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Considered one of South Africa’s largest candy and sweet producers, Richester Meals, has invested R20 million in new chocolate manufacturing services at its manufacturing unit in Centurion in Gauteng.
The owner-managed personal firm that began in 2005 already produces an in depth vary of confectionery – together with chewy and hard-boiled sweets, toffees, eclairs, lollipops, bubblegum, chewing gum, ball gum, marshmallows and sherbet – and describes itself as having turn into “some of the vital gamers within the candy market in Africa”.
It launched a domestically produced chocolate known as Coco Bongo, costing simply R2.50 per 21g bar (the identical weight as a Chomp or Bar One Mini), in January – and has already bought over half 1,000,000 bars.
The Coco Bongo bar is fabricated from milk chocolate and has a creamy centre. Picture: Equipped
The corporate goals to increase its manufacturing capability to twenty million Coco Bongo bars per thirty days over the subsequent two years.
That is anticipated to see the manufacturing unit make use of a further 150 employees to its present workforce.
Richester Meals proprietor and MD Dr Hussein Cassim says the reasonably priced price ticket of the Coco Bongo chocolate bar will enhance income alongside the worth chain, together with for numerous companies, spaza retailers and small distributors.
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“We’ve reverse-engineered the value tag to make sure that our shoppers are capable of make as much as 100% revenue, whereas concurrently promoting Coco Bongo at a extremely reasonably priced worth for shoppers,” he says.
“Somewhat than asking shoppers to avoid wasting for days or even weeks for luxurious sweets, we would like Coco Bongo to be a part of client’s every day lives.”
Swiss enter, African components
He says the chocolate bar, which options milk chocolate and a creamy centre, is the results of analysis and worldwide consultations with “chocolate masters” from Switzerland.
The bars are created from cocoa primarily purchased from farmers in Africa whereas different components are domestically sourced.
“This can be a level of pleasure for Richester Meals,” says Cassim.
“As a proudly South African firm, we need to play a significant function in job creation, and we don’t need to rely on different international locations to provide our product components.”
The producer now employs a further 50 full-time employees in its new chocolate division, which options in-house chillers and chilly storage services in addition to laboratories for product testing.
Learn: Chocolate maker turns cocoa plant’s waste into well being drink
“There’s stiff competitors from entrenched manufacturers, however we’ve the benefit when it comes to understanding native tastes and palates, which we’ve included into Coco Bongo,” says Cassim.
“Going ahead, we additionally hope to capitalise on market alternatives in neighbouring international locations to develop our footprint and market share.”
“Finally, we consider that the chocolate market affords huge development potential, with important potential for unlocking enterprise and employment alternatives all through worth chains,” he provides.
Nondumiso Lehutso is a Moneyweb intern.
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