Jabulane Kgopane, a 39-year-old man born and bred in Daveyton sells cleaning detergents. His business is named ‘Cleana Detergents’ and his products are not only found in the East Rand but they are also available in places like Pretoria.
Kgopane mentions that his inspiration behind selling cleaning detergents was that he saw that they are no local cleaning products that are exclusively made in the township. “I would go to retail stores and I’d even see that the ‘No Name products’ are also not manufactured in the township. I then made my own research and discovered that manufacturing such products isn’t harmful. My team and I then put all our ideas together in 2017 and 2018, we turned our ideas into something productive and had our first batch,” added Kgopane.
The sole owner of the business also outlined the type of challenges he had when he started his business. He adds that he did not know where to start his business; however he opted for his father’s backyard as a trading space. He also said that he wishes to upscale his business but with the undesirable trading space visibility continues to be hurdle; it seems difficult but most definitely possible that someday he will have his own trading zone. “We have so much hope for the business, especially, since it is based in the township. We believe that townships are so big therefore there’s a huge target market. In Daveyton, there is 35 000 households and in Tsakane there are about 40 000 households, so imagine how many households we have in the East Rand. We also target our local restaurants, Chesa Nyamas and other small businesses. Our products are manufactured in the township so we’d appreciate it if our people would support one of their own, hence the target market we have. We want our township businesses to grow so we need to support each other,” uttered the businessman.
Kgopane states that he aims to expand his business and have his own retail shops in different provinces in the country, “We want to expand our business in our country first before branching out. However, we are also aiming to grow in Africa and it’s promising. We just have to put in the hard work, and we are grateful for our clients who can’t stop singing praises to us, commending how well we manufactured our products,” concluded Kgopane.
By Palesa Ndinisa
