KENYA – African Originals, a Kenyan startup using local ingredients to make world-class alcoholic beverages, is defying the odds in the craft alcohol industry in Kenya and on the continent.
The maker of popular Kenyan Originals Cider has been awarded the Rising Star African Food Company of the Year in Africa at the Africa Food Awards ceremony held at Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi.
Launched almost five years ago by Alexandra Chappatte, the firm has been crafting beverages using ingredients sourced from local farmers.
Chappatte pointed out that the company started in a production site located in Meru in a container and has since expanded to have four godowns in the country’s Industrial Area.
It is based in Nairobi’s Baba Ndogo area and has three brands under the umbrella of Africa Originals, including Kenyan Originals, African Originals, and 58.
Kenyan Originals was started with a mixture of seed funding from Alex and Chandaria Capital as the first investors. The company then brought on board more investors to advise and support them in the industry.
In an interview with TechTrends KE, Chappatte said she ventured into the beverage space because the industry in Kenya is ripe for disruption, just like any other industry.
”You know, you have a significant monopoly in this space and there are very few markets in the world where it’s still at that kind of level. And what that means is there isn’t a real choice for the consumer because if you only have one key player in that space, there’s no one challenging what that player is offering,” she said.
”And so, I think it’s important to be able to give consumers choice and particularly choice that is relevant to the locals. And that’s what we can adapt here and tailor for the local people because we have our production here and we have our innovation here and we speak to our consumer every day.”
The CEO and founder noted that there’s a big gap in quality beverage products with local ingredients, giving an example that nothing in the spirit space is being distilled with real ingredients.
It will be a spirit base and then flavoring added, or some are imported, Chappatte said, adding that obviously, that means like it’s much more expensive, so there’s a sweet spot in the middle on pricing against the quality of that product that we think we can play that role.’
”We’ve got great momentum on our beverages, specifically tonics and Ciders, and we’re about to do a new pack change as well. We need to invest in the brand to get it to a higher level. We’ve got good-ish availability now, so we wanna invest in wider awareness of the brand,” she concluded.
”We’ve got plenty of capacity and we want to continue to invest as we are growing. We are here to create a strong manufacturing site in Kenya, and we want to create a world-class beverage production facility across alcohol and soft drinks. ”
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