Entrepreneur sets out to change Kenyans’ perception of local goods

Wandia Gichuru, the founder of Vivo Activewear, wants to make a few things clear about her being a lion in the KCB Lion’s Den production by NTV Kenya, KCB Kenya Bank and Quite Bright Films.

But first she has to get tea for herself and water for me and a glass of white wine for the accompanying communications lady. We are seated in her lovely patio overlooking a fenced swimming pool and a green, well tended lawn.

The wine, tea and water arrive. “I want to make it clear that I’m not spending my own money to finance the participants’ business ideas,” she says, hugging her mug of tea with both hands. It’s a gorgeous afternoon, bright and sunny. “This is important for me to say because I do not want people to think I’m this billionaire who has all kind of money.” she quips.

She was to have a “capital” of Sh 10 million for the show, In the end she put up a small fraction of the money and raised the rest through other investors who believed in the project.

“I believed so much in what I felt this opportunity could bring to the space I’m interested in. I’m passionate about business, Kenyan brands and my real passion generally in life is about people taking charge of their lives, owning their space, stepping into their power and feeling powerful.”

The other thing she would like to make clear is about gender given that she is in the show with Olive Gachara of Courtier Magazine.

“Olive and I hope we’ll come across just as strong in the way we engage the entrepreneurs. So we are not there as women and by doing that, women have just as much credibility in the space as men do.”

She also hopes and prays that the true grit of the show will be appreciated and that the conversation will not focus on what they wear as women.

Wandia isn’t sure whether she likes the tag “businesswoman” or not. In fact, she says she isn’t as she is uncomfortable with labels generally. She is the least likeliest person to be doing what she is doing, she adds.

She didn’t know anything about the fashion industry or textile industries. A few years back she was working as a development specialist with the World Bank and then as policy adviser with the British government.

Vivo Activewear was started on the premise of how difficult it was for women to get sport workout clothes.

“We are trying to build a fashion brand that hasn’t been done this way in Kenya before,” she says. “It’s a space I mostly ventured into because some people said I couldn’t do it. I love doing things that people say you can’t do.”

Vivo Activewear is competing in an area that has been flooded by imports. At the beginning they were importing some of their lines from abroad, but not anymore.

With a team of 45 employees, they are now manufacturing about 60 per cent of their clothes. Her dream is to have an exclusive Kenyan manufacturing brand. She has in-house designers, freelance designers and a manufacturing plant at their premises on Ngong Road, Nairobi.

Her bigger plan is to change how Kenyans view locally produced commodities. “I do not want to limit Vivo to me and my ideas. I would like to take it far. I want to be part of transforming the way we talk about the potential for fashion in the continent,” she says.

“The number of people that have been able to take African fashion global are very few. I think there is potential and there are so many opportunities right now because there are online platforms that will carry the brand all over the world.”

The conversation she is keen on right now is how we see ourselves as Africans and how the rest of the world sees us.

She wants to take that conversation to The Den because she believes that the next frontier of successful businesses is here in Africa.

“All the business ideas you can think of coming up with have been executed in the West. We have great opportunities here that have to be explored and this show will probably show some of these brilliant business ideas.”

Has running the clothesline changed her own personal style? “My personal sense of style has informed the business. So, because am now in the space am looking for what is out there and am experimenting more.”

“But also let me be honest. Am quite lazy I don’t like to shop and I don’t like to think too much about what I’m going to wear. I don’t plan my wardrobe the night before. I like freedom, I want to be natural today and be a diva tomorrow, ‘‘ she adds.

Vivo Activewear now produces about 150 garments in a day. The business has grown but that has come with many lessons, she notes.

“Another thing is learning the ropes of management. They say fire quickly, hire slowly. At the beginning I was going about it the other way round and there is a price you pay for that. There are so many moving parts to a business and you make mistakes and you learn and you realign your operations and you grow.”

She is excited about The Lion’s Den and the potential it will have in the entrepreneurial space.

“It’s an excellent format that has been done globally and now we are able to meet that standard, produce a show that has the same global level in terms of what kind of ideas are being presented, what sort of deals are being structured, how much money is going to be invested,;; she says.

“And it’s all Kenyan money. There is no foreign investment involved. Even the sponsor of the show is a local bank. I can’t say much about the success of the show based on what we have been shooting, but I think it’s something anyone in business will appreciate.”