We left banking to grind pumpkins

Jonathan Mbatia and Jackson Mwaniki of Aglomere Aberdare Limited

A bumper crop harvest is every farmer’s joy. Unless that crop eventually goes to waste because the market is overcrowded, and the shelf life of their products is too short. This is a reality in many farming communities. It is in such a community that Jackson Maina Mwaniki grew up, often watching farmers mourn their losses at the end of too many crop seasons.

“I remember thinking as I rode in a matatu, passing tracts and tracts of farmed land, that there has to be a way to conserve these crops. My mother and father were teachers and farmers, and I knew how hard they worked to bring in a harvest,” Jackson says. “Seeing them throw away produce because it wasn’t sold was painful, especially knowing that many Kenyans were going hungry.”

Jackson was determined to find a solution. He did his research on the solutions reached by other international markets and came up with the idea of powdered products.

This was the inception of his company, Aglomere Aberdare, which processes and sells powdered carrots and pumpkin. “I picked the two products because my hometown, Nyandarua, grew plenty of both,” Jackson says. “Carrots and pumpkins also have high nutritional benefits,” he explains. The banker partnered with his colleague, Jonathan Williams Mbatia, who liked the idea when Jackson pitched it to him. Together, they have steadily grown the company since March 2015, though Jackson had originally registered it in August of 2012.

“We used Sh600,000 as start-up capital, which went to building machines from scratch, since it would have been too expensive to import them,” Jackson says. “My parents had five acres of land which they graciously allowed me to use as a factory.”

Though carrots were in plenty in Nyandarua, they sourced their pumpkins from Meru. “I had noticed that farmers from our area went to sell their potatoes in Meru. So I spoke to some of the transporters and asked them to bring pumpkins from Meru on their way back. This worked for both parties because we got good quality pumpkins and the transporters didn’t travel back with an empty load,” Jackson says.

To turn the products into powdered form, the produce is washed, chopped into strips similar to chips, blanched and sun dried before it is ground, sieved and packed.

“We design and make the packaging ourselves,” Jonathan says. “It’s pretty simple. We take an A5 paper, fold it, then print the product details and our company logo on the package.”

The product is packed in 250 and 500 grams quantities.  Aglomere however sells the product wholesale to distributors, who then sell in smaller quantities to customers.

A kilo of powdered pumpkin goes for Sh700 while a kilo of powdered carrots goes for Sh600, wholesale. The price of the smaller quantities differs depending on the outlet store, ranging from Sh220 to Sh370 for the 250g and between Sh450 and 720 for the 500g.

“We are currently stocked by Healthy U, Mboga Masters in Syokimau,  Chandarana Supermarkets and Edbo Shop in Nakuru,” Jonathan says. “Our two top outlets are Edbo Shop who we supply with approximately 15kg of product each week and Healthy U who we supply with approximately 25kg a week.”

While interest is growing rapidly for Aglomere products, the company is finding it difficult to meet demand with their capacity being at 180kg per month.

“This is one of the reasons we were inspired to pitch our company and product to KCB Lions Den. We needed to scale up,” Jackson says. “The pitching process was very intense and nerve racking. Jonathan and I were laughing how our English didn’t match up to all the other participants, but we put our best foot forward and sold the product.”

Earlier in 2018, Aglomere had won the first runner-up price at Nairobi Innovation Week, where they were trained on how to pitch to investors.

Jonathan and Jackson went into the Den asking for Sh7 million in exchange for 30 per cent equity but ended up giving away 45 per cent of their company in a deal with two Lions, Dashan Chandaria and Joan Mwangi.  

“That training at Nairobi Innovation Week definitely came in handy,” Jackson says. “Granted, we gave away more equity than we had originally planned, but having the two Lions on board with us will not only give us the capital we need, but most importantly the retail and business connections. I know we made the right choice.”

Jonathan and Jackson plan to use the investment to buy new machinery, move to bigger premises and inject more money into their operating capital.

“When we actively started running the business in 2015, we made less than Sh50,000 in our first three months.”

Jonathan and Jackson were holding full time jobs as bankers in Nakuru and travelling to Nyandarua to work on their business on the weekends. Jackson’s mother helped them with day to day running of the company during the week.

“It was intense and extremely tiring, but our efforts bore fruit,” Jonathan says. “In 2016 our turnover was Sh216,000. In 2017 it was Sh1.2 million,” Jonathan says.

“We project, with the new injection of capital and guidance from our investors, that we will grow our product capacity to 2.8 tonnes a month, turning over Sh21.6 million by the end of 2019.”

The best way to use the powdered products is to add them to preferred recipes like soups, smoothies, baby food, cakes and pastries.