Pittards-social enterprise-Ethiopia

Apparently, there is difference between social enterprise and charity. Social enterprise is to help world and make money at the same time. As for the charity, it is more about supporting people only by using money and charity does not make profit at all. Surely, both ways are helping the world greatly. Recently, UK leather goods company Pittards plans to grow its Ethiopian operations as they will settle down one more company. Without doubt, the company gains lots of benefits to build companies in Ethiopia. Firstly, the low-cost labor is quite attractive and this greatly reduces company’s cost. Also, in Ethiopia, for most manufactured products, there is no tax for export to “Europe, US, and other countries”. This can be the one of the strength for Pittards as it does not worry about the tax issue and has lower cost. Moreover, there are a great number of resources that Pittards needs to produce the leather. “Ethiopia has the largest flock of hair sheep in the world”, although compared to New Zealand, the reproductive rate is much lower, with 37% and 180%, respectively. However, Pittards is working on this issue currently since it is involved in environmental programs to “improve the quality of local skins through improved husbandry and treatment against parasites”. Ultimately, this can also improve the quality of meat, which results in a healthier food. Thus, Ethiopians can have better quality of food.

As Pittards plays a social enterprise role in Ethiopia, Ethiopians surely gain benefits as well. They found jobs easily with the labor demand in Pittards Company. It enables them to learn new skills and helps them to support themselves. With the increasing in income, people’s lifestyles are changing as Ms Beshada(worker in Pittards) said: “it gives us hope for the future”. Furthermore, since Ethiopia’s government wants to increase its leather industry’s annual exports, Pittards undeniably is happy to contribute it. The relationship between the government and the company is getting better and better and along with the Ethiopia has been change positively.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24610075

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