As
I had written previously, orders
to Hagar On-Time! (the Hagar-owned manufacturer of our "Hagar Design"
brand) have been down significantly. As you might imagine, textile production
is a capital-intensive business. Over the years, Hagar has invested significant
scarce resources into machinery and inventory. The hope was that in addition
to employing women from the Shelter Program, the business could funnel
profits back into Hagar's social programs. Needless to say, in slow economic
times like these there ARE no profits to be returned and, in fact, HO-T!
has been a significant drain on the resources needed to fund Hagar's primary
mission of assisting in the "recovery" and "re-integration" of trafficked
and abused women and children.
- All employees of HO-T! have transitioned to STOPStart. There have been no layoffs as a result of the sale.
- Aside from 1-2 days of meeting with employees to explain the change and introduce the new corporate leaders, it's "business as usual" on the manufacturing floor.
- STOPStart has committed to continue the social enterprise mission of HO-T!, including being a source of employment for women from Hagar Cambodia's Shelter Program.
- Because this is a change of ownership, not mission, there should be no effect on Fair Trade certification.
What's going to change? In the short term, not much.
- We understand that KVI will be given the right to use the Hagar Design brand for an as-yet unspecified time period, providing STARTStop continue to adhere to the same social standards that Hagar had for HO-T!. (Obviously we wouldn't WANT to carry the products if they did not.)
- By the end of the transition period (which we anticipate being 6 months or less), we expect to have transitioned to the STOPStart brand as both we and STOPStart see the opportunity to make it a recognized global brand.
- KVI will continue to be STARTStop's exclusive distributor in North America for our current line of products, as well as having exclusivity to new designs developed for the general markeplace.
- STARTStop will continue to manufacture private-label and proprietery designs for various companies.
The most immediate change will be the re-work of our promotional materials for Hagar Design products as it becomes more clear how STOPStart and Hagar Cambodia want to describe their ongoing relationship. As these become available we will alert you to them via this newsletter.