Nhlanhla Dlamini, the founder and CEO of Maneli Pets
From pet meals and chilli sauces to clothes and plastic pipes, these 4 South African entrepreneurs interviewed by How we made it in Africa in 2024 are making their mark.
1. South African builds a pet meals firm that exports globally
The worldwide pet meals trade is estimated to be worth over $125 billion. Tapping into this huge alternative is South African-born Nhlanhla Dlamini, the founder and CEO of Maneli Pets. From its manufacturing facility in Johannesburg, the corporate produces a spread of modern pet treats – together with from distinctive protein sources resembling ostrich, venison, crocodile, and fish – for each the home and worldwide markets.
Maneli Pets’ first buyer was a purchaser in america. In keeping with Dlamini, the corporate’s distinctive proteins permit worldwide manufacturers to face out from rivals. “It’s finally a sport of competing for shopper eyeballs and anyplace that you could stand out to be a bit bit totally different to everybody else in the marketplace, that offers you an edge.” The fee benefit of sourcing from South Africa was one other profit.
Dlamini intentionally targeted on pet treats reasonably than common pet meals as a result of clients are inclined to have much less model loyalty relating to treats. “It’s much like a chocolate aisle … if you’re about to take a look at at a retailer. In case you see a brand new chocolate there or a brand new model of nuts, you’re prone to attempt it if the value is correct and if it’s one thing that you simply like. However relating to meals, you in all probability would purchase the identical kind of bread or the identical kind of meat for a really very long time. And in case you noticed a wildly new entrant in that class, you’d be extra reluctant to experiment with one thing new. The identical is true for treats. It’s an impulse buy, it’s a reward for pets. And so a whole lot of pet house owners are prepared to experiment and check out new treats, which is necessary for us as a brand new entrant in a market that’s been round for over 50 years,” Dlamini explains.
Watch our full interview with Nhlanhla Dlamini: South African CEO competing in multi-billion-dollar pet food industry
2. American deal gives lifeline for South African meals firm
In 2010, within the aftermath of the worldwide financial disaster of 2007-09, South African meals firm Fynbos High quality Meals discovered itself grappling with declining demand. The disaster severely impacted shopper spending on discretionary objects, and the corporate’s vary of connoisseur scorching sauces and meals flavourings was no exception. It practically led to the collapse of the enterprise. In response, Fynbos needed to make powerful selections resembling asking its employees to work diminished hours, avoiding layoffs.
Throughout this difficult time, Julian Abramson, the corporate’s co-founder, attended the SIAL commerce present in Paris – one of many world’s largest meals trade occasions – in hopes of securing new shoppers. It was there {that a} consultant from a significant American retail chain found Fynbos’s chef salt and habanero sauce. Remarkably, earlier than Julian even returned to South Africa from the present, Fynbos had acquired a considerable personal label order for about 70,000 items from the client.
Rozelle Abramson, who took over the corporate’s reins following her husband’s retirement, remembers the deal offered Fynbos with a lifeline.
The corporate was then confronted with the daunting process of fulfilling such a big order. Sourcing sufficient glass packaging was a specific problem. Beforehand, Fynbos had been accustomed to choosing up containers of glass from its provider; now, the demand had escalated to pallets. It struggled to steer the glass provider to supply the required portions and to decrease its costs for such a big order. After intensive negotiation, an settlement was reached. Nevertheless, when the pallets of glass lastly arrived, the Fynbos staff needed to manually unpack them, as the corporate, at that stage, couldn’t afford the posh of a forklift.
“Generally you simply have to take a fats likelihood and never suppose, ‘Oh my god, how am I going to provide this?’ says Rozelle, reflecting on that point.
Right this moment, with over 100 everlasting staff, Fynbos continues to produce the American retailer and numerous different shoppers globally and inside South Africa. Yearly, the corporate produces about 4.4 million items of scorching sauces, pestos, chef salts, and jams, with exports comprising roughly 70% of its manufacturing. Fynbos has capitalised on the worldwide development towards more healthy meals by providing merchandise free from preservatives, colourants, and components.
Learn our full interview with Rozelle Abramson: How a South African chilli sauce company broke into the American market
3. From pupil attire to over 20 shops: Freedom of Motion’s development story
Freedom of Motion (FOM) is a South African clothes and niknaks model co-founded by the Boezaart brothers. With South African rugby captain Siya Kolisi as a minority shareholder, the corporate has expanded to over 20 shops and has a rising worldwide presence.
The origins of FOM hint again to when Roal Boezaart was a pupil at Stellenbosch College, located exterior Cape City. In 2011, Roal started making hoodies and t-shirts for Stellenbosch’s pupil residences, resulting in the formation of Clockwork Clothes. His objective was to supply extra engaging attire for college and college college students. The next yr, he was tasked with creating merchandise for the reunion of his college residence, Wilgenhof. He discovered somebody who might make a leather-based satchel with Wilgenhof’s brand embossed on it, which was offered to attendees of the reunion.
In the meantime, his brother Léan Boezaart was finishing his chartered accountant articles at Deloitte in Cape City. Upon qualifying on the finish of 2011, he opted to pursue a profession in golf and joined the Sunshine Tour, an area skilled golf circuit.
In late 2012, Roal invited Léan to affix the enterprise. He accepted. Initially, they continued producing attire for academic establishments however quickly realised this route didn’t align with their imaginative and prescient. Thus, the duo redefined their firm’s mission: to ascertain a proudly South African life-style model. They determined to start out with leather-based merchandise and operated from a small room of about 10m2 in Stellenbosch. “We purchased a leather-based machine, obtained a craftsman known as Benjamin from the Jap Cape, obtained him to maneuver his entire household to Stellenbosch. And we sat him down and mentioned, ‘Proper, let’s make a leather-based bag’,” Léan says.
Their first merchandise, a hand-stitched and hand-dyed briefcase proved too labour-intensive. Recognising this, they pivoted to producing two backpack fashions, which had been faster to make and extra interesting to college students. The backpacks shortly grew to become fashionable, resulting in a considerable ready checklist. To fulfill this rising demand, the corporate expanded its operations, hiring further employees and relocating to a bigger facility in Stellenbosch from the place they may produce round 20 luggage every day.
For the primary two years, Léan nonetheless performed golf and took on part-time consulting work to pay the payments. He finally determined to focus totally on FOM. “I didn’t play adequate golf to make some huge cash … We had Freedom of Motion slowly however absolutely getting right into a little bit of a rhythm the place we might flip this into one thing massive. So in 2014, [I] mainly stopped the golf factor … and was promoting leather-based luggage as a [qualified] chartered accountant earlier than I knew it.”
FOM was funded fully organically, with no loans or exterior funding raised. “[We] began the enterprise with R80,000 (about US$4,250) of our personal cash, after which grew it from there,” Léan notes.
Learn our full interview with Léan Boezaart: Building a South African clothing business, with some help from a rugby captain
4. The businessman who noticed potential in plastic pipes
After making a 3 times return on his earlier enterprise, South African entrepreneur Kgomotso Lekola noticed a chance in manufacturing heavy-duty plastic pipes for industries resembling mining, agriculture, and building. His firm, BT Industrial Group, additionally gives engineering consulting companies and ventured into medical product manufacturing a number of years in the past.
BT Industrial Group has its roots in a Johannesburg-based enterprise known as Africa Climate, through which Lekola acquired a stake in 2013. Africa Climate gives superior forecasts to shoppers, together with mining and agricultural corporations, serving to them put together for adversarial climate occasions. Lekola financed the acquisition by means of a financial institution mortgage, and through his time there, the corporate grew its operations throughout Africa and into Australia. The enterprise additionally launched a product that despatched SMS alerts to insurance coverage shoppers, warning them of upcoming extreme climate to guard their belongings.
About 4 years in the past, Lekola offered his remaining stake within the firm, making 3 times his preliminary funding.
Via his involvement with Africa Climate, Lekola grew to become acquainted with the mining trade, one of many firm’s key goal sectors. He recognized a enterprise alternative in offering engineering consulting companies to mines. BT Industrial occurred to get entangled in water administration tasks for mines, a essential side of the trade – water must be pumped out of mines, and it is usually wanted for sure processing actions.
However Lekola encountered challenges with suppliers of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic pipes, important for water conveyance in mining. Each the general high quality of the pipes and the professionalism of the suppliers had been important points.
A few of Lekola’s staff members instructed that BT Industrial ought to start manufacturing its personal HDPE pipes. “I used to be like, ‘No, you’re mad,’” he remembers. “However then they persuaded me.”
He and the pinnacle of engineering flew to China to go to a number of pipe manufacturing machine suppliers. After discovering the appropriate companions, the corporate bought the gear and arrange a small manufacturing facility on the outskirts of Johannesburg, once more financed partly by means of financial institution loans.
Right this moment, BT Industrial provides pipes to a spread of industries, together with agriculture, bulk water infrastructure, and building.
Watch our full interview with Kgomotso Lekola: The South African entrepreneur who found opportunity in plastic pipes