Orchard Fooda

3 minutes (one of a series)

Produced for CNN African Start-Up

This South African mom is setting out to revolutionize the baby food market by converting her secret home recipes into a booming startup.

Six years ago, Davies was a nursery school teacher in Johannesburg. She noticed many of the children had low energy and poor concentration. So she started cooking healthy nutritious meals in her kitchen at home and giving them to mothers.

While researching the market sector, she discovered that more than 300 million dollars’ worth of baby food is sold in South Africa every year. It’s also one of the fastest growing sectors in the South African economy, showing an increase of 80% between 2009 and 2015.

And with natural and organic products rapidly gaining market share, Davies set out to cash in on this expanding market.
The ingredients are harvested daily from nearby farms. Davies insists that no insecticides are used, and selects only the best quality vegetables. This has allowed her to maintain a consistent quality for her increasing number of clients.

Davies and her husband funded the start-up themselves, with a capital investment of $90 000. But sustaining the rapid growth of the company proved to be a challenge.