Busiest month ever for Pachacuti

Well, we certainly seem to be bucking the recession. Busiest month ever in May by miles (in 17 years of running Pachacuti). Need to take on at least 3 new members of staff to keep up as everyone is run off their feet. It seems like all the world want Panama Hats at the moment, which is fantastic news for us! They always say that a recession is a good time to differentiate your business and it seems to have worked for us. We are going to be rebranding in the autumn, with a nice new website as well, so we are really excited to see how this develops.

We have so many exciting projects in the pipeline at the moment, both in the UK and with our producers in South America. As well as our ongoing work on the SFTMS action plans with our producers, our panama weavers are going to be partipating in an EU Geo-Fair Trade project. This will track the provenance of our products back to the communities where they are made. Of course, this is really essential for Panama hats as genuine Panamas are only made in Ecuador. I'd love to think that sometime soon a customer could buy one of our hats, put a code into the GPS and see exactly where their hat was made.

Travels in May

What a busy month. Haven't yet worked out how to update my blog from the IPhone, but you can see updates on Twitter @Carrysomers

In the middle of May I was invited by the World Fair Trade Organisation WFTO to go out to Nepal to address the conference on our experience of participating in the pilot for the SFTMS. As the first organisation in the world to go through external auditing against the draft standard, both in the UK and in South America, it was really valuable to be there and to tell everyone about the positive benefits which the certification process has brought to the structure of our business. The process has given the producers a real say in how we development our annual improvement programme so that they can direct how Fair Trade can best benefit their business, whether through improvements in health & safety, training in skills, environmental sustainability or community projects.

I got so much positive feedback about my talk at the conference, even from people who I knew were not in favour of the new label, that it has certainly boosted my confidence in public speaking and I now feel that I could talk anywhere! It's a hurdle I've wanted to get over and I knew that speaking to 200 people would be a good way to get over my nerves and I actually quite enjoyed the experience in the end!

Sunrise flight over the Himalayas to see Mount Everest was a definite highlight of the trip and the only thing I got to see outside of the hotel.

Straight after coming back from Nepal (with horrible bug or food poisoning, still haven't worked out what it is and no time to go to doctor) it was straight to Chelsea Flower Show the next day. What madness! Everyone loved our hats and some people were walking out with four or five at a time! We had a great reaction to our new range of narrow brimmed panama hats in a range of colours and styles.

Then up to Scotland for a three day family holiday near Loch Morlich, where I used to spend every childhood holiday. Could have done without being laid up with Kathmandu tummy, but it was lovely to revisit all the places where we used to walk every year. Back down to the Lake District then for the Holker Festival - always one of our favourite events of the year.

This morning it has been the filming for my video for the Women in Ethical Business Awards and now off to London for the Observer Ethical Awards tonight. Off to pick up my dress which I haven't even seen yet! It is made by the incredibly talented Amin Phillips (Love and be Loved) who made my dress for my visit to the Queen, so I have every confidence in his ability to create something stunning for this evening.