By: Zandile Majavu
A young man’s idea to make snuff smokers’ lives easier by removing the need to grind snuff leaves with a pestle and mortar and replacing it with an electric grinder has turned into a successful business. Self-taught entrepreneur, Thabang Mabote, 35, who was born and bred in Ramokokastad in the North West and previously worked in mining and retail, saved portions of his salary for three years to invest in his grinders.
“I love to experiment with different ideas and see if there is a better way. I embarked on the quest to search for such a magical idea, which proved to be the most challenging thing I ever had to do in my life… Different ideas will come, but they will prove to be hard to execute, or the market is not ready,” Mabote told Vutivi News.
He had an epiphany when he visited his mom, who used to make snuff for herself and sell it to community members, in the back room next to his.“So, as I was chilling in my room, I started hearing a pounding sound of pestle and mortar… I started observing the whole process, and I then realised that it is tedious and requires some serious physical activity. “I knew then that, this was it… the idea I had been searching for. Luckily, because my mom was also selling to the community members, I started questioning them about the idea,” Mabote said.
In his survey, Mabote investigated why community members were not making snuff at home. All of them gave a similar answer, saying that they did not know how to grind the leaves. Mabote realised that this skill, harnessed by generations, would soon be extinct. Mabote now makes Queen Adol, which is produced by his company, Mafiniko Technologies. It is named after Mabote’s grandmother because she played a motherly role when he was young, as both his parents lived in Gauteng because of work.
“The business was registered in 2020, and it only started to be fully operational in February 2024. Our product is for a very large market, and based on the research and potential volumes that we will sell, I can confidently say that this is a very profitable business,” Mabote said. He said that his three main challenges when starting out were idea validation, capital, and marketing. During the idea validation process, it was difficult to get data to inform decision-making, and he had to work through reams of information to find what he needed.
Queen Adol is still in its infancy stage, with a small team working on the project. Some critical services are outsourced to specialists. “Our customers are mainly women within [the] legal age that prefer homemade snuff, those that never had the opportunity to acquire this skill or art from the older generation, and lastly [are] those who no longer have energy for pestle and mortar,” Mabote said.
