The story of our Fair Trade and handmade Wooden toys and wooden rainbows mirrors that of a fairy tale, we kissed a frog, and found a Prince.
Where – Sri Lanka, just outside Columbo, and situated in a stunningly beautiful location
Who – Based in a rural community with high unemployment they offer employment to a mixture of able bodied and disabled people
When – 2018
Why – they worked for a long time with Traidcraft, but when Traidcraft were forced to drop all non food items they lost their major customer and things looked grim for their survival. A call went out to toy wholesalers sympathetic to fair trade ideas and we were asked if we would consider selling wooden toys alongside our knitted toy ranges.
We have a saying in Best Years that you have to kiss a lot of frogs in business, and we have a pot of money specifically for projects that don’t look like they make sense on paper. We kissed the frog, met a prince and the rest is history.
Claim to fame in Best Years – The one who got us in to wooden toys, a genuinely, 100% nice person, a real life prince and possibly the best smile you’ll ever see.
Most likely to say – Yes. Everything we ask him, he says yes 😊
