Tovi Gifts really is quite different from the usual ‘giftware supplier’ who sources products from developing countries. We don’t only have a UK, Australian or US buying team that flies in once or twice a year on a buying trip; we have a team of 15+ people in Sri Lanka working full time on developing the business.
From our office and warehouse facility in Kaduwela – just outside Colombo – our team works across supplier management and their welfare, warehousing, finance, logistics and marketing. This team then works with our UK team to help develop and grow the business in a socially responsible manner.
We are fortunate that our team speak Sinhala, Tamil and English so we can easily work directly with our artisan suppliers. We personally know our suppliers and can ensure we work with them to develop their own businesses, support them to grow and help nurture them as they develop and create their own success and independence.
Our mission is not to work with a handful of large factories but to work with hundreds of families, village collectives and other social entrepreneurs to ensure the success we jointly create is directly shared with our artisanal suppliers. There is no doubt this makes our business harder to manage yet it is the only way we ensure that we actually meet and exceed our social impact mission.