‘That point of the month’ usually has a damaging connotation, however the deluge of eco-friendly and natural female hygiene merchandise available on the market are giving a constructive spin to it. The way you ask? By being form to planet Earth and to ladies’s our bodies alike.
Kolkata-based model , based in August 2020 by Shripriya Khaitan Dhelia and Upasana Todi Prakash, is an efficient instance of this.
“Seventy % of women drop out of faculty once they begin menstruating. Roughly 3.3 million tons of plastic waste are disposed in India yearly and round 113,000 tons of this waste comprise single use plastic sanitary napkins. These should not simply statistics. It is a actuality that wants extra options than one.
A graduate of London Faculty of Style, Shripriya is a dressmaker who brings design aesthetics on board. Upasana Todi Prakash has a BBA from the College of Cincinnati, Ohio, and MBA from the Indian College of Enterprise, Hyderabad, and brings the enterprise sense to their three way partnership.
In August final 12 months, the 2 pals turned enterprise companions once they related over their imaginative and prescient of making a sustainable menstruation model in India.
Pointing to statistics, Shripriya says that although local weather change is a related and much-touted matter as of late, only a few are involved about world waste.
Based on the most recent World Financial institution report titled, ‘What a Waste 2.0: A World Snapshot of Strong Waste Administration to 2050’, world annual waste technology is predicted to achieve 3.4 billion tonnes over the following 30 years. Sadly, interval paraphernalia is likely one of the main contributors to world waste, because of a lack of information of sustainable menstruation habits.
“At FabPad, we intention to affect the surroundings, together with creating an affect on ladies round us. We’re working in direction of empowering ladies from low-income communities. By way of our ‘Venture Padma’, we companion with ladies from deprived backgrounds to sew and promote fabric pads. For each 25 pads bought, FabPad donates one pad to economically deprived women.
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She highlights that switching to reusable sanitary objects is a person alternative for most girls. Some ladies might not be very snug with utilizing a product like a menstrual cup whereas some might not have opted for it due to the lack of awareness on it.
FabPad needs to provide ladies a handy and eco-friendly different to decide on sustainable menstruation,
Among the merchandise accessible are reusable fabric pads, reusable fabric pantyliners, menstrual cups, interval panties, reusable fabric diapers for infants, and natural cotton disposable sanitary napkins (the newest launch). The model plans to broaden its providing by persevering with so as to add sustainable merchandise to its line-up.
“Since our model carries one thing for everybody and has gained traction as a one-stop answer for sustainable private hygiene and menstrual administration, our audience is kind of massive – from economically deprived ladies in rural areas to Technology Z!” Shripriya says.
At present, FabPad features as a D2C model with a concentrate on ecommerce platforms. The merchandise can be found on its web site in addition to on different ecommerce platforms equivalent to Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa, Meesho, Jio Mart, and Large Basket. Costs of the merchandise begin from Rs 199 for a single reusable pad and go as much as Rs 599 for a pack of 4 pads, reusable child diapers, and interval panties.
Their core crew consists of seven members with a complete of 70 members, together with the manufacturing personnel. The model identify is the brainchild of Shripriya and signifies ‘fabulous pads made of cloth’.
Their advertising crew technique focuses on media channels, campaigns, and quite a lot of avenues like paid adverts, native adverts, social media advertising, video advertising, search engine optimisation, and search engine advertising, amongst others.
FabPad provides a variety of menstrual hygiene merchandise, together with menstrual cups, reusable fabric pads, reusable fabric pantyliners, interval panties, and natural cotton disposable sanitary napkins.
Based on alliedmarketresearch.com, the female hygiene merchandise market is predicted to garner $42.7 billion by 2022, registering a CAGR of 6.1 % throughout the interval of 2016-2022. The report notes that one of many high components impacting this market is the growing demand for natural and biodegradable uncooked material-based merchandise.
FabPad started with an preliminary funding of Rs 25 lakh from co-founders Shripriya and Upasana in a 90:10 ratio respectively. In simply over a 12 months, the model has added numerous sustainable merchandise to its line and has clocked income development of 10-15 % month on month.
Nevertheless, she believes there’s a differentiator.
“We’re completely different due to our two predominant targets – and social affect. By way of our merchandise, we wish to give a handy and eco-friendly different for ladies to decide on sustainable menstruation, and thru our enterprise we wish to empower ladies round us. Therefore, model FabPad is by ladies, for ladies,” she says.
“Our tremendous ladies referred to as Padmas (named after their Venture Padma), are an integral a part of our organisation. They assist us sew the FabPad merchandise, promote and distribute the merchandise, unfold consciousness about protected menstrual practices, and scale back the taboo surrounding the topic.”
Since all their merchandise are manufactured in-house, they lay nice emphasis on high quality. Merchandise stay inexpensive by eliminating all middlemen from the method. “From the selection of cloth to the strategy of producing our merchandise, there are lots of methods by which FabPad is completely different from opponents,” Shripriya says.
Effectively-placed to be a frontrunner within the female hygiene and private care section, FabPad is seeking to cement its presence across the nation additional.
“We now have already empowered roughly 37,500 menstruators with higher well being and hygiene, and want to develop this quantity by 10x within the subsequent two years,” Shripriya says.