She started farming passion fruits at their family home in Ruiru. She would harvest, squeeze the juice and sell it as juice concentrate.
Her neighbours wondered why a young educated woman would venture into farming in an urban setup. One day, she posted her juices on her social media pages which brought good attention but also in a risky way.
“Companies wanted the fruits, but I was growing them on a small scale,” says Ms Mwangi, the founder of Kimplanter Seedlings and Nurseries, a Ruiru- based commercial seedlings propagation company.
With her small-scale farming thriving, other farmers soon started asking for seedlings.
“I started the business, though not fully committed since I had a salary. I was a bit naive since I had not understood the concept well,” she adds.
In 2014, she did her first spinach seedlings, which failed spectacularly because one kilogramme of seeds gave her very few seedlings.
The failure was her first trigger. She searched online for more information on ways of making nursery seedlings. Armed with adequate information, she made the second batch which sold out.
“I made money and saw the business was good and constructed the first wooden seedlings greenhouse,” Ms Mwangi says.
Starting small
She started small because all she had was her savings. Similarly, her father’s disapproval of the project made her cautious. According to him, she had a lot of money to waste.
“The business picked its first external financing of Sh300,000 from a church sacco in 2017 with myself, my mum, my sister, and our family farmhand as the only employees,” she says.
In 2015, the business was making serious money, and customers wanted to meet the person they were dealing with. Ms Mwangi realised that people usually do not buy a product but rather the person.
“They want to find you there, put a face to the name or the service they are receiving and the discussion you have had.”
In June 2016, Ms Mwangi quit her employment despite her employer’s reluctance to let her go.
“I had a fear of leaving the perks that came with my job, and I had just finished my CPAs [designition to become a certified public accountant], but my mum advised me that I would always question myself why I never did it, but my dad was opposed to my resignation. Right now, I’m happier and more holistic than when I was employed.”
By 2017, the company had grown and needed to expand.
With the Sh300,000 sacco loan and Sh1.4 million funding from Kenya Climate Innovation Centre, they switched from the wooden greenhouse to a metallic greenhouse and acquired a seedling planting machine.
Asset heavy
With the Ruiru site fully established with limited space for expansion, her next step was to set up another site in Makuyu, Muranga, and allow the business to grow organically.
“Kimplanter has invested heavily on assets in all our propagation units, and to find a balance between asset heavy and cash flow, we use 40 percent of our revenue on assets, cost of production materials takes 37 percent while the remaining percentage covers general expenses,” she says.
The entrepreneur adds that she took advantage of their monopoly to invest in assets and build the brand and partnerships.
Caroline Mwangi, the founder of Kimplanter Seedlings and Nurseries, which is based in Ruiru town, Kiambu. FILE PHOTO | POOL
“Any company starting seedlings propagation business now will struggle because we (investors) are many.”
Secret to success
Ms Mwangi says that allowing the company to grow organically without a ‘forced strategy’ like her competitors has worked well for them.
“We grew according to the market demand because right now, there is hype, and once one sees a need in seedlings, they run and start doing seedlings without understanding where Kimplanter sells them,” she affirms.
She adds that most startups fail because they do not do proper market research, preferring to copy-paste solutions, and neither do they allow themselves time to learn the market.
The agripreneur takes pride in employing 24 youths, up from the two family members she began with.
“We have grown, having started with 360 seedlings to 1.2 million seedlings per month presently, but we have a long journey still,” she says.
Getting a reality check
In her quest to serve tomato and onion farmers with quality seedlings back in her rural home in Loitoktok, Ms Mwangi attempted to set up a branch in the area but struggled to get a piece of land for two months because nobody was willing to lease land to a young woman.
“I’ve never experienced such culture shock in my life. A young woman is not allowed to own or even lease land. I had never relalised that being a woman in agriculture is a problem,” she says.
She finally leased a piece of land and set up greenhouses, but six months later, strong wind destroyed everything, forcing her to retreat.
Despite the setback, Ms Mwangi established branches in Rombo and Mwea alongside the Ruiru and Makuyu units.
“The challenge we have in Ruiru is limited space, and being an urban setup, no one is willing to sell land, and neither can we afford it. People know your location, you have the product, but you cannot expand due to resources constraints,” she says.
In Makuyu, being a semi-arid area, she could not get enough water for the 10 greenhouses so she opted to drill a borehole, but due to lack of funds it took her one year and four months to drill the borehole.
“Another challenge is market competition – the government has allowed well-funded foreign companies to come and do what your local people can,” she adds.
She decries that these companies engage in price undercutting.
“Why are we competing with foreigners to sell sukuma wiki seedlings to farmers? They should set up processing factories to offtake farmers' produce,” she poses.
Lessons picked
The entrepreneur explains that one of the lessons she has picked is to speak out, especially when farmers are being taken for granted and creating space for youth in agriculture.
“In investment, don’t bite more than you can chew, plan well even for good things and know when to diversify, even as you specialise.”
On her growth strategy, Ms Mwangi says Kimplanter is exploring markets outside Kenya, like Rwanda.
“East Africa and sub–Saharan Africa is definitely the playground with a better strategy than we currently have. We have also diversified to capsicum production in our 14-acre land in Kimana,” she adds.
Ms Mwangi advises that any entrepreneur should take advantage of partnerships and invitations related to one’s industry.
“Agriculture is very unique, and that’s why every financier talks of focusing on financing the sector, but their interest rates are as high as 14 percent and as a woman in agriculture, what sets you apart from the rest?” she says, adding that she is open to working with other partners who can bring more value other than just money to enable the business to grow.
