BAFTS – The British Association for Fair Trade Shops and Suppliers

 

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BAFTS stands for the British Association for Fair Trade Shops and Suppliers. Originally, it was set up in 1995 by Aileen Garden, then Manageress of Gateway World Shop, Durham, to be the voice of fair trade retailing in the UK. We provided a membership organisation mainly for handicrafts’ shops selling fairly-traded goods, to share information, experience, and mutual support.

After a name change, we now incorporate organisations which sell fairly-traded goods, whether on a wholesale or retail basis. We currently have 132 members in all four countries of the UK, including the Isle of Man and Isle of Wight. They supply or sell goods from 28 different developing countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America.  Our members are committed to working to bring about changes in the status of developing world producers through fair trade retailing and campaigning. Together, we provide a community for fair trade shops and suppliers, sharing ideas and best practices. With ever-increasing membership enquiries as our profile is raised, we anticipate some growth in our numbers throughout 2015.

BAFTS is run by a voluntary Board of five members (certain roles attract an Honorarium) and a part-time Marketing and Membership Coordinator. Our income comes from membership subscriptions and our outlay covers the costs of employment, travel to necessary meetings and Trade Fairs, essential overheads, campaign materials and our Annual Conference.

We are proud to be recognised as a national fair trade network by the WFTO. As members of WFTO (International) and WFTO Europe, we adhere to their 10 Principles of Fair Trade and work to support their aims. We are an organisation whose members share our aims and commit to the 10 Principles. We annually require members to be transparent about their supply chain. Our organisation is bound by a Code of Conduct and Compliance Procedure which every member signs up to when their application is approved by us. This Code ensures that the principle of fairness also extends between our members.

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Our Annual Conference and AGM are held in late May (the image left shows the Chair of BAFTS addressing members at our Annual Conference in Reading in 2014) with the venue changing location each year, so that as many of our members as possible have the opportunity to attend. They also organise informal Regional meetings and events from time to time. Many BAFTS members have links with Fairtrade Towns’ as well as Fairtrade Nation campaigns in Wales and Scotland.

In the coming months we are thrilled to be holding a Panel Discussion at Spring Fair at the NEC Birmingham about Successful Fair Trade retailing, and sorting the finer details for our Annual Conference. We are also working with a large media company to help raise awareness of the nationwide 2015 Fairtrade Campaign launching in February.

 

Name: BAFTS
Head Office: Selby, United Kingdom
Year of foundation: 1995
Website: www.bafts.org.uk

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