Group 70 International, Inc. history

In 1933 IBM purchased Electromatic Typewriters, Inc., and thereby entered the field of electric typewriters, in which it eventually became an industry leader.

Founded in 1948, Robert Half has a long history of connecting opportunities at great companies with highly skilled job seekers.

In 1957 she joined IBM’s Vanguard Computing Center in Washington, D.C., where she wrote computer programs that tracked orbits for the uncrewed Vanguard satellite and the crewed Mercury spacecraft.

The first formal “Fair Trade” shop which sold these and other items opened in 1958 in the USA.

She left IBM in 1960 to move to Los Angeles, where she worked at the aerospace firm Space Technology Laboratories; there she did further work on satellite orbits.

In 1962 she joined the aerospace firm North American Aviation, where she worked on celestial mechanics and trajectory calculations for the Apollo project.

She returned to IBM to its Federal Systems Division in 1963 as senior mathematician.

In 1964, it created the first Fair Trade Organisation.

Parallel initiatives were taking place in the Netherlands and in 1967 the importing organisation, Fair Trade Original, was established.

At the same time, Dutch organisations began to sell cane sugar with the message “by buying cane sugar you give people in poor countries a place in the sun of prosperity”. These groups went on to sell handicrafts from the South, and in 1969 the first “Third World Shop” opened.

In 1973, Fair Trade Original in the Netherlands, imported the first fairly traded coffee from cooperatives of small farmers in Guatemala.

The company did not enter the growing market for personal computers until 1981, when it introduced the IBM Personal Computer.

The first European World Shops conference took place in 1984.

In 1986, when current leadership acquired the Robert Half business from founder Bob Half, the staffing industry was much different than it is today.

The European Fair Trade Association (EFTA), an association of the 11 largest importing Fair Trade organisations in Europe, was formed in 1987, and two years later, the World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO), formerly the International Federation of Alternative Trade (IFAT).

In 1988, the “Max Havelaar” label was established in The Netherlands.

The members of WFTO vary greatly. Thus, in 1989, WFTO was formed in the Netherlands.

The Network of European World Shops (NEWS!) was formally established in 1994 and now represents approximately 3.000 World Shops in close to 20 European countries.

In 1995 IBM purchased Lotus Development Corporation, a major software manufacturer.

In 1996, NEWS! established the European World Shops Day as a Europe-wide day of campaigning on a particular issue, often with a goal at the European level.

In 1997 their worldwide association, Fairtrade Labelling International (FLO, now Fairtrade International) was created.

FLO (Fairtrade International), IFAT (WFTO), NEWS! and EFTA started to meet in 1998 and was known by their acronym - FINE. The aim of FINE is to enable these networks and their members to cooperate on important areas of work, such as advocacy and campaigning, standards and monitoring of Fair Trade.

Since 2000, IBM has placed one of its supercomputers consistently at or near the top of the industry’s list of most powerful machines as measured by standardized computation tests.

Developed over a four-year period beginning in 2001, this advanced computer chip has multiple applications, from supercomputers to Toshiba high-definition televisions to the Sony Playstation 3 electronic game system.

The first World Fair Trade Day, which involves the worldwide Fair Trade movement, was celebrated on May 4, 2002.

In order to strengthen the credibility of these organisations towards political decision-makers, mainstream business and consumers, the IFAT Fair Trade Organisation Mark was launched in January 2004.

In December 2005 IBM sold its personal computer division to the Lenovo Group, a major Chinese manufacturer.

Producers marching in Malawi during the launching of the IFAT organisational Mark in 2006.

Following the sentiments of its members, IFAT underwent enormous changes starting in 2009.

In addition to cash, securities, and debt restructuring, IBM acquired an 18.9 percent stake in Lenovo, which acquired the right to market its personal computers under the IBM label through 2010.

Following that decision, the WFTO Board was tasked to form a Working Group to design a system that would pave the way for a product label for Fair Trade Enterprises. It was during the 2011 Mombasa AGM that WFTO members decided to have a new Fair Trade system.