Failed varsity dream that produced thriving publishing company

Targeter Educational Publishers, the firm the siblings began with just Sh10,000, is today a household name in the country’s education sector, developing content for Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations.

This is the closest that 32-year-old Macharia, who at one point was a tout in western Kenya, could get to being a teacher.

In the eight months to August, Targeter posted revenues of Sh69 million – highlighting the current economic scale of the company which they started on Nairobi’s River Road.

“There was a gap in the education sector as there were no proper revision books for pupils to use; the material available was outdated,” Mr Macharia, the company’s managing director, told Enterprise last week.

Together with his 34-year-old brother (the firm’s CEO), they secured a room measuring 10 by 10 metres in the bustling River Road for which they would pay approximately Sh7,000 in monthly rent.

The two, who hail from Gatundu in Kiambu, conducted a market research in several primary schools in Nairobi in order to establish the study needs of pupils in the county. This included studying trends on how the KCPE examination was being set over a long period of time in order to come up with relevant material.

Mr Macharia and Mr Kiarie, who constituted the firm’s only staff in the formative years, came up with their first examination paper prototype and engaged a printer to print out 20,000 copies on credit.

“It cost us Sh15 to print each copy and we had therefore accumulated a Sh300,000 debt by the time we left the printing press with our first product,” Mr Macharia said.

They continued printing the “Targeter Series” revision books on a monthly basis, using the actual colour for every examinable subject to help students familiarise themselves with the papers.

Later on in 2008 they started printing books for Early Childhood and Development Education (ECDE) as well as revision books for all primary school classes. These encyclopaedic books covered all subjects.

By 2009, their company was growing exponentially, having established a loyal customer base. They decided to venture into large scale book publishing, and moved Targeter Publishers to a bigger office in Athi House, still on River Road.

The office currently accommodates the majority of its 60 employees.

Mr Macharia and his brother invested Sh17 million in a new printing press and installed it in a warehouse on Outer Ring Road.

The printer, he said, is capable of printing about 1.2 million examination pages per day and 1.1 million book pages pay day which are then sent to Athi House for packaging and distribution.

Today, the company publishes 52 book titles cutting across all subjects taught in primary and secondary schools, as guided by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development. It also publishes nine revision papers monthly (except during the April, August and December school calendar holidays).

Targeter Publishers recently bought a new printing press from Germany at a cost of Sh30 million, an equipment which is dedicated to printing books while the older machine is used to produce exam papers.

The firm has at least one agent in every major town in the country, with several people working under them. This distribution system, Mr Macharia said, has helped popularise their products.

“We work with a panel of about 20 teachers from well-performing schools like Makini Group of Schools who guide the sourcing of examinable material,” he told Enterprise when we visited his printing press.

“The new printer has reduced the workload, improved on quality and generally reduced printing costs.”

Mr Macharia said they had also encountered parents whose children struggle with certain topics and hence started publishing books whose content is heavy on the specific sections.

Other than printing educational books and exam revision papers, Targeter Publishers produces the Weekly Citizen newspaper as well as their own newspaper – The Christian Times.

During their free time, Mr Macharia and his brother offer motivational talks, seminars and workshops in learning institutions across the country.

Mr Macharia advises young people to rise to the challenge and be creators of employment rather than waiting for government jobs.

“We started small and did not shy away from the stiff competition in the market,” he said.

The firm’s main competitors in the educational books sector include Highflyer and Spotlight while Jesma, Saw Solutions and Signal are its rivals in the exam revision papers business.