Siesta

Based in Canterbury, Kent, Siesta was started by Chris and Les Harper in 1984  with a market stall selling handicrafts that were brought back from their travels to Mexico and Guatemala.

From that small beginning, it has expanded so that it now has a retail outlet in Canterbury and a busy wholesale business supplying goods throughout the UK and Europe. It imports directly from suppliers in countries all over the world on a Fair Trade basis and is proud to be a member of the British Association for Fair Trade Shops and suppliers. It specialises in unusual and interesting gifts, musical instruments and clothing.

Most of its suppliers are small family businesses employing only a few people so it tries to keep them in continuous work and helps develop new products with them thus enabling their businesses to grow alongside its own.  In virtually every case, it pays suppliers for orders in advance, thus preventing them from possibly having to borrow money to start the order. It agrees prices with suppliers, rather than imposing prices, does not allow the exploitation of children nor discrimination against gender and tries to ensure that working conditions are good by local standards and that raw materials are from renewable resources.

To visit the Siesta web site and learn more of its operations, click the logo below.