Well done to Ikea

When I found an article about Ikea's soft toys in The Telegraph I did not expect to like what I read. As a soft toy and teddy wholesaler we have always been a bit suspicious of the amazingly low prices of Ikea toys and I expected to read about poor working conditions and child labour.

However I was completely wrong. Ikea are currently running a promotion to give 1Euro to Unicef for every soft toy bought in the run up to Xmas which is great on its own but culturely they seem to be in a league of their own when it comes to how they address issues in their factories

If they find that any of their suppliers have used child labour, or that the labour force is not been treated as they should then instead of discontinuing the factory and potentially making the lives of the workforce even worse they address the issues which has caused the situation. Effectively they treat the problem not the sympton

So a big hand to Ikea and especially to a lady called Marianne Barner who appears to be the driving force behind Ikea's policy and attitude. I still can't imagine how they manage to make them so cheaply but I suppose thats what happens if you sell over 5million toys a year!

While we are handing out accolades how about one to Asda who refuse to open on Boxing Day. Both Sainsburys and Tescos are opening stores -it is entirely voluntary for staff to work and they are paid more to do so, but I prefer Asda's attitude towards Boxing Day working. They think it should be a day of rest and I agree with them!