WeeklySA_AdminHOTSPOT: Soweto entrepreneur innovates own chillie product with unique ingredients
By Bongiwe Mkhwanazi
What had started as a bottle recycling idea has turned into a thriving condiment-manufacturing and job-creation venture for irrepressible 43 year old Meadowlands, Soweto Resident Lindiwe Dlamini.
Food manufacturing is truly an accidental vocation for Dlamini, as she was previously making a living as a hairdresser, hair products distributor and salon owner, until the worldwide recession of the late 2000s had led to the closure of her Headlines Hair Salon in 2010.
“I started collecting empty bottles which are usually used for condiments like mayonnaise from relatives, friends and neighbours, and had intended to recycle and reuse the containers. But, inspired by my mother, who was making her own chillies salads and pastes, I had soon realised that I could start my own condiments-manufacturing venture.”
Dlamini had started with manufacturing chillies. “But, as the business grew, I was able to diversify and manufactured several other condiments,” said Dlamini, who currently manufactures condiments including the Cheesenise Sauce, Chillinase Relish, Sour Cream Sauce, Chillienise Sauce and Shisa Hot Sauce. These come in three flavours, namely the hot, mild & extra hot flavours. Dlamini, whose business is known as the Chillies Jar, also specially prepares Sushi Platters mostly for clients who hold finger lunch parties.
Dlamini had started with one brand, which was the hot chillies sauce, but her clients had encouraged her to expand her condiments range, which also includes a mild cheese-infused sauce, known as the Cheesenise Sauce, to meet small children’s sensitive taste buds. Dlamini, whose mayonnaise is eggless and oil free, said,
“I had started mixing my own spices, mostly from the left-over ingredients, when the idea had come to diversify further”.
The Chillies Jar’s customers include the local Meadowpoint Pick n Pay, White House Pub and Checkers. Her next goal is to partner with other local retailers, including, Spar before she can expand to other retailers outside Soweto. Dlamini, who has also undergone food hygienic training, has applied for for a food safety certificate, which will enable her to start distribution to a wider retailers’ network.
Dlamini is happy that the Chillies Jar is registered and has a certificate from the South Africans Bureaus of Standards (SABS), allowing her to produce her own food products. “The compliance process of the SABS is so diligent and strict that we were required to produce 1000 containers for the product for tasting before we were given an approval,” Dlamini said.
Dlamini’s products are now registered and barcoded through a leading South Africa Barcode solution supplier of GS1. “Meaning I can sell my product nationwide, Dlamini said. Packaging is done at home and her products are properly labelled as required in terms of the Consumer Protection Act, she said.
“This is a family business. We are also expanding the business in KwaZulu Natal where my mom is based,” she said.
Dlamini is also expanding the business in KwaZulu Natal, where her mother is based and owns a chillies farm that supplies the Chillies Jar with fresh chillies all year round, to circumvent the cold winter months, during which chillies is scarce and tends to be costly to source from a small number of specialist suppliers.
Dlamini, whose mother’s chillies farm was started in 2018, said, “Farming chillies in summer is not a problem, because there is enough rain, but – besides sourcing, at high cost, from specialist suppliers in winter – our other problem is the water supply, which is preventing us from buying chillies at reasonable prices from the market”.
