University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

Case Studies
822
The case studies evidenced here are drawn from both primary and secondary data.
The first case is that of Pachacuti 4 , a fair trade clothes company run by Carry Somers.
The second case is Ecocabin – “a one-off holiday experience in the UK 5 .” The third
is Bricks and Bread 6 - a sustainable building organisation founded, after much
practical experience and a career change, by Trudy Thompson. What follows is a
necessarily brief presy of the case material generated. This is then used to reflect
upon both the factors that drive their entrepreneurial founders and what may be the
distinctive attributes of ecopreneurship in an SME context.
Pachacuti
Pachacuti is a successful contemporary fashion and accessories business built on a
foundation of Fair Trade and run by female entrepreneur Carry Somers. The
organisation is determined to protect the interests of the Latin American producers
who supply goods and their traditional skills to the company. The word Pachacuti
means “world upside down” in the language of the Andean region and Somers used
the name as she felt it represented the aim of the business, redressing the economic
balance for her suppliers by reversing "inequitable trading patterns." Somers
comments, "I was shocked to see how the trading system favoured affluent
intermediaries with the knitters and knitting cooperatives being put at a financial
disadvantage." Pachacuti is also a “green green” business which “encourages the use
of resources and production methods which are environmentally sustainable and
appropriate to the region.” This includes routinely managing waste and recycling
levels and sourcing the raw materials for the products as locally as possible,
“including the use of rainforest friendly tagua nuts for our buttons 7 .”
Rationale and Start –up
Somers acknowledges that her entry into business in 1992 was naive; assuming as
she did that she could change the extant situation. However, some years on, she's
proud to see the difference that she has made. Carry began Pachacuti in 1992 having
completed a Masters in Native American studies. She acknowledges being inspired
by Anita Roddick and began in a small way by working with two co-operatives –
both financing them and working directly with them to produce a first range of
clothes. Initial business success came easily on a small scale at least: this first range
sold out within six weeks. (http://shop.pachacuti.co.uk/about-us-1-w.asp.) Pachacuti
now specialises in Panama hats, and Carry has set up initiatives which continue to
directly support her weavers in a myriad of ways including profit retention, providing
4 http://www.pachacuti.co.uk/
5 http://www.ecocabin.co.uk
6 http://www.bricksandbread.com
7 http://www.pachacuti.co.uk/about.html