A diverse product range to the African marketplace: Kenafric

If you are looking for a well-rounded, one stop shop with years of experience on the marketplace, then Kenafric is the company for you. The booming business, which started in 1991 from humble beginnings selling small-scale bubble gum, has transformed into a major retailer in Africa providing sweets, footwear and food items.

The company, which started with a mere 75 to 100 people, now employs 1,250, has expanded throughout Africa, now exporting to Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Somalia, for example, and has three head locations for sales and manufacturing located in Kenya.

Sohin B. Shah, Financial Controller of Kenafric, has seen the company grow and expand throughout the years. He says, “We have evolved leaps and bounds basically from aggressive expansion plans combined with the latest technology and state-of-the-art machinery. Companies supported us and we grew because we had the technical expertise.”

Product base

Kenafric sells a number of notable items for African consumers, including footwear, such as slippers, canvas tennis shoes and flip flop sandals, candy, stationary and Oyo brand culinary spices. Its footwear items are extremely popular and in high demand. Shah says, “There was a lot of demand for footwear in Africa so basically we got into the footwear using the same technological know-how to get into it. These rubber products that were used for footwear were in high demand at that time and it has continued to stay in demand.”

The company also sells culinary spices by the brand Oyo which has been a fruitful venture for Kenafric. “Every household in Africa uses these products in their meals—making their curry thicker and spicier. We also have products in juice—with flavours like strawberry and pineapple. Basically it is a powered juice which when added to water it becomes a nice juice to drink and serve to your customers or guests in your house,” he says.

Its original bubble gum products are still very popular. Shah says, “We have a huge range of products, starting from bubble gum, which are fast moving throughout the region. We also have wrapped candies, which are famous hard-boiled candies, basically the mints and the classical mango fruit drops. We have toffees which are also a fast mover. We have a huge range of lollipops in the region as well.”

Overall the company follows a “bottom of the pyramid” principle which wholly takes cares of the needs of customers. “We are following the principle of the bottom of the pyramid by taking care of the needs and requirements of the individuals. A child requires shoes to go to school. He will require candy to chew on and now we are looking at giving him something to write on in our stationary.”

Exportation and goals

Everything at Kenafric is manufactured in-house with the latest technology. It exports its products to a number of different countries throughout the continent including Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia, Sudan, Madagascar, Burundi, Gambia, Ethiopia, South Africa, Cameroon, Angola, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Shah says, “The market potential is huge. The product goes to the distributors, supermarkets as well, going down the chain to retailers.

Kenafric’s goals of expansions have quickly come true throughout the years, but it still has aims to expand its profits extensively by 2013. “We have a vision to penetrate, capture and sustain target markets driven by excellence in operation and marketing. In short, we want to double our turnover and triple our profits by 2013,” says Shah.

Shah explains the strategy is to ensure that the company is marketing to households and that the company has its marketing in place. “Our products are household brands so the demand will be stimulated once we are in place. We have to ensure we have the right capacity to deliver,” he says.

Social responsibility

Kenafric has a commitment to school children in Africa and it is evident not only through the products it sells but from its continued pledge to support schools. Shah says, “We are supporting certain schools. We have a magazine that talks about what other social activities we carry out on a day-to-day basis. We are looking at supporting children homes and we were one of the biggest supports to the secondary school for building additional classrooms and a laboratory, conducted in September 2010.”

The company also participates in a youth club in which it sponsors the sports grounds. Kenafric puts a strong effort into uplifting the neighborhood and contributing to education.

A strong contender

The company stays a stronghold on the marketplace with its technical edge and vast product range. Shah says, “If you look at our technical edge we are using the latest machinery and technological innovation that we continuously work on to come up with different brands and different products. Our product range is vast. We also have a complete distribution system in place which we are proud of,” he says. “We do a lot of innovation and development to new products in furthering to develop them to basically match what is the current trends and future trends.”

Kenafric has a strong base and tries to realize what the gaps are in the market and how it can then service the customer in the best possible manner. It realizes the importance of customer satisfaction and tries to bring this into everything it does.

Shah says, “The customer is the key and we wish to solve what they want and to make sure that we are a leader in the target markets driven by excellence in operations and marketing. We want to go places and we are expanding as we move into the next year.”

The company has goals of making a major footprint in African market, and with its strong exporting all over Africa, its viable and useful products and potential for growth, Kenafric will be sure to reach its growth goal. The company’s passion and care for customer satisfaction makes it a model business that has a bright future ahead. 

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