The business of fashion in East Africa

“I don’t come from a fashion background, so I tend to approach things purely from a business perspective,” says Wandia Gichuru, founder and CEO of Vivo Fashion Group.

Wandia Gichuru

This article is an excerpt from our latest book 'How we made it in Africa II: Real stories of entrepreneurs turning opportunity into profit'

Interview with Wandia Gichuru
CO-FOUNDER & CEO, VIVO FASHION GROUP

Lives in: Nairobi

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“I don’t come from a fashion background, so I tend to approach things purely from a business perspective,” says Wandia Gichuru, founder and CEO of Vivo Fashion Group, a Kenyan clothing manufacturer and retailer.

“We try to focus on what the market wants. We work backwards – starting from a price point we think will work and then calculate whether we can produce the garment within that price,” she explains.

Vivo currently operates twenty-nine stores across Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, and also owns the e-commerce marketplace ShopZetu. While the company aims to cater for women of all ages, Gichuru says the average Vivo customer is in her early forties.

She notes that over 90% of clothing available in East Africa is imported, meaning much of it is not designed with local consumers in mind. Vivo’s collections, by contrast, are created specifically for African women – in terms of size, fit and style preferences. Gichuru says this involves “understanding what women here feel good wearing – which parts of their body they’re happy to show off, which ones they are not – what colours they feel good in”.