Finlays is one of the biggest manufacturers of tea in Kenya! It is a global brand with extensive tea and horticultural interests in Kenya, South Africa and Sri Lanka complemented by global trading, packaging and extraction activities. Its primary markets are in the United States, United Kingdom, Asia and Europe.

Over the years, Finlays has played an important role in the development of the tea industry through pioneering tea research, development and production. Finlays’ Tea Estates in Kenya and Sri Lanka cover more than 15,000 hectares and produce 40 million kilos of black tea each year. Finlays is the largest trader of Fairtrade tea in the world and largest roaster of coffee in the United Kingdom.

Karin Benjamin is the National Sales Manager here at EcoZoom. Karin joined EcoZoom in February 2014 as a sales associate in charge of Western, Nyanza & Rift Valley provinces. His main role is to open up new sales channels and support existing clients.

In June of 2014, EcoZoom formed a partnership with Finlays led by Karin. Finlays has over 15,000 employees living in close quarters who were using kerosene due to lack of electricity in the area. They were therefore experiencing problems with lighting their homes and charging their phones, turning to kerosene for their energy needs. 

Finlays planned to implement a policy whereby they would eliminate kerosene use by 100% and one of the measures they took was the adoption of clean energy solar lights for their staff.

Through partnership with GIZ, several players in the solar industry were invited to showcase their products, and ours matched their needs! We have so far sold almost 7000 solar product sets to Finlays, and continue to work with them to date. The employees have now taken the solar technologies to their rural homes, benefiting other family members. 

Thanks to our products, over 70M on kerosene costs will be saved per year. That translates to 1.2M litres of kerosene! 

Finlays and Unilever have championed clean energy adoption in Kericho. We are proud to be associated with these brands that continuously embrace Sustainable Development initiatives and empower their employees.

“Asante kwa kutupea chai.”