Shwe Shwe Poppis Co-operative: quick guide

What we do

The Shwe Shwe Poppis Co-operative Project is a community-based doll production project in Soweto, which provides beneficiaries with skills and a sustainable income. The dolls are adapted from drawings made by kids at the Zola crèche.
The project began in Zola in Soweto. Initially nine women and two men from the community were formed into a group. Materials, premises, equipment, support services and training were provided by the African Children's Feeding Scheme, which was established in 1945 and feeds 21,000 children daily in the townships around Johannesburg. The ACFS also manages educative programmes about health and nutrition. One of its objectives is that people in the communities it serves should become independent and self-supporting.
Dolls are sold locally through accredited dealers and internationally throughout the EU and the US. After the child's doll is sold, (s)he receives a royalty payment for the ‘design'. A trust account is opened with these funds and the children can pay for school and university fees. The project started as a small, informal charity-based project which could not expand due to market failures that hindered the business accessing finance to expand production capacity. ComMark's involvement in addressing this failure has allowed the business to flourish.
Members of the co-operative are paid per doll. At present R29 of the selling price of R65 is paid to the co-operative members. The co-operative members decided which job would be compensated at which rate amongst themselves. As a result, the lowest earning members of the co-operative earn approximately R1,700 per month while the more skilled workers earn between R2,500 and R6,000 per month.
In an attempt to meet increasing demand, a second group of five women was established in Pimville, Soweto and an additional seven women have joined the original group. This brings the total number of individuals earning from this project to 24, including the supervisor.
All of these people previously had no income whatsoever.

Why this intervention

Market failure occurs in a variety of forms for small, second-economy co-operative enterprises in South Africa. Academics and policy-makers often believe that the most pressing constraints arise on the demand side where the output of a co-operative cannot be linked into first-economy value chains and sufficient sales and revenue generated. Increasingly, however, NGO and government initiatives that support co-operative enterprises are finding that supply-side constraints are the limiting factor - especially access to finance, appropriate land/premises and quality support services.
The Shwe Shwe Poppis project is an example of such a market failure on the supply side. For the first 18 months of its existence, the project was producing approximately 300 dolls a month. Market development and branding initiatives have now begun to bear fruit and the co-operative is facing orders for up to 2,000 dolls a month. Despite having a substantial contract order book, the co-operative has been unable to raise funds in the financial sector, resulting in the co-operative being forced to turn down orders as they cannot access the capital necessary to gear up their production to meet demand.
This co-operative is a commercially viable business, over and above its contribution towards creating employment for women and some men and HIV-positive residents of some of the poorest parts of Soweto. Moreover, the co-operative has the potential to grow into a sustainable small business as it has successfully linked into retail markets in the US, Norway and Germany.

What we achieve

The Shwe Shwe Poppi Project is a spin-off project emanating from the ACFS crèche project in Zola, Soweto. In collaboration with two designers from Isandi Konsept AS in Oslo, four- and five-year-old children in the crèche were asked to do a drawing. Eight of these drawings were turned into poppis made from the traditional Shwe Shwe fabric. Initially the poppis were marketed using the personal contacts of members of the African Children's Feeding Scheme. Locally the poppis were distributed by the African Toyshop, but the majority of demand arose from international sources that were seeking high quality and unusual South African crafts to sell in foreign markets.
In the middle of 2007, marketing efforts began to pay off. A large American retail company Anthropologie discovered the range of poppis and placed a substantial order of 1,250 poppis for sale in their retail outlets and via their internet sales channels. 150 poppis from this first order have been designated by Anthropologie as their ‘2007 holiday gift' to members of the US media. Via this company, Oprah Winfrey found out about the poppis and Anthropologie has placed an order for her for 1,500 poppis for delivery in mid-October 2007. German Vogue in its May 2007 issue ran a glossy one-page spread of essential items to own in 2007 - one of which was a Shwe Shwe poppi - and consequently the first order of 500 poppis for Germany has been received. German Vogue has promised to again feature this project in a future edition of the magazine.
Via word of mouth, profile to be created by Oprah Winfrey, an insert on CNN International and CNN USA at the end of 2006, magazine exposure and the work of a variety of local and international individuals the Shwe Shwe poppis range has taken off.
However, the co-operative has found it difficult to meet demand given their existing operational constraints. Craft businesses selling into foreign countries are particularly vulnerable to

• Unauthorised production (trademark and copyright infringement);
• Faddish demand which peaks and then falls away completely; and
• Quality control issues, especially in the EU and US markets where safety issues are carefully monitored.

The Trustees of the co-operative have taken important steps to ensure that the business is not just a flash in the pan. Sustainable job creation and predictable revenue generation is the key goal of the project.

• Trademarking is in process by Isandi Konsept AS. Both the poppis and see-through plastic pockets, which are a feature of some of the poppis, are to be trademarked.
• American producers have already requested licensing rights to produce the poppis in bulk in China and this has been refused by the Trust.
• The Trust has attained SABS approval for the poppis suitable for age 3 and above and is awaiting the CE mark, which is being handled by Isandi Konsept AS. This allows the dolls to be exported as children's toys to the US and EU.
• The Trust is developing a line of products based on the Shwe Shwe poppi brand. Product development includes appliqué T-shirts, miniature dolls to be sold as cell phone accessories, cell phone pouches and hair accessories.
• The Trust is exploring the possibility of TV series. A local film producer has expressed an interest and is in discussion with an international children's TV company.

How is this sustainable

The commercial side of the business is overseen by an incorporated Trust with a Board of Trustees including the executive director of the ACFS, the Shwe Shwe Poppis project supervisor, a tax advisor from Zeridium (Pty) Ltd, an accountant from Deloitte South Africa and an ACFS volunteer who is the project mentor and the link with Isandi Konsept AS. The business is run on commercially viable principles, with sales revenues covering production.
If the project can gear up to reach its potential, it is believed that the number of co-operative members can be increased to 50 within the next 12 months and possibly up to 100 in 24 months if product development continues. With a dependency ratio of on average 4 per co-operative member, this project could ensure the livelihood of up to 400 people in two years, in a sustainable manner.

Who we work with