Pretoria – K9 Petfoods, which is the first and only 100% black, female-owned player in the production of pet foods, opened the doors of their state of-the-art pet food factory premises in the Western Cape.
The all-black female trio of Western Cape entrepreneurs, who benefitted from the Department of Trade and Industry’s Black Industrialists Incentive Programme, broke new ground when they opened on Friday.
Through the programme, K9 was able to secure funding of R20 million and an additional R31 million from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to expand operations and purchase the latest state-of-the-art machinery.
“These developments will go a long way in ensuring that we are able to meet Woolworth’s production requirements, with whom we have a partnership agreement to supply with our range of products. Our company now occupies a state-of-the-art 3 600m square-metre facility and we have managed to boost our workforce from 11 to 24 employees, with a target of 35 by 2018,” said the company’s Managing Director Fazielah Allie.
Allie, who had been working in pet food production for 20 years, purchased a small and struggling business specialising in frozen pet food in 2014.
Having worked with Woolworths before, Fazielah then approached Woolworths in the hopes of turning around her new business by securing a partnership agreement.
Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies commended K9’s achievement, saying that the investment would make a positive contribution to economic transformation in the agro-processing sector, while creating direct employment in the economy of South Africa.
“Today’s opening of K9 which was jointly funded by the dti in partnership with the IDC and Woolworths is testament to the entrepreneurial spirit of a team of black women who put to test the intent of the Black Industrialists Programme initiated by the dti and Woolworths’ commitment in contributing meaningfully to socio-economic transformation in South Africa,” said Minister Davies.
In addition, Minister Davies said the supply of the K9 Petfoods range to Woolworths stores was one of the positive examples of how inclusive growth and localisation of the industry should work in South Africa.
“Industrialisation is vital to the South African economy and Africa and through the many legislative and policy levers, there is a need to shift structures, systems and institutions that result in a more inclusive economy.
“Also one of the key focus areas for the economy in being competitive locally and globally requires that we build on the existing capacity and capabilities and processes to enhance the manufacturing efficiency within the various sectors of the economy,” said Minister Davies.
Head of Transformation at Woolworths, Zinzi Mgolodela, said knowing Fazielah’s experience and entrepreneurial spirit, the company saw an opportunity to partner with her.
“Our priority was to leverage on a pet food opportunity to advance our import replacement strategy that seeks to replace providers of imported products and services with local black suppliers. Knowing Fazielah’s experience and entrepreneurial spirit, we recognised that there was an opportunity to partner with her with the aim of establishing a South African produced supply of our Woolworths branded canned and poached pet food,” said Mgolodela.
Mgolodela added that with three black women at the helm, K9 Petfoods was an ideal fit for the Woolworths Enterprise & Supplier Development programme which matches potential black-owned businesses to opportunities in the Woolworths supplier base.
The Black Industrialists Scheme is one of the incentive programmes, designed to benefit black industrialists with more than 50% shareholding and management control in the targeted sectors, of which agro-processing is one. – SAnews.gov.za
