Amazing Bakes a family confectionary business founded by Mwawi and Grace Msiska is one of the eleven businesses accelerating in the fifth round of the Growth Accelerator Entrepreneurship Challenge.

 

Co-Founder of the business, Grace Msiska said they started the business way back mainly by baking scones, cakes, doughnuts and other confectioneries which were loved by people.

“From home we moved to town where we accommodated ourselves in a small shop only for selling the products but everything was done at home using domestic kitchen wares,” she said.

Msiska explained that the work was tough because even mixing the flour was done manually in the pots at home.

When the shop was opened in town, she said, we were overwhelmed by walk in customers who wanted snacks for offices, families as well as individuals.

Msiska added that there was demand for juices because most customers asked for drinks when they buy the products.

“We started selling the usual soft drinks but the idea of having our own natural juices came and we started making it but in small quantity because the challenge was that we were still using domestic wares,” she said.

As time went by, Msiska said, people started requesting to carry juice home for their families but at that time the company did not have that capacity to make more juices apart from few bottles sold in the shop.

The company embarked on a research to see the shelf life of the juice to increase production as well as the market. “We discovered that a lot of people loved our juices which come in different flavors therefore we went into full production.”

The juices have natural tastes if they are cooled because they are produced from natural fruits like strawberries, granadillas, guavas, mangoes and bananas among others which are sourced from local farmers, she said.

Msiska also discovered the process of making juices was almost similar to production of jam therefore started jam production to add on to confectioneries and juices.

The entrepreneur reiterated that the production of all her products were done manually and was labor intensive to come up with high quality and affordable products which are loved by many people.

With the coming in of Growth Accelerator, it was a blessing in disguise because all the company lacked was solved through the financial and technical support given to us, she said.

Msiska further said the program answered her many questions she had regarding on how to move forward to grow like other businesses.

The company needed industrial equipment such as pulper, mixing pot, colloid mill and a bottling machine to increase production and capacity of confectionary, juices and fruit jam.

Through the program, Msiska said, the company has managed to purchase all the equipment a development which has eased the workload.

The program has also helped to do some maintenances at its factory where the equipment will be planted for full time production, she said. 

A former secondary school teacher, Msiska said, that the mentorship program has also helped the company to grow its business because previously she could not keep the accounts records properly, manage the business, leadership, partnerships with other business, labor relations, customers and suppliers of fruits.

“The program has opened our eyes on things which were overlooked to accelerate our businesses. We have acquired full knowledge to better run the business,” she said.

Msiska said the company has created 12 jobs and will employ more women and men in the factory for production, packaging and distribution.

One of the workers, Faith Zakariya said she joined the company in 2018 and is able to sustain herself through her salary.

“There is a good work relationship with the team at this place which makes all of us workers to do our different roles properly,” she said.

Zakariya said there is team work at the place which makes business to grow production to sales and customer care.

The company makes 100 bottles per week using manual but with the machines they will increase to 500 bottles per week.