“The next step can only be to hand over SOMARO to local management”

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In this short conversation Katharina Turnauer, Jakob Detering and Simon Suitner are giving a review of SOMARO’s progress and explain why the right time has come to hand over the management.

This September SOMARO will turn five years. How would you describe the project’s development since its beginnings in 2010?

Katharina Turnauer: Oh, it exceeded all expectations! Actually, my gut feeling always told me that this idea could work, but the hard facts told a different story. All the bureaucracy, this huge gap between the rich and the poor, underdeveloped infrastructure, relatively little importance of corporate social responsibility and so forth – this is not really a place where a social business is expected to flourish. But somehow it turned out that thinking in business terms and a genuine social mission can complement each other.

Simon Suitner: I think, one of the most important achievement we have realized is the fact that the people and companies we work together with really trust us. This trust building process with our beneficiaries, suppliers, state authorities, employees, volunteers and all the other partners form the backbone of our success.

Katharina Turnauer: Absolutely, and this is where I really want to thank both of you, Jakob and Simon, because without you this trust and all our success would not have been possible and we would not have been able to support our beneficiaries in such a sustainable way.

Jakob, you will hand over the general management of SOMARO to Simon Suitner on June 1st 2015. Can you explain why this step is taking place now?

Jakob Detering: Well, because it is the right time! After five years of operation our “baby” SOMARO has become a young adult and is ready to expand with local support. Wherever we look, may it be our partnerships, our customer base, aspects of internal processes or – last but not least – the fact that we are able to cover our running costs, it is possible to say that SOMARO is a stable, sustainable social business. One of the Katharina Turnauer Foundation’s approaches of support towards projects is to hand them over to local management, once they achieve a certain stability and growth. Therefore, the next step can only be to hand over SOMARO’s daily management, where the project is already embedded in local and national structures and where it is able to scale its activities in the future. I am very convinced that Simon is really the right person to be the next general manager.

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Jakob Detering, Katharina Turnauer and Simon Suitner in Bucharest

Apropos next step – let’s take a look at the future. Simon, what is your vision for SOMARO?

Simon Suitner: SOMARO is firstly about improving the living conditions of people in need, and secondly to offer an efficient solution for a more sustainable waste re-use. To achieve this ambitious goal, we need to attract more companies to cooperate, being retailers, wholesalers or producers. It is simply unacceptable that there are still tons of food thrown away in Romania whereas at the same time many Romanians can’t even afford to shop for basics at regular supermarkets. We want to bring these two issues together by creating a win-win-situation for both sides. When we look at recent developments in France for instance, where larger supermarkets are now enforced by law to give their surplus products to NGOs, one can see that this issue has become more and more important to our society. My vision for SOMARO is that we will be able to continue to grow throughout Romania and help as many people in need as possible.

Here you can learn more about the developments at SOMARO.