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David Lowbridge has been appointed Managing Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, expanding the management team to eight people. The new post will strengthen the internal capacity of the organisation, helping to fulfil its ambitious five year plan launched earlier this year, Tipping the Balance.  The post was also created in response to the need to scale up the level of service given to licencees and to develop better business practices now consumer demand for Fairtrade products in the UK is so great. David’s appointment will leave the Deputy Director more time to concentrate on the effectiveness and innovation of the international organisation and Executive Director more time for governance and external relations.  

 
The Fairtrade Foundation is the certification body that licenses the FAIRTRADE Mark to products in the UK which meet international standards. The FAIRTRADE Mark is an independent consumer label which appears on products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers in the developing world are getting a better deal.

David joins the Fairtrade Foundation from a successful career in the retail sector in both the UK and overseas. He was Managing Director of Country Casuals from 1987 and later became Managing Director of Austin Reed Group Plc which includes the Country Casuals brand. David left Austin Reed in 2005 and has spent the last couple of years working with start up and fledgling businesses, mainly in the organic/ethical clothing area. He has also worked with charities, focussing on strategic development and trading issues. He has been advisor to Wildlife Works, which has an eco-factory, wildlife sanctuary and rural conservation operation in Kenya, as well as the UK charity Toybox, which rescues and rehabilitates street children in Latin America.

The new strategy, Tipping the Balance, which David will help deliver for the Foundation, aims to increase Fairtrade’s impact on producers’ lives; shift public opinion and consumer lifestyles to make Fairtrade the norm; expand business engagement with Fairtrade to deeper commitment; and scale up and develop the Fairtrade system.

David said: ‘I am looking forward to using my experience to support and develop the work we are already doing with Fairtrade producers and partners and extending the difference Fairtrade makes to the lives of millions more people around the world. The team I will be working with at the Fairtrade Foundation are hugely capable, experienced, enthusiastic and absolutely committed to tipping the balance in favour of producers from developing countries.’

Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation said: ‘We are delighted to welcome David to help deliver our ambitious plans to tip the balance in trade in favour of disadvantaged producers. Sales figures in 2007 reached £500 million showing the public’s appetite for Fairtrade in the UK, but there is still so much more to be done. With 2 billion people earning less than $2 a day and many farmers often forced to sell below what it cost them to produce their crop, sales of Fairtrade products need to increase significantly, a challenge that David will lead.’  

For further information, phone 020 7440 7695 /7686 or mobile 07770 957 451, or email martine.julseth@fairtrade.org.uk or faith.mall@fairtrade.org.uk

Notes to Editors

1.       The FAIRTRADE Mark is a certification mark and a registered trademark of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) of which the Fairtrade Foundation is the UK member.  This independent consumer label appears on products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers are getting a better deal. Today, more than five million people - farmers, workers and their families - across 58 developing countries benefit from the international Fairtrade system.

2.       The full range of Fairtrade products now includes coffee, tea, chocolate, cocoa, sugar, bananas, apples, pears, grapes, plums, lemons, oranges, satsumas, clementines, lychees, avocados, pineapples, mangoes, fruit juices, quinoa, peppers, green beans, coconut, dried fruit, rooibos tea, green tea, cakes and biscuits, honey, muesli, cereal bars, jams, chutney and sauces, herbs and spices, nuts and nut oil, wine, beer, rum, flowers, sports balls, rice, yoghurt, babyfood, sugar body scrub, cotton wool and cotton products.

3.       The Fairtrade Foundation, which started in the early 1990s, has now grown to more than 70 employees.