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Winning women: Brave brewer takes on soft drink giants

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A THIRST FOR SUCCESS Gladys Mawoneke, the founder and MD of Bumi Hills Group, the company that produces Breva malt drinks.  Picture: Nasief Manie
A THIRST FOR SUCCESS Gladys Mawoneke, the founder and MD of Bumi Hills Group, the company that produces Breva malt drinks. Picture: Nasief Manie

It can take courage to decline an offer of an alcoholic drink at a social gathering because, often, nonalcoholic beverages are not good for your image.

However, Gladys Mawoneke (44) says she has the solution. Her company sells Breva, a nonalcoholic beer in four flavours: apple, pineapple, peach and passion fruit.

The golden-brown drink doesn’t contain any colouring agents, has few gas bubbles and is sweet with a slight malty aftertaste. Breva alludes to the word ‘brave’.

The label on Breva’s green bottles is a gold-coloured sketch of South Africa’s national bird, the blue crane. In times gone by, Xhosa chiefs gave the feathers of the blue crane to brave warriors, while Zulu kings wore the feathers in their headdresses.

The local soft drink market is dominated by big companies like Coca-Cola and the competition is fierce, but Mawoneke isn’t bothered by this. Breva was first sold in Pick n Pay in September 2014 and has since also branched out to Checkers and Spar stores in the Western Cape.

It is also sold in Woolworths under the label “Woolworths flavoured malt drink”.

Bumi Hills Group, which Mawoneke founded and directs, already boasts a turnover of more than R1 million and her aim is to pass the R10 million mark in the next two years. “There are actually not many players in the soft drink market and that creates an opportunity for small, innovative businesses,” she said.

Mawoneke said the idea for Breva came to her because she does not drink alcohol. “But I was always looking for something that I could drink comfortably and with self-confidence when I was at a party – something that made me feel like a grown-up,” she said.

She’s not alone. According to research by the World Health Organisation, 60% of South Africans didn’t drink any alcohol in 2010. Mawoneke has degrees in journalism and law, and a master’s degree in business leadership from Unisa.

In 2011, she resigned from her job as a legal representative for a tobacco company to become an entrepreneur. “I resigned because I wanted to build a business that will live longer than I will. I was also born into a family of entrepreneurs.”

Mawoneke, therefore, didn’t wait for that winning idea to become an entrepreneur. While she was busy with her master’s degree, she sold chocolate bread, but delis didn’t like it and the Western Cape authorities prohibited her from selling her unpasteurised fermented milk (amasi).

It was while she was a fruit and vegetable vendor that she first started selling soft drinks and realised how lucrative it could be. One of the farmers in Wellington who she was buying fruit and vegetables from asked her to make a soft drink for the low-income market in the Cape on behalf of his company.

“I developed a fruit juice concentrate consisting of milk and mango, peach and orange pulp with the name Mambo’s.” Although Mambo’s only existed for six months – from October 2011 to March 2012 – it was a big hit on the Cape Flats.

The 500ml bottles of concentrate sold for R6.50. However, the farmer ended his contract for Mambo’s with Mawoneke and was liquidated shortly thereafter. “With Breva’s success now, I’m thinking of bringing Mambo’s back because it was a very good product.”

In 2012, Mawoneke submitted her idea for a sophisticated nonalcoholic drink to the Industrial Development Corporation. They liked the idea and gave her a grant of R650 000, which she used to do research and development for nearly three years.

She says the research definitely helped her to ascertain which flavours and packaging consumers preferred, and also made it easier to sell her product to retailers. The next step for her company is to increase its distribution footprint and to look at export opportunities. She also wants to expand into restaurants and hotels.

“We are in Tsogo Sun already, but would also like to be in Southern Sun and Nando’s. Halal restaurants will also work because our product is perfect for the Muslim market.”

She says Breva is already sold in some stores in Zambia, but there are also opportunities to export to the rest of Africa and to North America.

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