Panublix Impact Report Mar 2020-Feb 2021
It has been a year since the #COVID19 lockdowns in the #Philippines halted our way of life. It has also been a year since we started Panublix!
We never expected we would launch a startup amidst a pandemic (who did?). But all the more were we affirmed by the urgency to do it. Our goal of linking Philippine textile makers, weavers & garment-makers with the global fashion & design market through digital adoption & e-commerce has become immensely important!
This year, 2021, we formally launch operations as a registered company operating as Panublix Innovations Inc. We could not have done this without our tapestry of partners & collaborators! Salamat gid, kag padayon! We look forward to continuing collaborations in ushering a renaissance of #TransparentandImpactfulSourcing for Philippine #Textiles & #Garments!
Here is our Impact report from March 2020 - February 2021
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We started Panublix out of our own pain points. We are a team of designers, innovators, marketers, scientists and engineers, who all have a passion for our Philippine textiles and our diverse culture.
Even before the COVID19 pandemic, disruptions caused by rapid innovations & climate crisis threatened the exclusion of many sectors in society. For the fashion & design industry, this includes the makers of things we buy!
COVID 19 further disrupted this. Now even designers and large retailers have been struggling to survive. The whole fashion industry has been shaken to its core. If the big players have been disrupted, how much more the microentrepreneurs & informal sectors in the supply chain?
This is our challenge: How might we innovate a solution that enables our textile makers in the Philippines to thrive in an innovation-driven economy?
We had our sights set on connecting with weavers in our home base of Iloilo, Philippines - which was once known as the country's textile capital. But when lockdowns were declared in March 2020, our plans were put on hold.
The income of our partner weavers & garment-makers decreased by 90% in the 2nd quarter of 2020 due to the cancelled conventions, graduations and tourism activity which were the main revenue sources.
All the more were we motivated to make Panublix work in order to prevent the economic impact of the pandemic from plunging our partners in hunger, poverty & instability.
This is what we did.
To answer the call for local PPEs for front liners, we aggregated garment-makers in a digital system so donors can easily procure PPEs when supply chains were disrupted. We were able to produce over Php 200,000 of PPE suits which became a crucial income source for our garment makers.
When the demand for cloth face masks increased, our weavers pivoted to sewing face masks using the hablon weaves thereby helping in liquidating their stock and providing cashflow for their families. We also setup an e-commerce site that can gave them direct access to a global market.
Since launching the site in August 2020, we've received over Php120,000 worth of orders in face masks, hablon weaves & scarves.
Total sales: ₱359,257.20 (March 2020-February 2021)
69.2% of sales went directly to partner communities. The rest were invested back into the social enterprise development efforts.
For community partners, we have 14 community enterprises onboarded in the Panublix platform:
- 2 Indigenous Community Enterprises
- 10 Handloom Weaving Enterprises
- 2 Garment-making associations
13 in Western Visayas (Iloilo); 1 in Cordillera Administrative Region (Abra).
We have sustained at least 36 weavers and garment-makers in their livelihood with orders for almost a year. In addition, we have created 5 jobs in our growing Panublix team with 83% of our management & leadership team being women!
In less than 12 months we have connected our community partners to markets in over 30 countries through digital adoption & e-commerce.
None of this would have been possible without our tapestry of partners from public & private sectors to facilitate digital adoption among our weavers & garment makers.
Philippine Textile Research Institute
National Economic Development Authority Region 6
Province of Iloilo
City of Iloilo
Department of Trade and Industry
QBO Innovation Hub
US Embassy in the Philippines
Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative
The Spark Project
ISIP Impact Accelerator
Ashoka Philippines
Entrego Philippines
FH Moms
Asian Institute of Management
UP Visayas
Central Philippine University
Philippine Science High School Western Visayas
Iloilo Science and Technology University
Kwadra TBI
Global Shapers iloilo
Bangon Iloilo
Salamat gid!
We know this is still a small drop in the bucket. We hope to be able to connect more weavers & textile makers especially in Southeast Asia, to the global fashion & design market, through digital supply chain & commerce.
We invite you to join the mission. Let's build the gateway for a renaissance of traceable, transparent & impactful fashion. Interested to connect, learn more or even invest in this mission?
Contact us at panublix@gmail.com