ZYRRAH'S ARTS & CRAFTS

A lady once had an opportunity to live in Zamboanga for a good four years of her young life and found a gold mine in coming up with a bright idea of making  shoes and bags from banig, pandan, and other indigenous materials from the South.  That was in 1976 when The Manila Connection was formed.  The unique native shoes and bags swept the local market by storm in Manila and not long after, with the prodding of a friend, the novel product was exported first to Mexico and the USA thereafter.  

With her courageous nature, Ms Joy Soriano, the young lady entrepreneur,   did not stop with the shoes and bags, but diversified to baskets and houseware products made from rattan, bamboo and other indigenous Philippine materials.  The export market was soon penetrated by these fine Philippine handicrafts  through the lady’s hard work and sheer luck.  Her products were exported to the UK, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Dubai, while the US market has been fairly stabilized.  

No less than the Export Bank whose advocacy then was to support Philippine exports to other countries took notice of The Manila Connection’s export achievements, commended and featured the company in one edition of the Export Bank magazine.  

The Manila Connection has participated in trade shows in Hong Kong, Singapore and other Asian countries.  It has also made its way to Ambiente in Frankfurt, ,Hongkong,Sources in New York, Asian Expo in London and an Asian trade fair in Poland.  That was in a span of over 25 years from 1990 to 2015.

Ms. Soriano continued to head the company and concentrated in producing capiz products by the year 2000.  Since then, The Manila Connection has become a by-word, not only among the international buyers and importers worldwide, but in the local market as well.  The capiz products made by Ms Joy Soriano bears the distinction of world-class quality home décor and distributed in prominent high end stores such as Kultura, Balikbayan Handicrafts, Tesoro’s, Wilcon, to name a few.

At the turn of Ms Joy’s 77th season, The Manila Connection was renamed ZYRRAH’S ARTS and CRAFTS in favor of Ms Joy’s granddaughter, Angelica Zyrrah Soriano who now sits as the proprietor of the company.   This move was deemed necessary in order to maximize opportunities with banks and other financial institutions.  Ms Joy continues to be the moving force of Zyrrah’s Arts and Crafts.  

The pandemic which broke out in 2020 did not stop the operations of Zyrrah’s Arts and Crafts, though on a much smaller scale as the orders from the local clientele were all put on hold.  

Early this year however, the company has started getting back to normalcy with orders coming in from the chain of department stores and the long-standing local buyers.  The company has decided to concentrate on the local market for now, but nonetheless, will eventually go worldwide again as opportunity arises.

Backed by years of experience in the handicraft business, particularly in the Capiz production, together with the skilled craftsmen who have been with the Zyrrah’s Arts & Crafts for a good number of years¸ and the valuable network of dependable buyers and suppliers established through time, this company definitely has the potentials to take back its mark it has long enjoyed.