Social Enterprise Category

                             
Jolyon Langerman                         Eunice Nyobole &                        Beatrice Delpierre
                                                         Adri Williams               

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE CATEGORY

Adri Williams and Eunice Nyobole: Khayelitsha Cookie Company

Khayelitsha Cookies (KC) produces an extensive range of high quality hand-baked cookies for the hospitality, retail and corporate markets. Their vision is to not only produce the best cookies in South Africa, but to change the lives of everyone involved in the business. The company started with four women in Khayeltisha, and now employs more than 50 women on a full-time basis – collectively owning 30% of the business – who hand-bake 40 000 cookies per day in the company’s factory in Ndabeni. Currently, the company retails via Pick n Pay, and there is growing demand from overseas distributors who values the uniqueness of the brand and product. KC is currently housed in five separate units in an old industrial park, but plans are afoot to acquire land and build a new custom factory, powered by renewable energy, to cater for expansion and improved productivity.
Contact details: Tel: 021 510 2300, e-mail: adri@kcco.co.za

Jolyon Langerman: My ComLink

My ComLink is a digital portal linked to 213 high schools, 36 primary schools and 78 other clubs and youth organizations, feeding news and information with “cool content” to and from these institutions. In addition, the portal has a growing library of education resources, content and tools provided by teachers and schools, all made possible by sponsors and advertisers. There is no charge to access the portal, and the site’s pilot Grade 12 education programme attracted around 930 000 views and downloads from its quality, positive and responsible audience of students, parents, teachers and sport and youth club members. As the portal extends its content to include Grades 8 to 11, audience numbers are expected to grow dramatically, attracting more advertisers and revenue. The main portal’s current viewer base of 240,000+ views per month is growing at the rate of 10% to 12% per month, showing that a “free to view” web content business with quality, relevant content can attract loyal customers and advertisers.
Contact details: Tel: 021 686 0668, e-mail: jolyon@mycomlink.co.za

Beatrice Delpierre: essay Gifts

essay Gifts is a designer corporate company “with heart”, that empowers rural crafters and young designers by sourcing products from them for the corporate, promotional, complimentary gifting and conference accessory industries. The company bridges the gap between companies and small producers, managing the process to ensure that these small businesses deliver a world-class product on time. They seek to assist disadvantaged communities who lack market access in taking part in the economy by integrating low technology, low cost, handmade production in a meaningful way into the fast, change driven, modern economy of mass production. By supplying bridging finance (paying producers a 50% deposit in order to buy raw materials to start the order) they also address a chronic problem besetting small-scale producers: lack of access to micro-finance. This is complemented by management support through the entire production process, from order to delivery.
Contact details: Tel: 086 100 2276, e-mail: beatrice@essaygifts.co.za