Marketer left high profile job to invest in beverage producing firm in Kenya

Alexandra Chappatte was working with the world’s second-largest wine and spirits seller, Pernod Ricard, as head of marketing for West Africa when she resigned to launch her own company.

Before this, she had worked for consumer goods company Nestle, as Central and West Africa Regional Marketing Manager, based in Accra, Ghana.

She says that the positions enabled her to travel across Francophone markets where she discovered the continent’s diverse cultures, but even though she enjoyed her job and loved the travelling, she often thought of starting her own business.

In 2018, having relocated to Kenya, she launched Kenya Original, a company that produces alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages – an African product line for the African market, as she describes it.

“When still working at Pernod Ricard, it occurred to me that no one in Kenya was producing local quality beverages. Though still based in Ghana, I managed to explore the Kenyan market a little bit from afar and got thinking about this concept of a quality, local premium, and what raw materials we could use to produce it,” she says.

“We sold our first Kenyan Original cider in December 2018 at Blankets & Wine (a platform that promotes live African music performances), we thought it wise to launch our brand at the festival, which was representative of our target audience,” says Alexandra, adding,

“Afterwards, we offered our first listing to a couple of bars, and then we got listed with major supermarkets in the country, including Carrefour – you will also find our brands in Naivas, Quickmart, and Chandarana,” adds Alexandra, a history graduate. 

She points out that it was difficult to get supermarkets to pick her product line, that it took a lot of time and effort to convince them to sell her brand. Like other companies in the same sector, the business also suffers from the country’s tough regulatory environment on alcohol, with insufficient funding being another challenge.

Commenting on her company’s cider drinks, she explains that they are an upgrade of locally-made muratina, which is made from fermented fruit.

“We wanted to create something sweet, strong, and made from raw material sourced locally. The cider is made with a fermented base and blended with raw fruits sourced here - they are eight percent alcoholic.”

The process of making the ciders and juices starts when the fruits arrive at the factory from the farms. They are sorted, washed, chopped, and blended with an alcoholic base, thereafter, they are sieved to remove sediments and are thereafter carbonated, labelled and pasteurised before they are distributed to retailers and bars.

All fruit is chopped and blended on site, whole fruits having been sourced directly from farmers.

The brand also has a tonic range that includes rose and cucumber as well as turmeric and chilli. These are non-alcoholic and can be used to make iced tea.

They source their mangoes, pineapples, and passion fruits from farmers in Machakos, Kisii, and Meru regions.

Currently, the company is working with about 10 farmers in the mentioned regions and have plans to increase this number as production rises, their target being 100 farmers.

“What we look for in our farmers includes consistency, quality and variety,” she says.

The company’s production plant in Nairobi’s Baba Dogo employs 60 workers directly and another 20 indirectly.

“About 90 percent of our workforce are under 30, our workforce is therefore very young,” she points out.

Initial capital came from her savings, boosted by funding from Chandaria Capital, an early-stage investment arm of the Chandaria Group, as well as Fever-Tree, a British producer of premium drink mixers whose co-founder joined the team. The prices of their products range from Sh150 to above Sh1,000.

"We are not cheap because we sell quality," says Alexandra, explaining that at the moment, her company produces 20,000 litres of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks but aim to increase production. We have just invested in a canning line and our bottling line is in the process of being commissioned - we are looking to increase production by up to 50,000 liters, and by 2025, we target to become a $25 million (Sh2.8 billion) company.”

Besides their main line of business, the company also sells merchandise such as caps and shirts.

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