By Kefiloe Kajane
A pair of chemical technologists who graduated from the National University of Lesotho (NUL) Limakatso Nthethe and Alinah Ralintṧi have found passion in candy making and have become proud owners of McAli Candy, which they founded in 2018.
In an interview with theReporter Nthethe said their business was inspired by the NULSTICE expo that is a brainchild of the NUL Innovation Hub. She said the inspiration was that none of the NUL graduates had thought of making something as small as a sweet although NUL had just celebrated its 70th anniversary.
She said the right moment just came to them at that time and with further research, they realised that they could also cater for everyone’s needs with candy.
“Everyone can eat candy. Our vision was and still is to produce candy without health restrictions, meaning that everybody can consume it.
“We produce candy, yummy mellows which comes in buckets of 100 units plain and coconut coated, 75g plain and coconut coated. Gummy chews and sour jellies packed in 100 units and 30g and 50g packet. We cater for special occasions like birthday parties for kids and adults and wedding feats. We produce and sell to shops, supermarkets, wholesales and individuals,” she said.
She specified that so far they have received an amazing support from Basotho, beyond what they had anticipated when they started the business. She said they have not only received support from their customers and potential customers but also from social media, legal advisers and the general public.
She also explained that penetrating the market has been their biggest challenge as they usually sell from shop to shop and that takes most of their time.
She further explained that since most of their raw material comes from South Africa, transporting them here becomes a challenge.
“Transportation expenses have increased drastically. Acquiring manufacturing equipment has also been a persistent challenge as the machinery is very expensive costing around M150 000 to M1.5 million. We would like to see ourselves in the next five years having broaden our candy business. We would like to also expand our candy range by including things like chocolate automated machinery. We also plan to increase the staff as unemployment is a huge challenge in Lesotho.
“We would also like to see our market increasing more in Lesotho as well as in South Africa. Starting a business is not hard as long as a person is willing to start small going upwards,” Nthethe concluded.
They can be found on Facebook as ‘McAli Candy’ and also on 59 979280’.
