Buy Kenya, Build Kenya
In late 2010 I made what I thought was a noble decision to prioritize buying products made in Kenya. The products had to be good quality and value for money. They ranged from food products like jam, ketchup, butter to clothes. Tomato ketchup was easy as there really wasn’t much difference in taste to me, between Peptang Tomato Ketchup and Heinz Tomato Ketchup, but the price disparity is huge. That was an easy win-win; buy Kenya, build Kenya and save some money.Ma Cuisine jam and marmalade
Next was jam and marmalade, after trying several Kenyan options that weren’t great I found the Ma Cuisine range of sweet and tart spreads. The quality of the jam and marmalade was excellent, and the label indicated it was natural with no preservatives. Ma Cuisine Limited was a small company, established in 1986. They made “ … high quality handmade products using natural flavors of local ingredients.” They were proudly Kenyan and had a Buy Kenya Build Kenya sign on the label of the products.In 2011 they were located at the Mac Naughton Centre off Ngong road near Lenana School. A few years later they moved to Loresho Ridge road, behind JD's supermarket, a location that for some reason I had difficulty finding and hence never visited them.
Perhaps because Ma Cuisine Limited was a small company and hence very sensitive to managing their costs, they encouraged the return of the empty glass jars. To quote them at the bottom of the back label was this message; “To recycle after use, please return your empty bottles to MaCuisine.” This strongly resonated with me and I made sure to wash the empty jars, and store them. When I had a box or several boxes of empty jars, I would call the good people at Ma Cuisine to arrange to return them. They were very kind on several occasions to ask their driver in their delivery vehicle to pick the jars from my office. At other times I would arrange for someone to drop them off for me, once a boda boda (motorcycle) rider.
The most memorable incident was returning about twenty empty jars in September 2018 and also placing an order for two jars of strawberry jam directly from Ma Cuisine. Not only did they pick up the empty jars and deliver my jam but to my pleasant surprise they gifted me four other jars of marmalade including the Seville Orange and the Ginger and Orange flavors.
Over the next 10 years I became a very loyal Ma Cuisine customer. And why not as the jam and marmalade were excellent, they were made in Kenya, the price was reasonable and Ma Cuisine were environmentally conscious.
Small Business Struggles, and the Acquisition with a Dutch Connection
I however wondered if Ma Cuisine wasn’t struggling as a company, particularly in distributing their excellent product. This is because the stores where you could buy the jam and marmalade kept on reducing. By 2019, there were only two stores I could find Ma Cuisine jam and marmalade; Marketways Limited, the small supermarket at Valley Arcade and Gourmet Meat Products Ltd, the butchery at Yaya Center. Marketways Limited would later close down in March 2023 after operating for 56 years, they announced their closure in a sad letter titled end of an era.
I have heard people say that one of the challenges for small businesses in Kenya is the asymmetrical relationship with supermarkets. That many small businesses are treated unfairly by many supermarkets, through delayed payments after their products have been purchased by customers in the supermarket. This is disastrous for cash flow. Ma Cuisine Limited was a small business, confirmed by their turnover in 2018 of KES 12,422,127, according to a notice by the Competition Authority of Kenya in January 2020.
So I was not altogether surprised when in late 2020 I found out that Ma Cuisine had been acquired, and was now part of Bio Food Products. There was no formal announcement, at least none that I was aware of then. I learned about the change in ownership in February 2021, when I went to buy my favorite strawberry jam and it was in a different shape and size of jar. The colors on the label were different and there was a Bio Food Products logo. I checked directly and a representative of Bio Food Products confirmed that yes they were in the process of transition.
What surprised me was to learn that the Ma Cuisine Limited acquisition was by TBL Dairy Ventures B.V., a Dutch company, which had earlier acquired 100% of the shares of Bio Food Products Limited in 2016. In the Competition Authority of Kenya notice of that earlier acquisition, the annual turnover of Bio Food Products Limited in 2015 was KES 445,895,569.
The Embassy of the Netherlands in Kenya on 22 November 2016, had communicated “We would like to announce that TBL Dairy Ventures BV is now fully involved in BIO Foods Ltd, a high quality dairy processor for fresh milk, yoghurt and other dairy products. The Dutch Good Growth Fund is one of the financing partners for this project.”
The Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), is part of the Government of the Netherlands in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It provides investment funding in businesses in emerging markets and developing countries. The The DGGF had provided a loan of €2,700,000 (approximately KES 300 million) and a guarantee of a maximum of €1,680,000 (KES 187 million) to TBL Dairy Ventures B.V. The investment titled Dutch Dairy Impact Nairobi – DGGF115/KE/3, had a term of 7 years from August 2016 to August 2023. The development impact of this project by TBL Dairy Ventures B.V., through its recent acquisition Bio Food Products was employment (300), transfer of knowledge and production capacity. There would be an increase in supplying farmers from 40 to 500 and 126 farms would be bio-certified.
Changes after the Ma Cuisine Acquisition
The first change mentioned above was the change in the size and shape of the jar. The net weight of the jam in the new cube shaped jar was 300 grams. The older cylindrical jar was 440 grams. Annoyingly the new jars were significantly more difficult to open the first time. So much so that I have frequently had to wear one of my workman gloves to twist open the lid. It was also much harder to scoop out all the jam from the new jar for those that are averse to waste.
A positive change for many, was that the jam and marmalade was now available in all leading supermarkets. That would most likely have to do with the ability of Bio Food Products, a larger company to negotiate better payment terms with supermarkets and or have the ability to wait longer for payments as they would have more money in the bank and not struggle as much with cash flow challenges.
In mid 2022, the colors of the label of the jar of strawberry jam changed again from blue and red to white, gold and blue. A picture of strawberries was added and the Bio Food Product logo was now more prominent. For other products, the picture was for the main ingredient or source of the ingredient.
Around the same time, I noticed that the smell and taste of the strawberry jam was different. I asked about this change and received an apologetic response from Bio Food Products. They explained that since they had a strawberry jam of their own prior to the acquisition of Ma Cuisine, they had made changes to the ingredients so that the new strawberry jam was a blend of the two. They said they had done lots of testing to try to work out a midday point that the new jam would be acceptable to the consumers of the two jams. I told them that it still tasted good and all I had noticed was the change.
The range of Ma Cuisine products, which earlier also included a few relishes and sauces, increased significantly as Bio Food Products moved all their non-dairy products to the Ma Cuisine brand. These include ketchup, honey, mayonnaise, salad dressing, and tartar sauce. I am not 100% but I think the raspberry jam was one of the new products that became a favorite of my youngest daughter. Sadly, they also did away with some of the older products, one that I liked was the ginger and orange marmalade.
Another change in 2022 was advertising campaign for Ma Cuisine jam and marmalade using billboards. Such a contrast to the approach of the older small Ma Cuisine Limited which most likely had no money for advertising. An article in Food Business Africa, in September 2021, suggests that Ma Cuisine “grew tenfold in the first year after the takeover”, under the leadership of then Bio Food Limited Managing Director Eelco Weber.
Waste, Recycling and Complexity
The change I have struggled with the most after the acquisition is not one that I anticipated. This is the marked change in attitude toward recycling of the jars by Bio Food Products. When the label of the jars changed in late 2020 early 2021, Bio Food Products retained the recycle logo but did away with the message asking users to return empty jars for recycling. However since I was so used to washing and storing the jars with the plan of returning I continued doing so.
In September 2022, I asked Bio Food Products if they take back and recycle the glass jam jars. Their response was to thank me for my concern for the environment and let me know that they had a take back project in partnership with TakaTaka Solutions. But I could not find the Take Back Bin they directed me to at Chandarana Adlife Plaza as the staff at the supermarket did not know about a Taka Taka recycle bin or a Take Back Bin for empty Ma Cuisine glass jars.
After several months and having accumulated several boxes of empty glass jars, I made a trip to Kitengela Glass. To my frustration, the folks there said they have way more glass than they need and hence were not eager to take more household glass for recycling. They were however kind enough to allow me to leave what I had carried.
My interim solution to this frustration has been a significant reduction in my consumption of Ma Cuisine strawberry jam or marmalade. I have found a bread that tastes good enough with just butter. I am however still a customer of Bio Food Products as I love their mango yogurt which I take with granola!
I realize that yogurt is packed in plastic containers which are more of a hazard to the environment. But I have a higher expectation of recycling glass jars than plastic containers. This is because the small company Ma Cuisine used to do it and Coca Cola did it for decades with their glass bottles.
My original goal to buy more Kenyan products and build Kenya has been shown to be overly simplistic, as I am certain some if not most of the profits made by TBL Dairy Ventures B.V. make their way back to the Netherlands. The world is too interconnected for a small company in Nairobi with an excellent product not to attract the notice of oversea investors. Kenya still benefits immensely or so I hope!
No comments:
Post a Comment