Omar El karhat
Soufiane Elaidi
Al Akhawayn University
Mary Grace Neville
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ARGANTIC produces natural healing oils and cosmetics in a safe working environment in a region where exploitation of people and resources is too common. The company employs marginalized people, primarily women, in the mountains of Morocco, and requires employees to participate in literacy and safety training programs. The manager recognizes this is good for business,"Investing in workplace training is money well spent because employers with efficient and effective safety and health conditions and training programs benefit from fewer injuries, and accidents' complaints." The workers are now able to work safely, educate their children, and take care of their families.
ARGANTIC S.A.R.L. is a family owned business directed by a father and his son. The mother is the one responsible for the women's cooperative that produces argan oil from argan seeds. The cooperative consists of five women producing cosmetic and alimentary argan oil products. It is highly stressed that the production process is to be done the traditional way, with no manufacturing machines and results in considerable liters of the product each day.
The ARGANTIC manager follows a hygiene and safety training program that provides a safer work environment for their employees. All employees must complete the mandatory training classes that demonstrate clear safety procedures and norms that must be respected.
The father, and co-owner of the business, was curious about the benefits that the purest of argan oils from the fruit of the argan tree bring to human health. He also knew that creating the process is very vulnerable to imitation and attracts some unethical people who add industrial oils and pretend to tourists and clients that it is actually the pure original argan oil. Such fakes can ruin the reputation of the special oil genuinely intended for cosmetics and alimentary use. In fact, honest regional women in Agadir, Ourika, and Marakech had formed a cooperative and were collecting the dates of the argan tree to make into oil. But their prices did not reflect the medical value of their pure product, and they were barely making any money.
So the father encouraged his son, who was studying economics, to work hard and create together a company that could commercialize the cooperative's argan products. The goal was to help the cooperative sell locally and nationally. They created ARGANTIC S.A.R.L. (Société à Résponsabilité Limitée - limited responsibilities).
The founder said, “I want to save time and energy for my clients in order for them to take advantage of the most valuable products - pure, homemade, and carefully processed argan oil products - at a fair price. The price consists of my services that I bring to my customers, nothing more. I am only profiting from my work.”
One of the driving incentives for the company is to help the community and contribute to the development of the region by employing women living in the geographical area.
ARGANTIC is offering cosmetic products of high quality in order to differentiate and preserve a good reputation within the market. The company employs marginalized women within Ourika Valley and provides better working conditions compared to approximately 20 other cooperatives and companies in the region. Unlike other companies, ARGANTIC respects labor standards by paying employees minimum wage, assures that they do not work over 8 hours per day, provides work insurance, and a Medicare plan. ARGANTIC is therefore contributing to the enhancement of the social conditions of its employees, enabling these women to school their children and take better care of their families.
Employees attend training programs emphasizing security measures that must be taken into account in the workplace. This training has insured that employees prevent many work accidents as well as raise awareness about hygenic ways to process argan fruit. ARGANTIC is a startup company that is profitable but at the same time, it aims to develop and bring a positive impact within the rural region of Ourika Valley near Merrakech.
The pure oil is gaining popularity around the globe because of health benefits such as acne cure, lowering bad cholesterol, improving health in women, and slowing aging.
The idea of starting a business solely based on local products within the region of Ourika is fascinating. Mr. Fouad insisted that investing in that region has helped the company to evolve and see things from a different perspective.
ARGANTIC has gained a lot of expertise and knowledge on the cosmetic industry, especially on the argan based products. This company is giving a boost to the cosmetic industry in Morocco and the economy of that region by promoting and selling these argan based cosmetics. ARGANTIC is consistently striving to make high quality products to be sold for argan lovers, either Moroccans or tourists. In addition, this company is differentiating within this market by taking care of the whole process of production (from seed processing to packaging) in order to offer the best quality to its customers.
Profit made by the company is being reinvested on the company in order to help ARGANTIC grow financially.
According to the World Bank; the rate of women participating in labor force within Morocco has been slightly decreasing over the last 10 years. Thus, ARGANTIC is offering a job to the marginalized women living in the rural region of Ourika.
The Moroccan society is still a very masculine and male centric society, despite all the changes made in the Moroccan constitution in order to diminish gender discrimination. Thus, women are still struggling to find decent jobs and many others are being oppressed at the workplace. ARGANTIC is offering them an opportunity to work in a safe environment. Employing these women, ARGANTIC is impacting the lives of their relatives. ARGANTIC is implementing a linguistic training in order to ease the communication between the employees and the tourists that purchase these products, since these employees have to deal with customers from different nationalities.
ARGANTIC is a profitable company that is socially involved in the region. Many children in that region are dropping out of school at a very young age due to poverty and harsh conditions of living. ARGANTIC has been making some donations to the needy and helping many children to go to school.
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Fouad El aarjaoui, Argantic Expansion Strategical Management
