Quartet Profits From Salty Jwaneng Water
Lebogang Baingapi | Monday February 8, 2016 18:00
After seeing the opportunity presented by the salty tasting water, four young women came up with an idea to purify and sell it to residents.
Thuto Mongwaketse, Gorataone Kedisang, Onkokame Podisi and Mpho Manakane came together and successfully applied for funds from one of the poverty eradication programmes.
Mongwaketse revealed in an interview that they were offered a manual water purification machine (reverse osmosis) and they started operating on November 16, 2015. With the zeal to succeed and desire to meet the demands of their customers, they bought packaging bottles while still waiting for the ones they were promised by the council.
Their services include re-filling empty bottles for customers and packaging water for sale in 500ml, 1.5 litre and 5 litre bottles. When Monitor Business visited their premises, there were bottles of different sizes which were labelled and contact numbers of their customers.
Trading by the name Azit Enterprises, Mongwaketse explained that in their two months of operation, they have managed to secure a market in local shops, filling stations, Jwaneng Town Council and they were approached by one of the leading chain stores to supply them with water.
She said they are currently in negotiations to iron out some logistics before they start offering terms to customers.
Podisi also mentioned that they were able to buy a deep freezer in order to meet the needs of customers who want cold or iced water. She, however, said though they had a challenge of operating space when they started, they have now secured space at Diamond Mall where they will expand their business. They are currently housed at one of the council offices at Old Community Hall in Jwaneng.
“We will divide the business into two because we have been promised another purification machine by the council,” she added. Podisi admitted that their two months of operation have been fruitful and overwhelming.
She said they receive many orders and they were forced to extend their operational hours to also cater for customers who might need water in the evenings.
With their new space at Diamond Mall, Podisi is optimistic that they will be able to keep bulk orders and empty bottles that they use. Manakane who is also part of the group said business is so far blossoming and the people of Jwaneng have responded positively because they come with large containers to fill water.
With their reasonable pricing, Manakane is of the view that they will beat the competitors. She added that they intend to saturate the purified still water market in Jwaneng and go national.
She gave credit to the members for their team work that has sustained their business thus far. The four entrepreneurs have intentions to apply for Youth Development Fund (YDF) to expand their business.
With the help of YDF, they will buy an industrial machine, which will fill, seal, package as well as put stickers on water bottles for bulk orders, while the current manual machine will be for customers who want a re-fill. Kedisang chipped in to explain that they want to add ice block manufacturing into their business.
She said they intend to make ice blocks and sell to their regular customers as well as take advantage of the 1,000km desert race, which Jwaneng hosts.
However, the business still has challenges with transport to get empty bottles, which they have to buy regularly.
They also intend to install power back-up to keep their business running in times of power cuts.