In Kenya, Wedgehut Foods processes a daily volume of up to six tonnes of fresh potatoes into products like french fries. The company was established in 2021 by Wanjiru Mambo Mutethia. In our interview, Wanjiru shares her journey of capitalising on a gap that emerged in the market.
In early 2020, Wanjiru Mambo Mutethia and a group of friends were running an upmarket restaurant in Nairobi, when the directive came from the Kenyan health ministry that all eateries had to close to curb the spread of Covid-19.
For the serial entrepreneur, it was a hard blow. “It became so uncertain,” she remembers.
The team allocated the fresh produce and ingredients that the restaurant had in stock among themselves to avoid waste. Wanjiru ended up selling several leftover bags of potatoes in her neighbourhood. Driven by fear of what the pandemic could bring, the potatoes were quickly bought at a favourable price during a bout of panic buying. Seizing this opportunity, Wanjiru procured additional bags and sold them to eager buyers in her community.
"That’s when I thought: what else can you do with potatoes to add value to them," she says.