By: Noxolo Majavu
The owner of a premium muffin manufacturing company has set his eyes on expanding his business to the global market after adding 22 more micro franchises and onboarding 49 new employees. Dubbed the ‘ muffin man’, Morero Moloi, who owns McMore International, is testing out the market to grow his businesses.
This is after he participated in the 18-month-long Tholana Enterprise Programme at the South African Breweries Foundation, which aims to empower entrepreneurs from all business sectors to build sustainable enterprises. “We are in the pipeline with regards to being international. We spent the last two years going to different countries, the US, the Netherlands, and Ghana. We did not go physically, but we [are] just exploring possibilities. “But for the ones we have gone to, like the US, we are in back-and-forth chats with the government and its subsidiaries, including NGOs that are assisting them with establishing a factory,” Moloi said.
Moloi was inspired to venture into business by his late grandmother, who worked as a street vendor. She convinced him to leap into franchising by formalising the street vendor business industry. He was also motivated by the books written by Bahamian evangelist Myles Munroe to start working on his lifelong dream. “I grew up in the streets of Soweto. I have always been a charming, charismatic individual with a huge view of life.
I love food, especially baked goods. I consider myself a super dad who is blessed with amazing kids. I am a great cook but on a limited menu. “I struggled with dyslexia and ADHD throughout my school, thus leading to me being a dropout at university. I always wanted to have an LLB degree, however, I never fulfilled this dream,” Moloi told Vutivi News.
His successes include supplying a big private hospital group and selecting Super Spars. McMore International was established as an entity that focuses on being a food manufacturer, specialising in making premium quality muffins. “Our secondary focus was to be the globally leading micro franchising corporation that allows aspiring entrepreneurs to own a business that is in a box. The franchising industry has been the least transforming industry through not being inclusive or accessible to the historically disadvantaged people of South Africa,” he said.
Morero said that his vision was to start a business that supported these entrepreneurs through baking, packaging, marketing, and helping them with customer support. Therefore, they were only left with the task of selling. Some of the challenges that he is working on overcoming in the international market include expensive labour costs, minimum wage, adaptability, adjusting the product for the pallets of the locals, and location, as there are huge populations that are spread out.
After attending the Tholana Enterprise Programme, his annual increased from R150,000 to R1.4 million. “I had a major life change right after joining the programme which just threw me off course. I lost my true desire to want to perform and I even had ideas of closing the business. “Through the strength of the team that surrounded me from SABF, I managed to keep the business running and even grow it. I furthermore benefitted so much from all the entrepreneurs that I met in the programme,” he said.
