Goapele Bakery’s Lerato Radebe
Sometimes, the most successful business ideas are the simplest. Or rather, they are the ones that appeal to the most basic needs, like bread.
Goapele Bakery is a thriving enterprise in Kagiso on the West Rand in Gauteng. The company was recently named the winner of the Food and Beverages category at the second Township Entrepreneurs Awards, an accolade that carries with it R200 000 in prize money.
Lerato Radebe (37), one of the founders of Goapele Bakery, tells of how the company pulled her away from another business she was running in 2012 to become an all-consuming passion.
“At the time, I was fully hands-on on my stationery supply business and internet café business. My cousin, a qualified pastry chef, was struggling to find a job,” she says. She proposed the idea of him opening his own bakery, but did not yet take it further.
In 2012, Radebe was elected as a secretary of a local businesspeople’s forum.
“One member of the forum proposed that we start a bakery as a co-operative because they stood a good chance of being funded by government. Before I committed myself to his proposal, I read on the success rate of bakeries. Then a co-operative was formed,” says Radebe.
After struggling to convene co-operative members to put a business plan together or contribute start-up capital, Radebe used the proceeds of a large stationery order of R80 000 to start the bakery while handing her internet café business over to her younger brother. The bakery currently has two full-time employees.
Radebe had to overcome a number of challenges in getting the business of the ground and keeping it there, from identifying suitable space — renting space for a full year before actually using it for production — to running out of capital. The business then had to protect its bread recipe after their pastry chef had to leave for the United States. Record-keeping for employees’ performance as well as tracking the raw material used by the business also proved a challenge. Winter months also present a power supply challenge, as high demand leads to power cuts that can be disastrous for a bakery. The company is now in the process of acquiring a 10 kilowatt generator.
Radebe notes that being located in a township has been an advantage for the business because all of Goapele Bakery’s employees are also based locally. Therefore they do not depend on any form of transport to come to work, because it is within walking distance.
The value that the bakery offers is simple: “We are a much cheaper brand of bread,” says Radebe. She maintains that this is important in an environment with high unemployment.
The company also bakes cakes, and brings confectionery to the local people. Apart from selling these baked goods directly to the public, the company also caters to the bread needs of local kota sellers, which means they have a fixed customer base.
Businesses like Goapele Bakery fulfil a social and economic function above just job creation. The food and beverages value chain is critical for food security in a province like Gauteng and the ability to provide staples such as bread locally, and at competitive prices, is important in shielding low-income earners and grant recipients from rising food prices.