TRADING> selling sweets

Hi, I too have only just come across this thread and as the person responsible for setting up the partnership for ChildLine, feel I can speak fairly authoritively about this.

I believe that TSP and Rob and Donna in particular have done a fantastic amount on behalf of ChildLine and I am delighted to see that they have reached and even exceeded the potential that Rob knew could be achieved when he first brought the idea to me.

Experienced fundraisers will know that "product promotions" traditionally yield a seemingly low return to the charity, but the 10% on gross on this particular one is actually exceptionally good when you compare it to many others - you only have to look at the packaging on charity christmas cards to see this.

Mr Currie certainly didn't understand what was in the partnership as he wasn't involved and it was never part of his remit.

I believe it is testament to TSP's system that a number of imitators have come and gone - they cannot survive and produce the same results for the charity.
Congratulations to everyone at TSP - keep going and if you ever want another charity partner, you know where to find me.

Date: Sun 7th May 2006
From: Rob Kerridge

I have only just come accross the comments made by Alistair Currie regarding sweets sold on behalf of ChildLine. Unfortunately Mr Currie has little understanding of the costs involved in providing this service to the public. The owner of this business had an identical business to this in New Zealand where over $2,000,000 has been raised to date. In just 6 years in the UK in excess of £1million has been raised for ChildLine which represents in excess of 65% of the profit generated from sales. (This excludes the initial £100,000 needed to set up the business purchasing packaging machinery etc).
Customers do not get "ripped off" as he alleges. The products ae sourced from top UK manufacturers such as Cadbury's and have a retail value comparable to what would be purchased at a local convenience store or petrol station - in most cases better value for money than that.
The company has over 10 people packaging and distributing the products to a team of over 40 people who then call on all the customers where boxes are sited. The two major costs of confectionery and wages make up over 70% of the costs to get the products to the consumer.
Obviously I am only speaking as the owner of The Sweet Partnership and not the many other organisations out there that have different methods and ethics. Our company is ISO registered and is checked by trading standards annually to ensure compliance.
Mr Currie should note that these are high quality packets of sweets delivered directly to people at their place of work, and to date we have only received two complaints from the public (out of the millions of packets sold) regarding the value for money that they represent. He should also remember that people are going to buy sweets on a daily basis so this business provides funds to a charity that would not have picked them up otherwise.

Please contact me on my email address should you have any questions.

Rob Kerridge
The Sweet Partnership
[email]sweetpart@ukonline.co.uk[/email]
01293 551599

Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 16:19:01 +0100
From: Alistair Currie

This is not an answer to the question that Joe has asked, so apologies in
advance! I worked at ChildLine when they were setting this up and can
remember being very surprised by the very small amounts that came back to
the charity for each purchase. My feeling at the time was that it could
potentially damage relationships with new corporates as the employees and
the company would think they were getting ripped off by buying a pack of
sweets at a greatly inflated price simply because it was 'for charity' only
to find out that only a very small amount came to the charity. The current
ChildLine sweet scheme may have changed, so I cannot comment on its merits.

Alistair

Alistair Currie
Trinity Hospice
E-mail: [email]alistairc@trinityhospice.org.uk[/email]
020 7787 1054