By JACKSON BIKO
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 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.”
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