09 Sep 2014

The baking industry may consist of mostly small enterprises, but those who run small bread making businesses are a living prove that the industry cannot be ignored in as far as its role in the country’s economic wellbeing is concerned. 

In the North East District (NED), and certainly elsewhere, most of the successful bakeries are those that operate courtesy of government’s Poverty Eradication Programme.

In Masunga, the NED headquarters, there is a 34-year-old woman who hails from Lentswe-le-moriti in the Bobirwa area, who runs a successful bakery business.

Ms Gaolatlhe Mgadla, who now lives in Masunga by marriage, started operating what is today locally known as Mikindo Bakery early August this year after a plush P100 000 sponsorship from government’s Youth Development Fund (YDF).

Ms Mgadla told BOPA in an interview that bakery business may be easy to start up, but once up it is time consuming to operate, equipment is costly, there is always stiff completion for local customers, and deadlines are always there to meet.

“But it is one of the most rewarding ventures around,” she says, adding that she expects that, with time, her business will perform like others before it that operate under the auspices of the Poverty Eradication Programme.

Even though YDF assisted her, she is quick to point out that she used some of her savings to cover some of the expenses: “Sometimes in business you have to use your own money to add where there is shortage, money is never enough,” she adds 

Growing up in the mining town of Selebi Phikwe groomed her to be the effective business woman she is today as Ms Mgadla indicates that she learnt some of the business tricks in the copper/nickel mining town.

“I used to sell perfumes and other body products on the streets, but later I realised that I had interest in baking and the fact that I wanted to do something more challenging than selling perfumes prompted me,” she says.

Once in Masunga she started selling bread in a 20-litre bucket andsoup and tripe. Her bread sold so fast that she accumulated profit I a short space of time, particularly because the community gave her all the support she needed.

Most of her customers prefer her home baked bread with soup, she points out, adding that she used to bake scones for weddings. 

As her business began to thrive, she found a niche market in supplying primary schools, but, because then she did not have a company name, she was encouraged to register Minkido’s Bakery for her to participate in council tenders.

Today, she is enjoying the fruits of her hard work, and, the fact that she has an employed husband does not mean she has to sit at home and look up to him for everything. 

“I want to bring extra money home even though selling bread on the streets has its own challenges,” she says, adding that most people did not take her business seriously as they bought her bread on credit without paying their debts.

Ms Mgadla is optimistic that she is going to make millions of pula through her bakery. So far she supplies Vukwi Primary School, general dealers, tuck shops in Masunga, Mulambakwena, Zwenshambe, and Masukwane; she also sells to individuals around Masunga, and surrounding villages.

She specialises in bread loaves, ring buns and scones, and her loaf of bread goes for P6.50 for individuals, and ring buns go for P3.00. Companies have their own prices, and sometimes she makes up to P200 plus daily just by selling bread loves alone.

The baker also acknowledges organisations such as Segwana Sa Ngwao for marketing her during their past performing arts competitions. Also, she says her bakery is not located a strategically; hence the need to make posters and flyers to brand her business and attract more customers. 

She urges those willing to venture into baking to be committed to their businesses, adding that she sometimes knocks off at around 3 am because baking needs hard workers and time, especially when one supplies a lot of people and organisations. 

She also indicates that she was very lucky to have a hard working employee, Ms Monene Baengemali, who is always by her side. She also encourages Batswana, especially those who are unemployed and talented not to sit on their talents but to make use of them to earn a better living. 

Ms Mgadla also invites supermarket owners, general dealers,and individuals to support her especially that government too is helping to finance her projects as a way of fighting poverty. ENDS