Company Background
When
it comes to mission-driven work, it pays to be market-driven as well.
That’s the philosophy behind Duerst Lahti Global, LLC.
The company wholesales fair trade bulk ingredients and packaged
personal care brands.
Established in 2008, in Evansville, Wisconsin, the company is
a family business
determined to “do more
good” for the earth and
our health, from the
field and forest to the
consumer. Family owners
include J. Tris Lahti,
who heads operations,
Alex Lahti who
spearheads
communications and
marketing, Mary Jo Bergs
who directs sales, and
Elena Lahti who focuses
on tradeshows and brand look.
Unlike
most fair trade wholesalers, Duerst Lahti Global focuses on finished
packaged products that use ingredients sourced from the region
and are manufactured in emerging and post-conflict countries.
This amplifies the benefit to
indigenous producers and provides
U.S.
retailers with stronger fair trade positioning.
For bulk
materials such as lemon tea tree oil, Duerst Lahti Global finds producers
who want to enter the
U.S.
market and operate by fair trade principles.
Duerst Lahti Global LLC
is led by Georgia
Duerst-Lahti, Ph.D., professor of political science at Beloit College
for a quarter century. Georgia has
been a professor of
political science and
women’s studies for a
quarter century at
Beloit College, where
her research has focused
on women’s empowerment.
Georgia brings more than passion to the fair trade business.
She brings expertise in political and global trade systems. Early on,
Georgia identified a market need for fair trade wholesalers in order to
link producers with volume buyers.
Her company bridges that gap, ensuring that producers receive wages
that are not only fair, but sustainable.
Two market channels—package and
bulk—make our doing more
good possible.
First, for scale and scope, we
concentrate on raw
natural ingredients.
Particularly, we
source for US
personal care
for health and beauty
manufacturers and
suppliers.
Second, we specialize in wholesaling
natural beauty and
health, fairly traded.
These personal
care products for skin
and hair
distinctively
are:
-
made in the emerging
country,
-
by women’s
cooperatives or similar
ethical sources,
-
from regionally sourced
ingredients.
No other brand meets these criteria,
including Alafia and Dr.
Bronner’s, who buy key
ingredients in emerging
economies, but
manufacturer and hence
keep the knowledge jobs
in the US.
With the DLG approach, we do more
good by building
capacity on the ground
bolstering knowledge
jobs and skills in
manufacturing, branding,
production, logistics,
and more.
Duerst
Lahti Global wholesales fair trade bulk ingredients and packaged personal
care brands made from botanicals and bees produced in emerging and
post-conflict countries. It
supplies a variety of bulk ingredients for the U.S. cosmetics industry—all
fair trade and direct from the source—including baobab oil and powder,
marula oil, Kalahari melon seed oil, and a growing list of organic essential
oils such as lemon tea tree and rose geranium.
Duerst Lahti Global’s distinctive raw materials provide both a
premium natural ingredient and marketing edge. Moreover,
the company relies only on products that are sustainably wild harvested or
grown, ensuring that the resources utilized by today’s indigenous people can
still be supporting those communities generations from now.
Getting from There to
Here
The path
to today's company was
not immediately obvious.
Georgia notes,
"Lightning struck while working on
women’s empowerment for
the US State Department
in Albania. On my last
day, finally the leaders
of the rural women’s
NGOs spoke.
One talked about
how happy widows from
the mountain region were
to supplement their
income by
wild-harvesting
mushrooms and thyme for
a Swiss corporation.
"I knew the natural products industry
was a multi-billion
dollar industry, so when
I heard how little these
widows earned from all
that stoop labor I was
livid. 'That’s not
fair,' my brain
screamed. 'Have you ever
heard of fair trade?' I
asked. 'It will take me
a few years, but I’ll be
back. And, I’ll pay you
a fair wage.'"
"Thus started Duerst Lahti Global
LLC., a mission-driven,
market-driven company
whose motto is “Do more
good."
We source and
import distinctive
natural product from
emerging and
post-conflict economies.
We particular focus upon
oils and botanicals for
the beauty and health
industry.
"We go to the sources to build
relationships with
women’s cooperatives,
small farmers, and
others in order to help
prepare them for the
export market. With local
expertise we come to
know the supply chain
needed for smooth and
successful logistics and
importation. Throughout the
supply chain, from the
forest and farm, to the
US destination, we work
to build capacity, which
includes gaining
certifications and other
markers of quality.
"Using a social
enterprise business
model, we focus on
empowering the world’s
poor by
developing and
leveraging market demands.
The company partners with native scientists and horticulturalists to
identify cutting edge
uses for natural
products.
Its 2011 introduction of
marula oil to the U.S. market, for example, has the
potential for
significant impact on
the personal care
products industry.
Already a leading beauty-care staple in Southern Africa, the oil is extraordinarily stable, making
it uniquely applicable
for natural product
producers who want to
limit additives or
special processing.
“The
first objective must be identifying products that are relevant to the U.S. market. By
looking at social development from a macro-level and market view, we work to
create sustainable gains in women’s empowerment, health, and food security.
As a political scientist, I know that a reliable income alleviates so many
other fundamental problems.”
Getting to Swazi
Secrets, Our Flagship
Brand
"Leading with a concept rather than a
product, I set out to
learn everything
possible about market
prospects. After two market
research trips to
Malaysia where I had
contacts and expertise,
basically, I
decided they
didn’t need fair trade
much given their
relative wealth.
"Pursuing research took me to Expos
East and West among
other shows, including
those in health and
beauty. At the first one,
I connected with another
Wisconsinite, Prescott
Bergh, with a long
history in importing
organic ingredients for
the food and supplement
industry. In turn, he
connected me with the
Southern Africa Trade
Hub, located in
Botswana, and the leader
community development
project that worked with
marula fruit snacks,
Frank Taylor. All of this
precipitated, in 2009,
the first of three
visits to Southern
Africa. Each visit
involved planned tours
of producer groups. In 2010 to visit
producer groups, Alex
and I drove Trans
Kalahari Highway and
more, over 4,000 miles.
We traveled across South
Africa, Namibia,
Botswana and Swaziland,
profiling five groups.
"Simultaneously, I began participating
in the Indigenous Plant
Use Forum, a gathering
of top botanists and
other researchers of
indigenous products.
These “smart
network” contacts have
facilitated the business
enormously. In fact, all of
this has leveraged my
Ph.D. expertise in
women’s empowerment and
a capacity to research
it. In 2010,
leadership at Swazi
Indigenous Products, the
corporation owned by the
2,600+ women’s
cooperative of wild
harvesters allowed a
student researcher to
explore women’s
empowerment under my
guidance.(See attached
paper for results).
"Alex and I visited Swazi Secrets in
July 2010, and my husband
and LLC partner, Tris, visited again in
2011.
"While we currently have three other
brands in various stages
of development, Swazi
Secrets was US-ready. It has had strong
NGO support over the
past five years in the
strong leadership of
John Pearce and the UK
NGO that supports him.
His wife,
Stefanie Pearce, brings
to it years of marketing
experience in Volvo, and
she created UK and US
labels, along with the
new logo and look. Most importantly,
the women themselves are
well organized and carry
the support of the Queen
Mother (Swaziland is a
kingdom.)
"In their case, we did not develop
them so much as work to
commercialize their
opportunities in the US
market, launching the
brand at ExpoWest 2011.
Since then, we have
placed the brand in fair
trade shops and have
been working to place it
in natural food stores.
"We strive to do more good. Our aim is
to improve a
quarter-million
households in Africa, as
a result of our efforts."
Our Team
Our Vision
- New trade, fairly traded: to
empower the world’s poor.
- Organic and natural
ingredients: for better health.
- Sustainable growing and wild
harvesting practices: to protect
the earth and its plants and
animals.
Our Mission
-
To enable members of women’s
cooperatives and rural producers
in emerging and post-conflict economies to
empower themselves through commerce.
-
We bring their fair and sustainable personal care products to socially
conscious US buyers.
-
Together we work to create a world that is better for
producers, better for health, and better for the earth through natural,
organic, fairly traded and sustainably grown or wild-harvested products.
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