At a Glance
Location: Lima, Perú
Impact Areas: Sustainable Income, Technology
People Supported:
Women, Small Producers & Artisans, Indigenous & Roma People, Rural
Joined NESsT Portfolio:
2016
Overview
An estimated 170,000 families in Peru are small and medium producers of alpaca wool. Many are not able to generate enough income to support their families and live in poverty.
Suritex is a social enterprise that lowers the cost of processing the raw wool through solar-powered technology and passes on these savings by buying the wool fiber from the alpaqueros at fair market price.
Suritex also offers training programs and employment opportunities for women in the communities. At the production site, they learn skills to work in wool processing, knitting and manufacturing. The women are paid a fair price for the products and benefit from flexible working conditions that also allow them to care for their families.
Results & Impact
US$6K
monthly income increase for each community using Suritex plants
120
families who have benefited from increased income
US$700K
in sales over the past three years
“We work directly with alpaca breeders so they can leave behind the reality of selling fiber at very low prices. We seek to be seen as a key partner who can add value to them through our services.”
NESsT Investment
Suritex joined the NESsT portfolio in 2016. Suritex was founded by Gregor Brenner Knoch in 2001 and has been successful as a family-run business. NESsT is excited to work with Suritex as it now seeks to scale its production and sales to provide the opportunity for increased income to more alpaqueros and members of their communities.
NESsT has focused on helping Suritex improve its production capabilities through the design, validation, manufacturing and installation of solar-powered collectors at its textile plan. In addition to providing consulting, NESsT also provided financial investment and leveraged loans funded in the Kiva platform to support its growth. The NESsT portfolio team in Peru helped Suritex develop a business model that builds on these improvements and passes the realized savings back to the producers, leading to higher margins and improved livelihoods.