On the brink, stalwart of the church bazaar

TRAIDCRAFT, which plays a central role in community life with thousands of volunteer stalls at church bazaars and school fairs, is facing extinction.

The faith-based organisation was set up 39 years ago to sell fair trade products, so handing a lifeline to poverty-stricken families in the developing world.

Now it is consulting on closing down. Traidcraft says it is a victim of declining church attendances, eight years of austerity and the Brexit vote, which led to a fall in the value of the pound and so put up the cost of buying the products it sells. Over the past five years, it has lost more than 1,000 volunteers who run the stalls that are set up every weekend, leaving it with around 4,300, many of whom are elderly.

About 55 per cent of the organisation’s sales of products, which include food, handmade Christmas gifts such as jewellery and scarves, and household products such as vases, are made through the stalls manned by volunteers. The rest come through its website. Chief executive Robin Roth has issued a consultation document that has raised the prospect of closing the business. This would mean redundancy for its 68 staff based in Gateshead.

He said closing the commercial side of Traidcraft will be devastating for many of the thousands of impoverished workers in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America who produce the products it sells.

He said Traidcraft’s sales peaked at around £16.5million in 2010, but have been falling at a rate of about 8 per cent a year in recent years and are now below £10million. It made a loss of about £500,000 last year.

Mr Roth said: ‘I think there is a correlation between the fall we have seen in church attendance and our profile. We were built on the basis of a radical movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s with a very committed, remarkable, group of sellers. They have aged and many have come to the point where they feel they have done their duty.’

Admitting his own failings, Mr Roth said: ‘I take responsibility for not managing the company well enough in my time.’

Mr Roth said closure is not a foregone conclusion and a lot will depend on sales this autumn and in the run-up to Christmas. Strong sales could give it the financial breathing space needed to restructure the organisation. ‘It would make a huge difference to us if people went out to buy our autumn and Christmas products,’ he said.

Traidcraft plc’s charity arm, Traidcraft Exchange, is a separate organisation and will continue to campaign on fair trade issues.