Panku Safety Solutions: swimming to safety
When Jadah Pleiter wanted to provide more opportunities for her children, including important swimming lessons, she started a business.
Those lessons became the catalyst for building a business dedicated to keeping others safe.
Drawing on experience in project management, strategic planning, research, marketing and first aid, Jadah established Panku Pty Ltd.
As demand grew, so did the opportunity to complement their training with defibrillators, first aid kits and workplace safety products available to purchase.
A conversation with a friend introduced Jadah to the Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP) and she decided to make the trip to the Indigenous Business Tradeshow at Supply Nation’s flagship event Connect. While she recognised the opportunities available through business certification, she initially hesitated.
“I was in two minds and not because in any way I am ashamed of being Indigenous, but because my whole life we hear that if you make it as an Indigenous person, it’s because you’ve had handouts. If I was going to be successful, I wanted to do it on my own.”
Jadah’s aunt shared harrowing family stories with her, detailing sustained hardship and a lifetime of unpaid work.
“All my great grandmother’s children were taken from her. My grandmother was brought up in a children’s home. She fought, and she created opportunities, establishing both a florist business and an antique shop.”
“So, I thought that’s my heritage, I owe it to them to create something that has generational impact.”
That opportunity came sooner than expected. Panku secured the first aid supply component of a major tender for the Victorian Metro Tunnel Project. While unsuccessful in winning the personal protective equipment (PPE) contract, Jadah now looks back on that time with relief.
“If by some miracle we had been successful in that tender, I think it would have killed us. We would have scaled too quickly. Instead, we found solid ground and learnt a lot from others,” says Jadah.
Jadah freely admits that she didn’t know what she was doing but sought advice from industry experts, including Travis Ling, National Accounts Manager at Bunzl Safety, who she went on to found Panku Safety Solutions with.
When the pandemic hit, it created unprecedented demand for protective equipment, and those relationships proved invaluable.
“The COVID pandemic was a crazy time, we were able to access supply and ship products to the eastern states that couldn’t access stock. Everyone banded together. We were working non-stop from our homes during prolonged Victorian shutdowns and leveraging relationships so we could receive, pack and transport orders.”
The team was able to ride out the pandemic and emerge even stronger.
With branches and warehousing in Melbourne and Perth, Panku now supplies PPE, Site Safety products and related categories to hundreds of corporate and government entities across Australia.
For Jadah, the business has always been about making a difference and creating generational wealth for her family and community.
“My kids hated those swimming lessons, every second of them, but I kept saying, nope, you need to learn. It wasn’t easy, but because we took that first step, we ended up with a successful business that has opened so many opportunities.”
Jadah Pleiter is an Indigenous Businesswoman of the Year finalist at the Supply Nation Supplier Diversity Awards 2026. Winners will be announced at the Connect 2026 Gala Awards Dinner in Boorloo (Perth) on 12 August.
