Tendani Sibanda, who is a passionate leathersmith, works alongside her husband as core founders of MKLA Africa, a leather specialist company that makes an array of hand-crafted leather.
Sibanda told Monitor Business that she started exploring her interest in leather processing around 2014 but it was just a hobby as she made products in her spare time. But it was the pandemic troubles of 2020 that served as a wake-up call for the couple, compelling them to leave their full time jobs in advertising to chase the dream they were passionate about.
“Working with leather is something we used to do on the sidelines,” she revealed. “We had a room in our house that we had set aside just for making leather and we felt it was time to reach for the next step.” Talking of their ethos, Sibanda said they have discovered that leather is a forever product, one that has transgenerational value. This understanding is what has fuelled MKLA Africa to craft leather products ranging from laptop leather bags, file bags, wallets and specialised office equipment containers.
“Most of our crafted products have multi functionality such as our laptop bags which can be used as file carriers and can be converted to contain a wide range of documents,” she added.
Speaking on their comparative advantage, Sibanda explained that their products are all hand-crafted, a process which is authentic and tends to produce durable products. She further said that hand-crafting their products enables them to custom make items according to customer specifications and needs.
“We can make name grafted products, which people usually purchase for their loved ones and friends,” she said.
MKLA Africa is an SMME under incubation by Local Enterprise Authority and as such, enjoys subsidised rent from operating in the parastatal’s incubation offices as well as access to business advisory services.
The road to growth has however, not been all easy. Sibanda revealed that customers often have a tendency to compare their pricing to products that have been made from synthetic leather. She explained that this causes synthetic leather products to have a price advantage over them despite environmental warnings against use of such leather.
“We use genuine leather and it is expensive, mostly because we don’t have enough tanneries in the country. “This means that we are sometimes forced to import leather from other countries,” she said.
She continued: “Despite these challenges, we remain optimistic and the next scale for us will be to entrench ourselves as a local company with a global outlook.”
