It is not often that one gets to turn something they love into a business, but reality TV star Angela Casara did just that when she launched Chuze Juice. The business supplies juice products that are made from 100% vegetable and fruit juice, which are sourced from local farmers and markets. Currently, it supplies two Spars in Centurion.
Casara told Vutivi News that she developed a love for juicing for health reasons, and her juices were packed with vitamins and minerals. They were are a combination of different produce and included the ‘Dive In’ flavour which comprises a blend of green beans, lemon, apple, cucumber, mint, celery and coriander. There was also a reboot juice made up of beetroot, apple, lemon, cucumber and ginger. Chuze Juice has four other juices and three ginger shots.
Casara, who is from Soweto, told Vutivi News that her extensive background in sales and marketing had been a great asset when she started her business. “By the age of 21 I was a qualified estate agent and sold houses in Parkmore and Houghton Estate,” she said.
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“I also sold sports cars as a sales agent, and I was a customer relationship manager and a marketing executive,” she said. But entering the juice industry was unplanned. “On one particular day I was juicing, and I decided there and then to monetise my hobby,” she said.
“I started juicing for friends and for neighbours, and when I saw the potential, I supplied office parks and events, and did research about the industry.” Even though she had experience in sales and marketing, she had to undergo the gruelling task of marketing her own products and knocking on doors. “I learned that you need to be aggressive, ambitious and be a go-getter to get what you want,” the businesswoman said.
“Being a black woman in the entrepreneurial space, I had to understand that we live in a patriarchal world, and as a black female I had to prove myself 20 times more. I realised that I had to work harder in terms of the leadership role that I wanted to play and embark on in the market. “Another factor is that I fall under the bracket of those who have been previously disadvantaged, so to get into a leadership role in business one has to prove themselves,” Casara said.
But her passion and attitude paid off. Besides being a businesswoman, she is a star in the reality TV Show “Lebo M Coming Home”, which opened many doors for her. “We did an episode on the show where the juice was launched,” she said. Casara said she believed that the success of a product was determined by how much you were willing to put into it.
“A product is about the person that founded it,” she said. “The energy that is exuded from the founder goes from the top to the bottom and manifests in the product.”
