Made in Ethiopia

[Yoniii]

Lovely thread!

[abesha]

Fkebede, that article really raises an important issue. Maybe you should put it in a thread of its own so that we can have a discussion on issues facing inventors and innovators in the country.

[yosef]

A modern tea factory with an installed capacity of 600 – 700 tons of made tea per annum is functioning in the Chewaka Estate producing different tea packages for the country and export purposes.

Berchaco Ethiopia Pvt. Ltd. Co. is a company that is playing a pivotal role in the industrial development of the country by substituting imports of cosmetic products.
The company was established 52 years ago by French Nationals and was bought by EAG in 1993 which then modernized and increased its production by adding and replacing the existing machineries . It was the only cosmetics producing firm in Ethiopia before the 1980’s, engaged mainly in perfume products.

Biscuit (East African Group)
The East African Group Biscuit factory, with its two production lines currently produces above 600 tons of biscuit products of different flavors per month.

[DZman]

ENZI Footwear Made in Ethiopia
very modern looking shoes...love'em all






for more info
http://www.africafashionguide.com/20...igner-profile/

and also this is their web site
http://www.enzifootwear.com/

[Carver02]

Those are some really nice looking shoes.

[SweEthio]

http://www.diretube.com/ethiopian-ne...a7fd55af0.html

[Roha]

http://www.pittards.com/discover-pit...rporate-videos

Pittards World Class Leather

[Ras Siyan]

Nice thread

[DZman]

Of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world, seven are African and Ethiopia is one of them.
Even Prince Harry’s favourite polo gloves are made here from Ethiopian leather by UK-based firm Pittards. A tannery in Nazret employs 700 while 450 more jobs have been created in a glove factory in Addis Ababa.
Pittards boss Reg Hankey says: “We now see ourselves as an Ethiopian company with British people involved. Ethiopia is still fragile but it’s growing.”

Read more:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...cle4559182.ece

[enkelfam]

Celebrated Ethiopian footwear brand opens first outlet in Taiwan

Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is one of Africa’s most celebrated businesswomen. The international media seemingly can’t get enough of this founder of soleRebels, an Ethiopian-based footwear company. She has won numerous entrepreneurship awards, posing in pictures with the likes of Richard Branson, and regularly speaks at conferences across the world. For many people, Alemu has become a poster child of Africa’s changing economic fortunes and women entrepreneurship on the continent.


Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu
SoleRebels shoes are made by Ethiopian artisans at a factory in the capital Addis Ababa. The company is the world’s first fair trade certified footwear brand. “At our core we at soleRebels are creative artisans who aim to craft the coolest and most comfortable footwear,” says Alemu. “In a world of faceless production-line assembled … shoes, soleRebels proudly stands apart and offers a much desired alternative. Our business model centres on eco-sensibility and community empowerment; product design and development involve a great deal of effort to achieve fashionable and appealing quality products that use local materials.”

The company was founded in 2005. It has a flagship retail store in Addis Ababa, although the majority of sales are generated online.

During an interview with How we made it in Africa in May this year, Alemu described her strategy to open soleRebels outlets throughout the world. Over the weekend, the company achieved an important milestone with the launch of its first stand alone branded retail store in Taiwan.


A Taiwanese customer tries on a pair of soleRebels shoes.
“We are extremely excited by this store opening. Taiwan is an incredible market and the stores we are opening here give us a fantastic platform to showcase our incredible products and our innovative brand in an equally dynamic and fantastic market. This is the perfect place for soleRebels to anchor our Asia wide roll-out of soleRebels stores – truly historic strides for soleRebels,” said Alemu in an emailed statement.

The store has a lounge area that allows customers to learn more about the brand’s heritage and the unique artisan production techniques. Customers are encouraged to upload photos of themselves wearing their soleRebels shoes to the company’s website and are rewarded for doing so with a free soleRebels T-shirt.

The store is located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s second largest city. A total of up to 30 soleRebels outlets are planned for Taiwan, with three locations expected to open by the end of 2012.


SoleRebels shoes on display in Taiwan.
SoleRebels predicts its global retail roll-out to add over US$15-20 million in revenues by 2015.

Speaking to How we made it in Africa earlier in the year, Alemu said that the continent needs to “start focusing on small and medium businesses, because they are the big engines of the economy. People … just need an opportunity, so we need to give them an opportunity to grow big with their ideas.”

She added that entrepreneurs should have a passion for their businesses. “Love what you are trying to do. If you don’t like what you are doing you are not going to be successful.”

http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/c...-taiwan/21878/

[NewComer98]

Ethiopia is going to become Africa's china, don't know if that's a good or bad thing

[Roha]

SoleRebles new store Taiwan

[StatesofXXX]

Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is one of Africa’s most celebrated businesswomen. The international media seemingly can’t get enough of this founder of soleRebels, an Ethiopian-based footwear company. She has won numerous entrepreneurship awards, posing in pictures with the likes of Richard Branson, and regularly speaks at conferences across the world. For many people, Alemu has become a poster child of Africa’s changing economic fortunes and women entrepreneurship on the continent.


Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu
SoleRebels shoes are made by Ethiopian artisans at a factory in the capital Addis Ababa. The company is the world’s first fair trade certified footwear brand. “At our core we at soleRebels are creative artisans who aim to craft the coolest and most comfortable footwear,” says Alemu. “In a world of faceless production-line assembled … shoes, soleRebels proudly stands apart and offers a much desired alternative. Our business model centres on eco-sensibility and community empowerment; product design and development involve a great deal of effort to achieve fashionable and appealing quality products that use local materials.”

The company was founded in 2005. It has a flagship retail store in Addis Ababa, although the majority of sales are generated online.

During an interview with How we made it in Africa in May this year, Alemu described her strategy to open soleRebels outlets throughout the world. Over the weekend, the company achieved an important milestone with the launch of its first stand alone branded retail store in Taiwan.


A Taiwanese customer tries on a pair of soleRebels shoes.
“We are extremely excited by this store opening. Taiwan is an incredible market and the stores we are opening here give us a fantastic platform to showcase our incredible products and our innovative brand in an equally dynamic and fantastic market. This is the perfect place for soleRebels to anchor our Asia wide roll-out of soleRebels stores – truly historic strides for soleRebels,” said Alemu in an emailed statement.

The store has a lounge area that allows customers to learn more about the brand’s heritage and the unique artisan production techniques. Customers are encouraged to upload photos of themselves wearing their soleRebels shoes to the company’s website and are rewarded for doing so with a free soleRebels T-shirt.

The store is located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s second largest city. A total of up to 30 soleRebels outlets are planned for Taiwan, with three locations expected to open by the end of 2012.


SoleRebels shoes on display in Taiwan.
SoleRebels predicts its global retail roll-out to add over US$15-20 million in revenues by 2015.

Speaking to How we made it in Africa earlier in the year, Alemu said that the continent needs to “start focusing on small and medium businesses, because they are the big engines of the economy. People … just need an opportunity, so we need to give them an opportunity to grow big with their ideas.”

She added that entrepreneurs should have a passion for their businesses. “Love what you are trying to do. If you don’t like what you are doing you are not going to be successful.”

These are too nice have to get a pair.

[enkelfam]

More about SoleRebels from tadias

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Sunday, November 11, 2012

New York (TADIAS) – When the Ethiopian footwear company SoleRebels opened its first stand-alone retail store in Asia earlier month, becoming the first African brand to do so, the mayor of Kaoshiung, Taiwan’s second largest city, sent a bouquet of flowers welcoming the business to his town.

And according to SoleRebels’ CEO Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, customer reaction thus far has been just as enthusiastic.

“It’s been amazing,” she said. “People in Taiwan love the brand; they love the products, the look, the feel, and how we are presenting it to them. It’s fresh, exciting and very vital that they responded in kind.”

Bethlehem said that the store opening anchors the company’s Asia-wide retail rollout with a total of three Taiwan locations slated to open by end of 2012. “Our next Taiwan location will open in three weeks in Taichung,” she said. “This store will be about four times the size of the Kaoshiung store and will have some amazing surprises visually and from a merchandising perspective.”

Bethlehem added: “In about a month and a half we will open our first of two Singapore locations. And early next year, we will enter the booming Indonesian market. We also plan to open multiple U.S. locations in 2013 as well.” ...

http://www.tadias.com/11/11/2012/mad...erview-photos/

Kudos to Bethlehem

[abesha]

That's amazing! I hope to see a store in NY soon!

[enkelfam]

Ethiopia’s soleRebels footwear brand takes on the Asian market

STORE #2 opened, #3 will open this week

Ethiopia’s soleRebels footwear company that has received an immense amount of international attention, was recently featured in the December edition of the Chinese Vogue magazine alongside well established brands such as Armani, Chanel, Gucci and Valentino. This comes at a time when soleRebels is positioning itself strategically for expansion across Asia.

The company, which opened its first Taiwan store in Kaohsiung last month, has just unveiled its second store in the city of Taichung. “The city is incredible, a must go tourism destination in Taiwan,” said Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, founder and CEO of soleRebels. “The crowds in the area where we are located are fantastic. Additionally Taichung is also a footwear epicentre, home to the Asian design centre for the planet’s largest footwear brand (Nike). It’s probably one of the most visited and watched footwear hubs in Asia.”
Alemu said that the response to both stores has been positive and the environmentally friendly soleRebels brand is regarded highly in the market. “[Taiwan] is one of the top 10 footwear markets in the world,” added Alemu. “Plus it is a gateway market into further Asian expansion including China where we plan to open stores in 2013. We feel very strongly that Taiwan is the perfect place for soleRebels to anchor our Asia wide roll-out.”
SoleRebels, which is the world’s first fair trade certified footwear brand, is also opening its third store in Taiwan this week in Pingtung City. “This opening is even more significant as it puts us well on the way to our goal of 30 soleRebels stores in Taiwan by 2015,” she told How we made it in Africa.


The new soleRebels outlet in Taichung, Taiwan.

In addition, the company is also expected to soon launch stores in Singapore, India, Malaysia and Indonesia. “We feel strongly that there is immense potential for the brand all over Asia and Southeast Asia and so it’s natural for us to be in these markets,” continued Alemu. “In the United States we will roll out quite a few locations in 2013, beginning with our flagship New York City store.”
Having started in 2005 with just five employees, the company is expanding fast and creating jobs both locally and globally. “We are adding thousands of domestic, full-time, creative and well paid jobs over the next 36 months,” she said. “Through our store openings we will also create 600-800 global jobs by 2016.”
The company is planning on building a new factory in Ethiopia, replacing the current facility. “It allows us to continue to grow community employment to new heights as there will be many new jobs created when this facility is operational,” stressed Alemu.
SoleRebels predicts its global retail roll-out to add over US$15-20 million in revenues by 2015, and by 2020 Alemu aims to have over 150 retail stores worldwide.

http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/e...-market/22770/

[abesha]

That lady is really going places. I'm so inspired by her!!!


Here's another brand that's gaining a foothold abroad. Sammy Handmade in Ethiopia was featured last month by Glamour magazine here in the US. They sell their stuff at Barney's, which is a world famous luxury store here in NYC.

http://www.glamour.com/fashion/blogs...mas-is-sa.html

All I Want for Christmas is Sammy Ethiopia

How cute are these little tie dyed and animal beaded pouches from Sammy Ethiopia?! I flipped when I saw them in our fashion closet!



The brand, which also makes these gorgeous hand-woven scarves, is based (obviously) in Ethiopia, and is committed to providing employment and a steady market for artisans in Addis-Ababa. The country is one of the world's largest leather producers (who knew!) which they use throughout their collections to make the softest ever leather pouches, all tie dyed with chrome-free reactive dyes. The founders, Sammy Abdella and Holly Hikido are committed to providing comfortable working conditions for their employees throughout the entire year, not just in the workshops, but also in the Sammy retail store in Addis-Ababa, and now the line is one of the few self-sustaining businesses in Ethiopia.

Each piece is totally one of a kind, hand made, and super SUPER cute. I have a blue tie dyed pouch that I wear ALL the time. They're not cheap, but it feels good to splurge on something that's doing so much good, and they're pretty perfect holiday gifts. You can pick them up at Barney's and a few things online at Asos.

[HerachioBlo]

they had a short special on an Ethiopian entrepreneur that was commercializing traditional honey wine by bottling it. Anyone know anything about this? Sorry for being vague but i don't remember much else

[popa1980]

Abesha, how is your business plan going?

I have kind of lost momentum so have stopped work to concentrate. If I dont see any progress in the next month Im going to pack it in and try a sector where start up is easier like something website-related (im currently working on a food brand- a lot of investment and time needed).

[Yoniii]

Originally Posted by HerachioBlo

they had a short special on an Ethiopian entrepreneur that was commercializing traditional honey wine by bottling it. Anyone know anything about this? Sorry for being vague but i don't remember much else

Tej aka "Honey wine", This company is selling it in Sweden.