16th September 2004

"ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER..." BUSINESS LAUNCHES WEBSITE

With a worldwide track record in international development, energy and transport, a Midlands company is introducing a new action-oriented approach to ethical business on a small scale.

JPM Parry & Associates Ltd (JPA) - based in Cradley Heath, West Midlands, UK - has successfully traded in the field of overseas development for over 30 years. The company is also active in the energy and transport markets. Alongside the Soil Association, Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG), IT Power and other specialist companies, JPA is a 'child of Schumacher' - not the racing driver but Dr E F Schumacher, the visionary economist who in the late 1960s changed the way the world thinks about technology, the environment and the relief of poverty in the Third World.

The company's website www.parryassociates.com - unveiled today - gives internet visitors a complete overview of the company's approach and the ways in which its products and services can improve people's quality of life and the environment, and have created tens of thousands of jobs in developing countries.

Details included on the site include:

• full details of the company's activities in the overseas development, energy and transport fields;
• examples of successful projects using Parry technology in the Gambia, Sierra Leone and Mozambique;
• a guide to common issues in the developing world and how Parry technology addresses them;
• an easy-to-use indicative price list including examples of complete starter packs to set up fully functioning workshops.

Parry technology enables development with environmental responsibility, making best use of locally-available resources. JPA provides a full technical support service to its customers, arranging for trained African technicians to instruct new users, sometimes in other countries and continents, in the best use of the equipment. This is an example of 'south-to-south' co-operation.

Livelihoods for tens of thousands of people in Africa, Asia and Central America have developed out of the successful introduction of Parry building materials technology using local resources. Once set up, small workshops become viable and sustainable businesses producing materials which are in great demand for quality construction.

Partner organisations that have funded programmes based on Parry technology include the Commonwealth Secretariat, the UK's Department for Intenational Development and numerous non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from around the world. JPA products are also bought by local entrepreneurs in developing countries in order to generate viable businesses in their communities.

Notes:

1. JPM Parry & Associates Ltd was founded in 1974 by John Parry, one of the early team of directors of the Intermediate Technology Development Group and chair or its Building Materials Panel, to offer technical services to the construction industry in Britain and overseas. Shortly afterwards, the company started to develop a range of intermediate technology machinery which could be used to produce quality building materials in developing countries using local resources. These are now in service in over 80 countries.

2. Applied to transport, the Parry approach to technological development produced the flywheel energy storage system licensed to Parry People Movers Ltd ( www.parrypeoplemovers.com ) and which will be trialled on a branch of the UK's rail network later in 2004.

For further information, please contact:

John Parry MBE
CHAIRMAN

JPM Parry & Associates Ltd
Overend Road
Cradley Heath
West Midlands

back to latest news or press releases