The Good Little Company

a) The main facts about the activities of the company.

The Good Little Company is a brand within the company Finnebrogue. Finnebrogue is a producer of several kinds of sausages that sells The Good Little Company a variety of sausages that are produced in the healthiest and most sustainable conditions. It is based on a philosophy of "Buy One, Give One Free". This is; when consumers in the UK buy a pack of Good Little Sausages, someone in a developing country gets a staple meal every day for 2 weeks. In special dates, such as Christmas, they double the donation for the whole December (from 14 to 28 meals delivered every time a pack is sold in the UK).
The Good Little Company produces healthy sausages (reduced fat, gluten free, outdoor bred pork, and no artificial colours or flavours).
They have a partnership with a charitable organization called Christian Aid: besides the meals they provide for two weeks, the GLC donates to Christian Aid 5p for each sausages pack they sell, to contribute to the many projects they have, such as the construction of water cleaning facilities in Africa, and raising funds to help the affected communities in Sri Lanka after the devastating rains at the beginning of 2011. The GLC donated over ?20,000 in 2010.

b) The ethical challenges this company is addressing.

The Good Little Company is facing a challenge in terms of providing food that is good for the consumers, the other people who receive the free meal, its employees, and the environment. Therefore, their mission is to operate sustainably in the sector while taking all their stakeholders into account.

c) What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it.

Bearing in mind the number of workers and the revenue the GLC generates, we thought that the company may not be making profits. For this reason, we believe that the GLC brand, within the company Finnebrogue, is driven by truly ethical values. Asides from this speculation, this company has a direct emotional impact on us. It respects the environment, produces a quality product and even engages in helping those from less favoured backgrounds.
People at the GLC have a dream; to carry out their main business activity and feed people in countries where there are food shortages. To achieve this, they work in partnership with Christian aid, an international development charity.
We trust this idea because we believe it is a simple project. The GLC clearly states its objectives and commitment with society; they use the best ingredients, the most sustainable materials and aim at having a positive impact on the world. So it has positive consequences on consumers and society as a whole.
Another fact that makes us trust on the GLC is that they are very open with the activity they have been carrying out for a few years; they have created a webpage, they have a blog and they are also on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to transparently explain their current and future projects. So, avoiding secrecy is also a source of trust towards the company.

d) The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve.

The GLC is quite a small company and is still very young. In fact, its turnover only represents 14% of the total turnover generated by Finnebrogue. One of their main challenges is to be able to keep on with the project. To achieve this, we believe it is necessary for them to increase their market share and raise awareness of their intentions in order to have a bigger presence.
They have also been thinking on widening the range of products they offer to consumers: they are working on new products for GLC including burgers and sausage rolls as a potential solution.
Another problem they may be facing is that their sausages are more expensive than those of their competitors due to the higher quality they offer. However, we think this difficulty will be easily overcome since people are more and more willing to pay a higher price for products that are seen as fair. Buying GLC sausages you obtain a healthy, quality product while you contribute to a good cause.