Growing Roots With Roots Collective PH

It takes two to tango. For Roots Collective co-owners, Aloy Chua and Dexter Yu, growing a business together at the height of the pandemic was both a humbling experience and a pivotal point of relearning. 

In 2016, Roots started as a co-working space and boutique café in Katipunan. In February 2020, the physical store closed its doors to take a step back for redirection.

When the pandemic struck, Aloy and Dexter had to think and act fast. In a span of six months, they had to start from scratch and completely transition the Roots brand into an online store.

“The pivot was really humbling because it forced us to relearn lots of stuff. On our end, we had to create and rush the completion of the website in weeks’ time and make it more comprehensive,” Dexter shared.

“We sold PPEs and Gouache was making isolation gowns, so we pivoted in the early part of the pandemic to sell those. We had to be quick on our feet because the market changed quite a lot in a short period of time,” he added.

For Aloy, “The pandemic was a reset. It essentially forced us to restart so our position in the market was kind of awkward. We’re not a new brand but we’re kind of a new brand. We really needed to restart from scratch and needed a complete rebrand. When the pandemic struck, we had nothing. So, everything you see right now was really born from our efforts in the pandemic.”

Planting the seeds for Roots Collective at the height of the pandemic was not an easy feat but fueled by their vision for the brand, Aloy and Dexter were able to reimagine what Roots could become.

“Our vision for Roots Collective is to become the Rustan’s or Kultura of social enterprises. It’s going to be split into two distinct concepts: department store/lifestyle and grocery/essentials,” Aloy explained.

To achieve this, Roots Collective aims to expand its eCommerce channels, synchronize its inventory system, and expand its retail spaces to open another permanent branch. Additionally, bring the collective into the global market through exports with their partners and scale up for sustainable packaging.

As the two entrepreneurs build towards the unique vision for Roots, their dynamics as business partners and as friends also grew.

Aloy shared, “One thing is that we complement each other in terms of strength – he’s creative and I’m more structural. Especially now that it’s the holiday season, I really appreciate when Dexter’s there to cover for when I can’t. In a way, the pandemic freed us to do things our own way, to build things the way we wanted to,  and impose our unique vision for it. I’m blessed to have this opportunity and I won’t have it any other way.”

“The pandemic forced us to think quickly on our feet and we complement each other when it comes to the way we think and what our strengths are. I really enjoyed working with Aloy also. At the same time, one of the differences of being in an entrepreneurial setting is there isn’t as much structure as you would expect elsewhere. It has been unpredictable but interesting at the same. It was a great experience to think differently. Moving forward, I think Roots has a lot of potentials,” Dexter added.

Both Aloy and Dexter expressed gratitude for the support of everyone in the community who has helped grow Roots Collective as a local marketplace and is supportive of its goals in the future.

Currently, Roots Collective PH is a platform for a community of social and creative entrepreneurs, sharing crafted products online and welcoming anyone with a knack for all things local at their retail shop in Uptown Mall, BGC.