BY VICTOR ADAR
The age of doing only what is in line with your professional training is over. There is a typical feeling nowadays especially from those who have the flexibility that doing something different can go a long way. But while some rise as others fall, many are still not scared of jumping into the ring to vie for a piece of the pie.
Grace Mikinya is one trained cabin attendant who took a dive to a completely different field. The youthful lady has found success in selling meat products. Talking about Lamag Meat Supplier, a company she co-owns with her husband, Mikinya is not your ordinary butcher. She is behind a family owned company that deals with sale of fresh same day slaughter and delivery of all meat products.
“We guarantee fresh meat with same day delivery,” she says. “It was very small in the beginning but we have grown to a 1,500 clientele that orders monthly and trusts the products and refer many more year by year,” she says, adding that in terms of competition, what gives them the confidence to succeed is going beyond home deliveries.
It is in 2013 when delivery business became a golden goose prompting her to front the same idea to her hubby. They would use part of their savings worth Sh100, 000 as start up capital. Selling beef at Sh300 per kilogram, steak at Sh400, chicken at Sh450 for 1.3 kilograms, and mutton at Sh400 per kilogram, Mikinya has clear plans to reach higher heights. Their meat supply company has now grown ten folds bringing in a monthly turnover of Sh2.5 million.
“Our motivation is the need to change the industry by having fresh meat at rocket down prices at your convenience. By offering the best prices in the market because we source for our own cattle, customers are able to save some cash. It is also good that your order is delivered to your door step, in good time,” she says.
She says that the tides in managing a business of a wider scope like this has changed so much that to thrive, it is a must to add a twist. You can think of the advantage she has going by the fact that her customers have a leeway – one can walk into her shop in Dagoreti market (also popular as Ndonyo) and buy his or her favourite meat. Or, a buyer can simply pick up a phone and place an order at the comfort of his or her home.
Dagoreti area boasts of five licensed abattoirs with a government veterinary officer working in each of them in order to ensure that customers are cushioned from buying meat from sick cattle, or from an environment that is dirty. Mikinya frequents one which is barely 100 metres away from her butchery where she parts with Sh750 per cow, and Sh300 for a goat. Since she has to transport the meat she only pays a meager amount ranging from Sh50 to Sh100 for a permit, issued by the same veterinary officers.
“The slaughter houses follow all the processes, and they have their own licenses to do the job. So we just take our own cows, goats and sheep there to be slaughtered and certified. Then arrange on how to transport them using meat containers to the premises after everything is done and due processes followed. What you need for your butchery is just a license for your shop as the other bits are well taken care of by the slaughter house,” she says.
Payments for food handling licenses usually vary from one county council to another – traders from Maragua town who are operating butcheries inside the market pay a levy of Sh3, 500 while in Imenti South parts, the levy is nearly double, at Sh8, 000. Amid the disparities, business is flourishing for the smarter entrepreneurs, after all. Mikinya for instance, is capable of doing nearly 30 deliveries by mid-day, and not less than 50 per day, an indication that business is clicking. In remote areas where cars cannot be used for deliveries, she says motorbikes come in handy.
Apart from offering solutions to the lack of jobs menace – the company currently has 10 employees – what makes them stand out and be heard is largely because of word of mouth. Glad about satisfied clients telling their friends about her venture, social media networks like Facebook as well as relevant WhatsApp groups are also pushing up the firm’s popularity, sales volumes and of course profits.
With what she calls “little” experience of five years, Mikinya is changing the face of butchery business with products and services she says are only unique to “Lamag Meat”. The company is able to respond to a market that she currently considers big albeit at a time when nearly 50% of start-ups are faced with challenges of working capital. As if that is not enough, 80% of the economy is based on Small and Medium Enterprises, jobs (80%) are also as a result of the noble work as well as proper resources that small players put into place to make sure that they are really growing.
Last year, being an electioneering period things were a bit tough but as the political temperatures keep cooling, sort of, and businesses trying to pick up pace, another way to make sure that she is on the right path prompts her to offer free deliveries to areas which are of proximity to the main branch in Nairobi’s Dagoreti area.
“Our target area is the whole of Nairobi and its environs. But we do free delivery within Kileleshwa, Ngong road because we operate from Dagoretti hence no need to charge,” she says.
From her perspective, things can still get tough despite a ready market that their flourishing company is currently enjoying. During the rainy season, for example, there is a shortage with cattle as no one wants to sell when pastures for grazing is plenty. She says that prices tend to go up and also the road network is usually poor at this season, which makes accessibility hard.
“During the drought season the meat may get tough because of lack of enough water and also cattle walking for long distance in search of pasture. Also different cattle from different regions may differ in taste depending with what they feed on and sometimes clients complain,” she says.
