there so keep an eye out for his blogs too.
On Friday we went out with Alfred and one of the loan officers, Marknevius, to the "Titikuke" group. This means "Let us Develop" in Malawian and is typical of the type of group that the Microloan Foundation works with.
We arrived in the village to lots of singing which made me feel incredibly welcome.
Here is a picture of the ladies who all took time out of their businesses to be there to meet me.
First of all we explained where I was from and all about innocent and the innocent foundation. Then, I wanted to find out all about the ladies' different businesses and how the MLF had impacted on their lives. We filmed everything (with their consent) so hopefully I'll be able to get it up on the blog when I get back.
In the mean time, here's a few examples of what some of these ladies do:
Sophlet - Runs a second hand clothes business as well as buying and selling tobacco.
Tocozani - Buys and sells fresh fish from Lake Malawi (about 100km away).
Batoma - Has a grocery shop mainly selling soap and detergent as well as other items.
Gertrude - Has a small restaurant in the middle of Kasungu.
Regine - Buys tomatoes, onions and beans in a market 90km away and sells them in Kasungu.
All of these women will be running these businesses on top of harvesting the land that will feed them and their families. The loans have helped them go into new things or develop their existing businesses which brings extra income into their families. Apart from the obvious benefits, one of the woman, Ester, mentioned how she has now been able to buy a bed rather than sleeping on the floor. Emy told us about how she has been able to buy her own plot of land to build a house for her family.
By starting their own businesses, these women have more diversified incomes which helps protect them if the harvest is bad or extra, unexpected income is needed, for say, medical expenses or funerals.
I haven't talked about it much but Malawi has a terrible HIV/AIDS problem with over 14% of the population affected. The woman also talked about how they need to support orphans that are often left behind when their parents die. When you consider these types of difficulties, along with the natural risk that a maize crop might fail on top of the extra responsibilities of running their own businesses, it is clear that these woman want to get out of the poverty trap and are doing everything they possibly can to do so.
I really felt that I could see the benefit the Microloan Foundation was having on these woman and it was brilliant to meet all of them.
At the end I was quite sad to go - it was awesome to see all these happy faces.
ted at innocent on our village fete is back like burt bacharach
lily merlin on our village fete is back like burt bacharach
Rachel on world's narrowest traffic light
ted at innocent on our village fete is back like burt bacharach
andrew w on an apology
Martin on an apology
Scott K on an apology
Caitriona on our village fete is back like burt bacharach
Caroline W on an apology