- Dairy delights with a local twist
United by a single, dairy-based dream, in 2009 five local ladies joined forces to form Dream Flavours.
13 years later and the dream remains stronger than ever for business partners: Litah Malejane, Magret Kgosi, Chedza Nkhwa, Lilian Kheba and Kelebogile Majaye.
The company makes: juices, ice pops, madila and yoghurts, producing 5, 000 units a week when working at full capacity.
It is Dream Flavours yoghurts that have truly taken off, with their indigenous range, boasting mogorogorwane, mmilo, motoroko, morula and lerotse, proving particularly popular.
This is their incredible story, as told by Malejane…
Kindly introduce yourself to our readers?
I am the Managing Director and co-founder of White Angels PTY LTD trading as Dream Flavours. I am from Thamaga and I am 55 years old.
I’m also into the marketing of the company products. I have been doing marketing for over 25 years to date. White Angels is owned by five Batswana women, who started from humble beginnings with no knowledge of manufacturing dairy products.
Tell us a bit more about these ‘humble beginnings’?
The company was established in September 2009 with the help of Gender Affairs grant; later we got a loan from the First National Bank Botswana to buy a van. We then got another loan from Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) to try and add on the funds to make packaging material – that was in 2010.
Before you established this business, what were you doing in terms of work?
I was self employed supplying stationery and cleaning chemicals.
So when did the first products hit the shelves?
We started supplying in January 2010.
What inspired you to start Dream Flavours?
The realization that most of the dairy products in the shops are from outside the country. The idea was to build a brand that Batswana will identify as homemade and the world as ‘African Taste’.
You use indigenous fruits for some of your products – why?
We wanted to differentiate our brand from the imports by crafting our yoghurt with the local indigenous fruits of Botswana.
We wanted Motswana who eat our yoghurt to be inspired and realize that there is so much potential in our country, to make use of our God given trees to better our lives.
How are Dream Flavours products performing in the retail space?
We have not yet positioned them on the retail market because we are waiting for our new packaging, which will be ready before the end of the year. But while we wait, we supply the hospitality market. As of now we supply: Grand Palm, Cresta Hotel, Grand Aria.
Where do you usually get your ingredients?
We get our fruits in the Kweneng area and beyond, mostly from vendors who sell to us.
How difficult or easy it is to get these fruits in bulk?
Yes, all the fruits are seasonal, even the exotic ones. But that is not an excuse to deny our customers their favorites, so we preserve them for future use by freezing them.
What challenges do Dream Flavours face?
Shortage of milk is the major challenge in Botswana. Also our machinery is not automated so it takes long to finish production.
Between exotic yoghurts and indigenous ones, which ones are more popular?
Indigenous of course! They are doing wonders because these are products which are unique and not so common.
You exhibited at the Global Expo Botswana this year, was it the first time going there?
It was not. This year the exposition was quite different, it had so many potential customers who showed interest in our products and it was more eye-opening since it provided networking opportunities.
Yoghurt production is quite a limited profession locally, how did you acquire the necessary ‘know-how’?
Most of our knowledge is self taught but National Food Technology Research Centre (NAFTRC) really helped us a lot with some training here and there and certification of the products.
Are there any plans to see Dream Flavour products being exported out of the country?
Yes we have sensitized ourselves with the export protocols logistics so that when a need rise, we don’t waste time.
And where do you want to see Dream Flavours in the next five years?
We want all the household kitchen refrigerators to be dominated by Dream Flavours Brands. Also we want the brand to reach across the world. We appeal to Batswana to let us know about the indigenous fruits in their villages, we want to make ‘The Taste of Botswana’ with our wild fruits.
Heavenly taste, soothes the taste buds, absolutely divine, love it, love it, looove it! All you need to do is get to taste one and the rest is history.