Australian apparel and uniform brand Lowes has made one of the largest corporate donations ever made by a retailer within the country of Fiji.
Lowes’ Reuse Program has partnered with Vuvale Outsourcing Fiji, Dean World Cargo, IWS 3PL and local charities in the South Pacific country to deliver over $3 million worth of donations to Fiji.
Within the $3 million donation, this includes $1.5 million worth of unused school uniforms, 26,000 units of workwear pants for sugar cane farmers and 15,000 metres of fabric for the Solo Mums Charity Fiji.
This landmark initiative has been undertaken through 2025, according to Lowes chief information officer Sarann Ryan, who further noted this grew naturally from a close relationship with its outsourcing team in Fiji.
“We’re in contact with them weekly,” Ryan said. “They work for our Zero finance business, our accounts payable division, and our call centre is there. Through ongoing conversations, we became aware of local community needs, particularly a women’s group mentioned by Vuvale CFO Sarika Singh, that supports single mothers to become financially independent through sewing and small enterprise.
“Knowing we often have surplus fabrics and school wear, we saw an opportunity to empower these women and help local schools where resources are limited. What began as a small conversation quickly expanded into a broader initiative supporting multiple sectors.”
As part of her role at Lowes, Ryan manages the company’s supply chain and has good relationships with its partners. She had pulled them all into a roundtable discussion and asked that their philanthropic budgets be allocated to this cause.
“They didn’t hesitate,” Ryan said.
Lowes already contributes over $2 million annually to multiple charities, driven by the generosity of Lowes owner and CEO Linda Penn. This Fiji donation brings that to $5 million for 2025.
According to Ryan, Penn has personally raised over $84.3 million for Sydney children’s hospitals in three years.
“When you work for a leader like that, it's not hard to persuade her to give more, especially when women and kids are involved. When she said we should look after the men too, given we are a menswear business, I took that back to the group. That’s when Miles Blok [at Vuvale] said ‘Let's aid the sugar cane farmers and kit them out in workwear.'”