After spending six months in Banglaore, southern India in 2004, helping to set up a new business centre for the news agency Reuters, I realised I had finally had enough of corporate life and it was time to follow my instincts and give up a monthly salary for a more interesting path through life.....

As anyone who has visited India knows, the country usually has a profound effect  on people and to cut a long story short, it led to me setting up a fair trade importing company, Leela, in 2005 and then our ethical giftshop in 2009. (Leela recently stopped the wholesale side of our company and focused instead on our shop in Devon as that is the side of the business I enjoy the most.)

Leela originally imported beautiful wooden toys from Bangalore alongside other fair trade gifts like soaps and home accessories.  It was the toys, however, that caught  people’s imaginations and the toys are the reason behind our name - “leela” means “play” in Sanskrit (an ancient Indian language and obviously you knew that already but just in case......). For several years Leela sold the toys to retailers across Europe - from the National Gallery, to Kew Garden’s visitor centre and Paul Smith, fashion designer.  Proof that fair trade is now mainstream.

Our ethical giftshop is in Okehampton, a lovely market town on the edge of Dartmoor. The great advantage of having a wholesale background in  fair trade means that I have built up a good knowledge of who the genuine fair trade and ethical suppliers are so you can be assured that we don’t deal  with people    who have “jumped on the bandwagon”. We also focus on sourcing from companies where there is a strong, contemporary, design-input so that Leela’s shop is  definitely ethical rather than ethnic in style.

Also, there are so many great ethical products and companies around now compared to even 18 months ago so our view is that there is no need to buy anything other than fair trade, recycled, eco-friendly and local. Leela offers a     viable alternative to high street shopping.

Hand in hand with our product range is our customer service approach - you      won’t find us in the shop head down in our books, computer, sat behind a counter   - we love to chat and find out all about you - don’t be scared - we’re just friendly and motivated by happy customers most of all......(Carol Tweedie is my shop manager and her enthusiasm for what Leela is all about will no doubt rub off on you as well!)

Annie Hargreaves