Meet Nobukhosi Ndlovu, From Zimbabwe
Founder Of Nutrie Foods, A Company That Manufacturers Peanut Butter, Her Products Are Available In Various Major Retail Stores

Nobukhosi Ndlovu launched Nutrie Foods in July 2013 in Harare, Zimbabwe. At the time, she was employed as an HR consultant and had a few small businesses on the side, but she always had a dream of commercialising the production of the peanut butter her mom had made at home in the rural community of Zhombe.

Today, the company manufactures peanut butter, mixed fruit jam and marmalade. It also packages honey, sugar beans, soya chunks and rice under its brand, which is sold in various supermarkets and smaller local stores in the country.

When she started

No finance, no equipment
Ndlovu’s first hurdle was securing the finance needed for the equipment required to produce peanut butter on a commercial scale. “I did the research and determined I would need equipment to the tune of US$20,000,” she explains.

And so, the knocking on doors began but traditional banks had no good news for her; they required collateral that she did not have. Finally, a friend referred her to a microfinance institution co-founded by two Zimbabwean women and Ndlovu set off to secure an appointment. On day one, however, she was blocked by the gatekeeping receptionist. Undeterred, she returned the next day and her spirited and loud debate with the same receptionist got the attention of the CEO who was in the building.

“She asked that the receptionist let me in and, armed with my business plan that outlined the funding required for the equipment, which could then be used as collateral for the payments, I got the loan,” says Ndlovu.

Nutrie Foods moved its operations into a small rented warehouse in Willowvale, an industrial suburb in Harare, that had three-phase electricity to run the equipment.

“In the beginning, I was everything in that business. I sold my car and bought a small delivery van. In the morning, I would buy groundnuts at the farmers’ market, then I would go to the warehouse to manufacture and bottle the peanut butter and, around 5pm, I would visit the local tuck and spaza shops to sell the product,” she recalls.

“The next day, the revenue earned from the sales would be used to repeat the routine.”

The microfinance company noticed her diligent repayments on the loan and granted her another loan for working capital.

The headache of getting into retail stores
Ndlovu readily admits that getting her products listed was her biggest battle. (She once posted on Facebook: “Producing a product is easy; getting it to market is death.”)

IIn 2018, a week before her birthday, the first big retailer gave her the news that Nutrie Foods would be listed. “I said to myself, this is my present! I don’t need anything else!” she remembers.

Nutrie Foods products are now available in various major retail stores such as Pick n Pay, Spar, OK and wholesalers such as N Richards.

Source:How we made it in Africa

Email: elora.akpotosevbe@yahoo.com