Dream Flavours: Turning Local Fruits Into Delicacies
Ludo Kwapa | Monday March 18, 2019 18:00
However, White Angels has identified this gap in the market and turned it into a lifetime opportunity. The citizen-owned company is situated at Bokaa ward in Molepolole.
The company, which trades as Dream Flavours, was started on October 5, 2009 by a group of women namely; Litah Malejane, Chedza Nkhwa, Margaret Kgosi, Kelebogile Majaye and Lillian Kheba.
Nkhwa told Business Monitor that their business exists to provide the highest quality, fresh and healthy products.
“We are currently operating from a rented place and we have a total of 10 employees,” Nkhwa said.
“We are also looking for land to buy here in Molepolole and have a permanent working space that will help us expand our working space.” She noted that operating in a rural environment has been a disadvantage to their operations due to unreliable electricity, which normally damages their stock when there are power cuts.
In addition Nkhwa said the load shedding also affects their production forcing them to deliver the orders late.
She further noted that there is lack of raw materials locally, which then forces them to import from South Africa.
Dream Flavours mainly target hotels and hospitals as their main market. They face stiff competition in the retail market from established suppliers who sell their products at a much cheaper price than theirs.
However, they still supply their products to select retailers like Square Mart and Choppies. She said they have been getting a very satisfying feedback from their customers mostly regarding their indigenous yoghurt flavours.
“Our products of lerotse, mogorogorwana and watermelon are delivered in the shortest possible time to meet the demands and desires of all valued clients,” she said.
The Local Authority Enterprise (LEA) has also played a major role in Dream Flavours’ success as they took them as their clients in 2010.
LEA gave them business coaching and on-site monitoring, technology audit, business planning, food safety & hygiene, to count but a few.
“I am grateful for LEA’s help as it helped us get funding from CEDA to buy machinery that helped increase our 200 litres capacity to 600 litres per day,” explained Nkhwa.