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HBN Members In The News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, December 2000
Local Company Exports "Appropriate Technology" To New Zealand
Contact:
Sandra Maine, Founder & CEO, Jennifer Kirkby
SunFeather Natural Soap Company, Inc.
1551 State HWY 72
Potsdam,
NY 13676
Phone / Fax: 330-836-6552
Email: Sandy@SunSoap.com
POTSDAM,
NY—Sandy Maine, Founder and CEO of SunFeather Natural Soap Company, and
her husband Louis Maine, CFO, are being “exported” to New Zealand in
mid-January.
The Maine’s will be traveling to New Zealand to assist a Charitable
Trust, Pathways, with setting up a handcrafted soap manufacturing business
to create jobs for people who are developmentally challenged. The Maine’s
two home schooled children will be joining them for the trip for a serious
geography lesson!
With
twenty one years of experience making and marketing all-natural, handcrafted
soaps, Sandy and Louis have the expertise that Pathways needs to reach their
goals. As members of Businesses for Social Responsibility, the Maine’s
donate a share of pre-profit income to over 12 different charity
organizations each year, they create a humanistic workplace, and attempt to
minimize SunFeather’s impact on the environment. It was these business
practices which were outlined in Ms. Maine’s book, “Creating an Herbal
Bodycare Business” (1998 Storey Communications) that initiated the
interest from Pathways. Ms. Maine also said that her new E-commerce website,
www.SunSoap.com
developed by SLIC New Media of Potsdam, was also instrumental in attracting
the New Zealand based trust.
The
Maine Family will be traveling to New Zealand for a three month stay. While
there, they will facilitate all aspects of beginning a handmade soap
business—from sourcing supplies and equipment, to pricing and marketing
handcrafted soaps, to product line development and training employees.
Pathways
has been commissioned by the New Zealand Government to set up
micro-businesses by which people with disabilities have the opportunity for
meaningful, rewarding work.
Part
of Sandy’s goal in working with Pathways is to emphasize the important
role of people making products, rather than machines. In a world often taken
with high technology, rather than the savoring of human interaction, it is
important to Sandy and many others that handmade goods and the simple
production techniques they employ maintain an important place in the human
experience.
