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Wow Peanut Butter is an organic peanut butter brand based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Founder Henok Abera answers our questions.
1. How did you come up with the idea for Wow Peanut Butter?
After graduating from Hawassa University, I was faced with a lack of job opportunities. I couldn’t find work in my field of study, so I started marketing for various companies at trade shows and exhibitions. While traveling through Ethiopia for these exhibitions, I searched for business ideas and discovered a gap in the peanut butter market.
I rented a place and bought a crushing machine that could process 30 kg of peanuts per day. I had an employee and sold our product to small shops, convenience stores, supermarkets, wholesalers and cafes in Addis Ababa.
Since then, our production has grown from 30 kg to 600 kg per day. We have increased our staff and we have incorporated new machinery.
We currently only produce peanut butter; however, we have plans to start with peanut snacks, peanut oil, and peanut powder.
2. Where do you get your peanuts?
We currently source our raw peanuts from farmers and farmers’ unions in an area located 500 km north of the capital city of Addis Ababa. Peanuts are unique in the area thanks to the weather and the quality of the soil.
3. What are your retail channels?
Our stockists are small stores, minimarkets, supermarkets, cafeterias and wholesalers. Our most successful channel has been working with distributors. We work with two distributors: one is based in the Merkato market in Addis Ababa and distributes to various outlets in the city; the second distributor brings the product to regional parts of Ethiopia. They help us make our product visible in many places that we cannot reach.
Wow stock of peanut butter ready for distribution.
4. How competitive is the industry?
The market is very competitive. In addition to peanut butter producers, there are stakeholders such as honey and jam producers, as well as importers of these items. Our peanut butter competitors include Yami, Harga, Harer, and Tesfaye, as well as products imported from India and the US.
Our peanut butter does not contain additives, while many other companies add sugar, salt, or acetic acid to their products.
5. What has been the most successful form of marketing?
Distributors are one of our largest marketers; however, we want to focus on our digital marketing. Distributors help visibility in the market because they have a wide network to reach local and village routes. Our marketing team advertises our product on digital channels so that we and our distributors can reach higher sales and new customers.
6. Tell us about your biggest challenges.
One of our main challenges is acquiring modern machinery. Our current machine is a local model and is out of date. Another obstacle is access to working capital. We face financial constraints when purchasing raw materials for cash, but many of our customers purchase our finished product on credit.
7. What mistakes have you made along the way?
One of the mistakes I made was not working with the right people. We hired unskilled labor and lost a lot. We counter this by building a team with complementary skills and perspective.
