Manifesto
Ethics for knitters
We believe in the best in people. We will at all times make every effort to speak to the dignity of every human being. We will speak to the potential of the individual, and believe in her when she doubts herself.
We offer knitters "work as the solution". Will provides her with sticks, training and high quality wool that western customers are prepared to buy. The knitter doesn't have to come up with money - in return, we buy everything she knits as soon as her products meet a marketable quality. We don't cap minimum or maximum. And we strongly sense that knitters love that freedom of self-determination. We find that there's a big difference in how much individual knitters produce and during what periods they choose to go all out.
We are committed to paying level wages and not just minimum wages. We seek to be the complement that coffee farmers in Burundi crave. Some knitters choose to go full time while others choose to knit in the gaps they have between field work and caring for the world's largest herd of children. We give them complete freedom to choose between knitting at home or with other knitters.
We continuously offer knitters new skills. Thus, they have now learned to crochet and dye yarn. In the long term, it could be a dream to start producing wool themselves and do other production locally.
Ethics for knitters
Dignity
We at Coffee Beanies are committed to using every opportunity from our privileged position to give voice to the women who have now become our friends and who have no other chances because they are hidden and forgotten. That's why we call our hats the "Cinderella of hats". The knitting groups live in the coffee mountains of Burundi, home to the poorest and most unhappy people in the world (according to the World Bank, 2020).
Social economy mindset
Inspired by the Swedish Business Authority's manual for social economy enterprises: Registration as a registered social economy enterprise | erhvervsstyrelsen.dk
We are independent of the public sector. But beyond that, we are inclusive and accountable in our work:
The business strategy, in simple terms, is to create jobs for people in the coffee mountains of the world's poorest country, Burundi. The knitted products are attractive to the Scandinavian consumer, so the region can get customers where the purchasing power is.
In the year from June 2021 to June 2022, knitting trainer Lise has been deployed and living in the coffee mountains with the local leader of the knitters, Anne Marie.
Coffee Beanies owner, Aimee will visit the knitting groups in the fall of 2022 accompanied by Country Coordinator Jean Marie Bukeyneza.
Our two sales agents for Zealand and Jutland respectively will join us on the trip, so they can see for themselves what we do and who we help. Finally, we have invited two influencers to help spread the story and raise awareness of the situation the caged dogs are in.
The production in Burundi is done without machines as we hand knit all our products. There are 5 groups and two new ones in the pipeline. The locals are responsible for organising the training of new groups. Coffee Beanies finances the materials and salaries for the trainers.
.... and green mindset
Our yarn is green as 82% is biodegradable wool and 18% is recycled polyamide. We use no machines in hat production, and we train women to think in environmentally conscious production so they can lay healthy tracks for what we hope will be a thriving industry.
Our plan is to ship by sea rather than by air as soon as the global freight situation has stabilised again after the corona and war.
We have no residues. The things we don't sell are picked up by volunteers in Denmark.
Social management of profits
After four years of build-up, pre-order sales indicate that there will be a small profit in the 22/23 financial year. This will be ploughed back as reinvestments in the form of new needles for existing knitters and training and organization of adjacent knitting groups.
We aim for re-investment year on year to be higher as sales volumes grow and production costs fall due to economies of scale.