Soap-making venture produces premium product, renewed hope
Women in Mardin, Turkey, make luxury soap by hand, using premium, natural materials and ages-old, traditional formulas. The partnership between JohnsonDiversey, a women's entrepreneurial group in Turkey, and a group of community centers has restored the production of a prized Turkish luxury soap and provided the women with valuable, sustainable jobs.
An innovative collaboration between JohnsonDiversey employees in Turkey and a women's business organization continued to gain ground in 2008, providing luxury soap to local hotels and helping women in an economically challenged area improve their lives.
Bittim soaps are named for a species of wild pistachio native to southeast Turkey. Soap made from the pistachio nut oil is prized for its ability to nourish and soften skin and hair, and the process for making it is an important part of Anatolian Turkish culture. The tradition was threatened in recent years by cheaper soaps made from low-quality materials in unhygienic plants. JohnsonDiversey worked in partnership with KAGIDER, an association of women entrepreneurs, and CATOM, a group of multipurpose community centers, to establish a workshop in Mardin, Turkey, where women receive thorough instruction and hands-on training in making the soaps according to the old, traditional formulas and processes using premium raw materials.
JohnsonDiversey sells the soaps to more than 300 premium hotels and resorts throughout Turkey as part of our Racine de la Vie (roots of life) amenities package. The women who produce the soap also have expanded their sales to local hotels and facilities, began exporting it to a wholesaler in France, and are developing a line of soaps packaged for retail sale.
The daughter of a Bittim employee displays a basket of the prized soaps.