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Who We Are
KartiMarket was started by brothers Chris and Jaya, based on the founders' collective experiences working in furniture and product design, charity and fair trade organisations in Asia and South America, as well as in the private sector. Born in Australia to British and Indonesian parents and spending their youth between these three countries quickly led to a passion for travel – which then led to a love of visiting markets collecting interesting art and crafts from around the world.
Chris followed his heart and obtained a degree in Industrial Design, cutting his teeth as a product designer in the Netherlands before going freelance in furniture and interior design. Jaya followed his head and started working for the public service in Canberra and then a bank in London. Squeezing in a stint working at an international development charity in Tokyo Jaya became strongly interested in fair trade and subsequently went to Ecuador to work as a volunteer for a fair trade organisation (Camari, now one of our suppliers.)
In 2007, finally finding themselves both in London at the same time and having always dreamed of setting up their own furniture and product design business together, the brothers decided the time was right and KartiMarket was born...
What We Do
We source beautiful, quality, unique, fair trade homeware products from around the world and through UK suppliers. Chris also designs modern, innovative ethical furniture and homeware products (on sale soon) that incorporate the best of local (UK) skills and the best of overseas fair trade quality and style, making truly 'world products'.
Our products have real people and stories behind them as opposed to generic, factory made stuff or products without explicit guarantees that they are produced in an ethical manner. We sell our products through our online webstore here at KartiMarket.com. Our hope is that our products will bring a fresh and vibrant look to your home, so stay tuned as we start to increase our range!
What's Important To Us
KartiMarket intend to work closely with our local and overseas suppliers, craftspeople, designers and non-government organisations to build long-lasting, mutually beneficial partnerships. But while we believe passionately in fair trade we do not overlook the craftspeople here at home in the UK. Although we love to take advantage of the unique and interesting stories behind the people, materials and designs from overseas, if something can be done well here in the UK, we will source it here. For example, the wooden parts of one of our upcoming new coffee tables are made by a craftsman in Herefordshire while the table also incorporates fair trade organic cotton from India. The best of both worlds.
One of our goals is to invest in the development of our overseas fair trade suppliers by helping them to achieve higher standards of production and design, and therefore providing our customers with a greater range of attractive, quality products to choose from. By doing this we will be able to improve the range of products we offer and develop more innovative lines.
We are currently developing our environmental policy. While we do the easy stuff like using a 100% renewable energy supplier, FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified wood for our furniture products, recycling our paper, cardboard, packing materials and using recycled products around the office and for our packaging as much as currently possible, we recognise we are not experts in this area but are learning new things and making changes all the time.
As a small company we are in a great position to deliver more personal service to our customers. We want you to be happy in every way, from the product to the way in which we communicate with you. And we love feedback from you. So please feel free to contact us if you have any comments or ideas, or of course questions about our products.
The KartiMarket Name
In regards to the name KartiMarket, there's no meaning behind the word 'Karti', we just needed a word that wasn't too difficult to pronounce for our suppliers and customers. And 'market'? Well, we liked the idea of bringing the feel of the markets from around the globe to our own little market here on the web.
KartiMarket Website
The KartiMarket website and online store was designed and created by our good friends at Webarton.com.
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