Journal ·
A Visit to Victoria Yards
Our Johannesburg factory is open to visitors. A walk between soldering irons, a solar roof and beadwork.
Some factories hide behind fences. Ours sits in the middle of Victoria
Yards, an old industrial courtyard in eastern Johannesburg — and the
door is open. Anyone who wants to can come by and watch a Sonnenglas
being made.
The tour starts with the light itself. At the assembly benches people
solder and test; this is where they learn electronics assembly,
welding and robotics — trades that weren't on their CVs before. More
than 50 steady, fairly paid jobs have grown out of this,
Fair-Trade-certified since 2013, in a region where youth unemployment
runs above 60 percent.
One floor closer to the sky, stop two: the solar roof. The factory
runs almost entirely on solar power — a solar light built with
sunshine. A product rarely gets to tell its own story this plainly.
Then the handwork you can see on the finished piece: mouth-blown
recycled glass, finished by hand; beadwork on the Artisan Editions;
shweshwe fabric that becomes a Lightshade over the lantern. We have a
line for what happens here: Social Impact by Design. Proudly Made in
Africa.
Whoever walks back across the courtyard takes two things along —
maybe a jar, certainly a different picture of what a factory can be.
Designed, built and tested in one place, by people with names and
growing skills. 100 percent of profits stay with the company and its
people.
If your travels bring you to Johannesburg: come by. The door is open
— and the light that stands on your table in the evening learned to
walk here.