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Cookstove Distribution Systems Update

ETHOS 2018Richard Grinnell

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2 New Stores empowering 10 women that own the stores

Funding by UNDP Forestry Program

Jutiapa, Jutiapa

Jalapa, Jalapa

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Process for starting a new store

• Community with an important market is selected

• Work with the Municipal Women´s Office to propose groups of women

• Interview with women to select a group of no more tan 7

– Time availability

– Husband approval

– Experience with sales

– Desire to participate

• Selection of adequate location for store

• Store painted and branded, basic furniture and equipment purchased, stove selection installed

• Women group training: Basic accounting, explanation of the stoves models, sales techniques, intrapersonal relations, hygiene and store maintenance, inventories, negotiation with product vendors, banking, basic marketing and advertisement, etc.

• Provide basic initial inventory and demos stoves (working capital)

• Store inauguration with local government and media presence

• 4 month continuous support

• Umbrella Organization on call for advice and problem solving

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Umbrella Organization

• Provide back office Support

– Online accounting

– Call Center

– Facebook fan page (FB/estufasmejoradasymas)

– Ads and promotions

– Llogistics for stove and other product supply and transport

– New products

– Continuous training

• Must be sustainable on its own

• Charge a nominal fee to each store?

• Engage MFIs

• Help set up new stores to expand network

• Work with manufacturers to provide stoves that respond to customer requests

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What have we learned

• Customers amazed at stove variety

• Like the ability to test

• Walk by visitors

• People ask for other stoves

– Could be sourced and sold

• Manufacturers have made stove modifications to achieve better acceptance

• Issues with replenishing inventory

– Timeliness

– Transportation cost

– Availability

• Different models accepted in different regions

• Good amount of traffic on Facebook indicating interest, both local and migrant family

members

• Problem resolution within women groups

• Working capital needs

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• Designs that are retail market ready

• Pre assembled or simple assembly

• Not a lot of inventory parts, packaging

• Weight, transportability

• Modern looking (don’t look like projects but like products)

• Intuitive use

• Meets needs

Working with distributors and manufacturers

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Clean Cookstove Store advantages

• Women can see and test drive the stoves available

• 380 women from 15 municipalities selected the 6 stoves they liked best

• Evaluated: looks, ease of lighting, ease of maintaining the fire and cooking, tortilla making

• Municipal or NGO projects can bring groups of women to select the stove they prefer

• Inventory available for immediate sale

• Sell replacement parts

• Provide post sale services

• Feed back for the manufacturers

• Women empowerment and create access to technologies

• Other products: Water filters, solar lights, pots and pans

and other products

• Job creation

• Point of sales for manufacturers/importers, helping increase

their production volumes and potentially lower production costs

and therefore make them more affordable

• Consumer credit

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Awareness and available stove models presented

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Women test the stoves in the store before deciding on the model they want

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What’s comming:

• Two new stores funded by Ecomedia (CBS owned company) through their Givewith program

– Will develop a 2 to 3 minute video and share through social media for 3 months

– Match with corporate support for actual funding

• NAMA Facility to provide funds for 15 to 20 new stores for the 5 prioritized departments

starting the second half of 2018

• Seeking corporate interest and/or donors to put stores in non-NAMA departments (other

countries?)

• Business model fine tuning

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Richard GrinnellMarket Manager for Latin AmericaGlobal Alliance for Clean Cookstovesrgrinnell@cleancookstoves.org