At The Natural Selection, we believe in doing our best. We pride ourselves on being a family-run business offering high-quality, well-designed furniture at great value prices. We have a strong ethical and environmental awareness and are always striving to improve our performance in these areas. We like to think we’re honest, friendly and easy to deal with and our business is firmly based on the principles of Fair Trade.
Please take a look at the photographs below taken at the factory that produces most of our ranges in Northern India. You can see below the raw materials essentially Sheesham, Acacia, Mango & Oak wood arriving at one end of the factory where it is sorted into relevant sizes before being pressure treated to kill any insects that may be living in the timber and then kiln dried down to about 8% moisture content. The timber is then processed by hand into our stunning Indian & Oak Furniture ranges. All Jali Iron Work, Hinges, Fittings and metal work are also produced in house. The final stage of production is quality checking prior to packaging and loading into 40 foot containers to be transported to the UK.
All timber used in the production of our furniture ranges is from Indian Government managed plantations and is fully traceable back to its source. As yet the Indian Government has not adopted the FSC standard except in a small area which cultivates rubber wood. Our furniture is manufactured from timber that is sustainably produced and look forward to the Indian Government fully adopting the FSC standard amongst all of its plantations. Please see below an extract from the World Wild Life Fund that gives a little more detail about timber production in India.
"India has established a strong policy and legal framework for forest conservation. The scientific management of forestry in India dates back to 1864. The forest management working plans in India follow several principles and criteria which are in line with best practices.
However, forest certification in India is still at an early stage and therefore the nation has not been able to make use of the benefits of forest certification. So far, India has secured one FSC Forest Management Unit Certificate (644 ha of rubber plantations in Tamil Nadu State) and a few COCs mainly by small and medium companies to meet export demand. But the situation is likely to change due to the increased demand for forest certification in the global market and the high growth of the Indian economy. The impact of such demand on forest based industries and growers, particularly those of small and medium scale in India will be severe unless they secure forest certification. To address this situation, there is a need to ensure adequate FMU certifications in the country.
The export promotion council of handicrafts (EPCH) set up by the Ministry of Textiles is concerned about the adverse effects of increased demand for forest certification on export prospects of Indian wooden handicrafts industry and initiated several approaches to promote forest certification."
The people that make our furniture (all men I am afraid) are highly skilled and have been trained by several master cabinet makers through effectively what is an apprenticeship scheme, they first start by making simple items such as coffee tables and then through an in house training scheme move on to larger and more complex items that require a higher degree of skill to manufacture.
The people that make our ranges are well paid and looked after by the owners of the factory both in terms of their working conditions and general welfare including medical treatment. These procedures are inspected on a regular basis to ensure that all of our furniture is fairly traded and the men that make it earn a good living from the work that they do.
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