06 Aug 2017

An aroma of freshly baked bread fills the air with alluring smell of cookies.

It is a distinct aroma that has more than just the power to make one want to taste the bread.

Welcome to Scorchfield Bakery, a mind-altering unique pride of the youth empowerment scheme.

Situated at Tlokweng Old Mall, Scorchfield Bakery, owned by Ms Tebby Chifedi, nee Hetolang, is an embodiment of success.

The smell, which lures customers into the bakery, is just a tip of an ice beg, beneath is what transpires to feed thousands of hungry mouths with fresh bread every day.

“Right now I am supplying 19 primary schools and 13 junior schools,” said the 32-year-old.

Almost all schools in Gaborone and Tlokweng get to bite bread from Scorchfield Bakery, and so are some schools in Ramotswa, Otse and Ntebogang Junior Secondary School in Kanye.

While many young people often cry foul of government tenders, Scorchfield Bakery is an exception, mainly due to its passion to satisfy customers.

And it is the attitude that has propelled Ms Chifedi’s Scorchfield Bakery to make a mark in a contested and treacherous field.

Interestingly, despite being on the right path, Scorchfield Bakery has not yet ventured into selling to retail stores.

According to Ms Chifedi, retail store business would mean that she has to drop her prices and come up with branding, but does not rule out that possibility.

Unlike many who have segregated the chunk of their funding to marketing, Scorchfield Bakery serves as a unique exception again.

“I never had to do marketing, people like their community products, I believed that is why I get so many referrals,” she stated.

Of course, it is the wonderful smell and strategic location that tempt many to taste Ms Chifedi’s magic hands, which are always longing for action.

During school breaks, she takes up part time jobs and she was once a party planner making as little as P50 per event.

The little returns never worried her, she was more focussed on fulfilling the desire of making something of her own.

From junior school, senior school, Botswana Accountancy College and to Scotland, she never knew the meaning of being idle during school breaks.

“In Scotland I worked for an investment bank,” she stated. And it is in Scotland that the dream of owning a bakery was first made, hence the name Scorchfield Bakery.

In fact, back in 2010 when pondering over a paper shredding business idea which she could not secure its funding, Ms Chifedi remembered that in Scotland there were bakeries in almost every street corner.

And while researching about a bakery business, she realised that she could start with as little as P30 000 and her next stop was CEDA, where she was adviced to approach the Youth Development Fund.

“I told myself that I will not wait for funding. I found a shop next to the post office and rented it,” she said.

The shop was dilapidated, had no electricity and had not been used for three years hence she had to use the little savings she had on repairs.

Eventually, the YDF loan was approved and she purchased some equipment for the bakery.

“After two years the owner came back and said I want my premises back,” but these words were only a test to her character and determination. ENDS