Hi there,

My Name is Matt Oliver and together with my wife Gillian we are the new custodians of Bala Sport

Apologies we are taking too long to get going here. I have been in a dilemma for several weeks as my heart wanted to be able to certify our balls moving forward. However, all the different costs regarding certification make this impossible for us as a start up.

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Certification it seems is aimed at much bigger enterprises than us.

As an advocate of certification, I have to confess I have been in limbo as I work out what best to do. Thankfully some of you have helped me in this process and also given me the nudge I need.

The most important thing to me is to support the producer we have found to work with. We will pay the premium and a fair trade price for the balls, but for now, we will need to remain uncertified.

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Once established and when we can afford to do so, we will look to certify our product in the most appropriate way. I hope this is ok with the majority. For the short term, Bala balls will be Fairly Traded and will help the producers involved. We will be transparent on this process and always open to question.

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Today I have written to the producer to get a final price and I hope to make the initial order by the end of the month.

It would be really helpful to get an idea of the potential order size we make. If you could reply with a number of balls you might initially need (don't worry we won't hold you to it it's just an indication) it would be a massive help.

Thank you all for your continued support and apologies again for the delays.

Matt Oliver

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