By: Noxolo Majavu
The future is bright for a Limpopo businessman who manufactures yoghurt from sweet potatoes. The agripreneur is about to introduce a skincare range made from vegetables and breakfast products. Edward Kgarose intends to launch two products around November this year. Since he launched his yoghurt business in 2016, he has been making waves after winning three awards, including R50,000 through the Shoprite Entrepreneur of the Month competition.
Kgarose who now employs people at Kgarose Kgaros, initially started out alone. He said that he would again use sweet potatoes in his skincare range because they were a great source of vitamin A. When asked on what led to the breakthrough of his business, he told Vutivi News that: “Marketing was not really part of the success of my business, but the mentality behind the ability to think and implement, what can be a changemaker in the diary producing industry.”
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Kgarose established his company in 2016 at Ga Molepo Ga Lekgothoane, Limpopo, after realising the need for nutritional value and healthy products. “We get raw materials from small-scale producers as part of creating a solid market for those producers because we understand that supporting small business producers is what sustains small companies,” he told Vutivi News.
One of the challenges he experienced when he started the business, was when the product was tested, and it failed five times before it was allowed to go to market. However, he still did not surrender because he believed in what he was doing. “Before you sell any product to the public, it must first be lab tested, and it may pass or fail the test, after every test, you get results that explain why it failed. It might be microbials and any other microbials that are not good for human consumption,” he added.
Another challenge was the constant need for capacity to meet the growing demand for his product. “In the food sector, compliance and capacity is what drives and open new markets, introducing something new was one of the challenges, and capacity to meet demand it is also a challenge,” Kgarose said. The yoghurts are available at Freedom Supermarket and Roots Butchery at Alexandra Mall in Gauteng.
Responding to whether his skincare range was ready for the market, he said: “The market is not a challenge at all, the only thing about the market is that you have to comply, and the market will open for you. Brand product or brand awareness also serves as the best tool to make the products sold on the shelves.”
