Heritage

A jeweller’s advice on increasing production

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Riri CEO Njuhi Chege and Riri Brand Ambassador Gak sport the Riri signature Half Sun neckpiece. File

Two years ago, Njuhi Chege started Riri Jewellery and through hard work the venture has gone online and partnered with Sapelle.com, a United Kingdom-based online shop. Ms Chege has also opened an outlet at River Café in Gigiri, Nairobi.

“At Riri Jewellery we have been able to adopt new designs and trends based on our clients’ needs. This flexibility is one of the strengths of our business which promotes scalability,” she says.

Not many ventures can scale up production as quickly as Riri Jewellery has done. Many fail because they scale up without thinking through the process, including researching and waiting for the right time.

“Most craftpreneurs increase their output without a clear indication of corresponding market appetite where stock is seen as a sign of business growth. The truth is that unless you outline how you will get the stock bought, it will remain just that – stock,” Ms Christine Gitau, the founder of Craft Afrika, a social enterprise that seeks to promote collaboration and knowledge-sharing in the craft business, says.

“Increased production is associated with increased financial investment, something many entrepreneurs are often ill-prepared for. An entrepreneur working in leather will face, for example, the challenge of minimum quantities from tanneries. Furthermore, some large orders come with a 90-day wait period – a situation which can leave an unprepared entrepreneur bankrupt,” she adds.

Ms Chege says there are three main factors to consider when looking to increase production; ability to understand and project your costs currently and when scaling occurs, having a reliable production team which can quickly increase output according to demand, and understanding what new opportunities will mean for the company in terms of utilising and optimising resources.

“Being a small company has its advantages such as faster adaptability to changes in demand, but on the downside the limited manpower means fewer hands in regard to marketing, distributing and selling products.

‘‘It is a balancing act between all the parts that make up Riri Jewellery — from production to sales and marketing, recruiting manpower, and other facets of any business; but these are realities of life,” she explains.

Ms Gitau suggests that an entrepreneur should keep the production chain in-house. This gives the investor control of the end production even when faced with large orders. “Invest in training staff on production and quality control so that when need to scale up comes you will have a pool of talent capable of delivering,” she says.

Camilla Sutton, drawing from her six years’ experience working with various fashion brands in Europe, says that the key to running a successful fashion brand is through organisation and using a range of methods to help keep production running smoothly.

Planning can help a fashion brand organise overlapping processes from research and design to ordering fabrics and trims, to sampling and sales. “I usually factor in a two-week buffer for delay on quoted delivery time to retailers because you can never rely on production running exactly to plan,” says Ms Sutton.

She moved to Nairobi in January and is freelancing on various design and production projects as well as consulting for fashion brands based both in the UK and Kenya.

Ms Sutton says that knowing what type of production method will work best for your business is crucial for success, e.g cut make trim or fully factored. Cut make trim refers to sourcing all fabrics, trimmings and components from a supplier and assembling them into finished products.

On the other hand, fully factored means that production of fabrics and garments is done in-house.

“Know what is realistic and achievable in terms of production. Be honest with your customer or retailer, especially if you are a start-up brand where production might be limited in the beginning. Be realistic with delivery times to avoid disrupting buyers and their schedules, being blacklisted or having to discount items over delay. Remember that you’re looking to build a long lasting and profitable relationship with your retailer,” says Ms Sutton.

Even when a business has potential to grow, some entrepreneurs fear taking it to the next level. “It is relatively easy to control production quality when quantities are small. However, it becomes necessary to hire or outsource skill when the need for increased output arises.

“The challenge that many tend to face is lack of skilled and reliable craftsmanship. Lack of seriousness associated with the craft and the creative sector at large creates a backlash of inconsistent and unreliable manpower and the overall label of Jua-kaliness,” says Ms Gitau.

The Craft Afrika founder adds that the growth process should be organic, thus it should be natural and not fall into the trap of creating stock for the sake of it. She cautions against taking orders which one does not have capacity to meet and instead advises that one should recommend someone who can.

She says that the creative sector is bedevilled by lack of trust and desperate need to protect one’s turf. Given the myriad challenges facing creative entrepreneurs, it makes sense to pool resources.

To get it right, Riri’s scalability has been a well-planned process over the past few months where they re-engage previous customers who already are familiar with their products.

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