Exerpts from a Note from Jenn Labit, creator of bumGenius, Flip, and Econobum:
Our company began
very small - with $100 worth of product in a tiny green milkcrate
stored in a shelf in our kitchen. It grew from there to a bookshelf,
then a closet, then a bedroom, then a basement and finally, in 2005,
the business expanded into a small commercial space... Today, Cotton Babies employs many people in the St. Louis area who work
in the warehouse shipping orders, in the retail store helping our local
customers, in the offices providing administrative support or in their
homes sewing products.
As bumGenius has grown, so have our production needs. We got
started in a woman-owned facility located in Denver, Colorado. We have
grown in that facility since 2005 and last year, we reached a point
where we had to bring a second factory online to keep up with demand.
Knowing that this need was on the horizon, we began that process in
2006 with a friend who lives in Alexandria, Egypt. That factory
actually opened its doors in July of 2007.
...Like Colorado, our Egyptian facility was established one careful step
at a time. We first located at quality control company committed to
infusing positive corporate culture into factories and facilitating the
growth of the Egyptian economy through training and worker education.
Our companies formed a strategic partnership to ensure the continued
impeccable quality of bumGenius products while also paying a living
wage and giving Egyptian workers a hand-up out of poverty. We aren't
just meeting international standards for fair wages. Because this
factory is exclusively dedicated to the production of bumGenius
products, we are able to set the factory culture through team-building
activities, on the job training, and an establishment of wages and
benefits designed to take the employees to the next level in life. We
have full time team of people who work for the quality control company
and provide "around the clock" supervision to ensure our standards are
met at all times. Their oversight includes company culture, treatment
of employees, team building as well as inspecting every single diaper
produced. The factory is beautiful and clean. It is staffed with a very
eager group of people and owned by a man who is well known and
respected by some close friends of ours. I have personally spent a
significant amount of time in Egypt making sure that things were set up
right and providing the necessary training to be sure that the managers
and staff know how to produce bumGenius products well. The whole team
there has a great respect for us, our values, our products and they
truly care about the quality of the product being produced. We are
thrilled to have successfully established an extension of Cotton Babies
in Alexandria, Egypt in purpose, in vision and in values.
We've extended these core values to the way we treat our
retailers. Our price points are designed to maximize your profit
margins wherever possible. Our customer service is intentionally
catered to your needs. We respond to your emails. We return your phone
calls. We ship your orders in a timely fashion. We process your returns
if needed and when your customer has a question, we welcome their call.
We've intentionally grown our product line in a manner that will
support our entire retail base, regardless of size.
We're proud of the way our company has grown and the positive
impact that we're having on families worldwide. Five years ago, Cotton
Babies began providing enough income to feed just our family. Today,
Cotton Babies provides income that puts good food on literally hundreds
of tables worldwide. We consider each and every staff member,
distributor and retailer part of our extended Cotton Babies team. With
the help of our world-wide team, bumGenius has become one of the best
selling diapers in the world. Thank you for the part that you play in
the story that is making a difference, in families, in community and in
the environment all over the world.
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