What They Do:
La Boutique Sociale is a social enterprise working on zero waste in textile by doing upcycling and recycling. They collect unwanted donated clothes and items and sort them into different categories to be reused in different ways: selling pieces in very good condition to vulnerable people at a very low price, while pieces that are in a bad condition are upcycled in their outlets.
Startup Experience:
“We applied to the STAND Up! Program since we believe in sustainability and want to be part of the circular economy. We benefited from the training sessions in developing and enriching our journey towards sustainability.
Since we’re already an existing project, our collecting and sorting systems already exist, in addition to 3 open outlets. We are currently looking for a warehouse to act as a central hub to systematize our activities. We are also looking to open a new outlet. Our work has allowed us to create employment opportunities in the fashion industry in Lebanon.
The compound impact of the economic crisis and COVID-19 has brought us additional clothes donations from abroad while also increasing our sales activities. To accommodate this change, we created a bigger space to be able to receive more donations, we remained open during the lockdown to keep up with operations, and we increased our donations to people in need.
We’re hoping that by the end of the program we launch our e-commerce platform and develop a business plan that helps give us a clearer understanding of our costs and operations: to see the feasibility and how to implement our project appropriately.”
The startup is part of the STAND Up! Accelerator program.
