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Cape Town - Andrew and Lesley Scott of The Fruit Cube specialise in delivering top quality fruit directly to the workplace.
Since establishing the company in September 2014, the siblings have seen rapid growth in customer demand, with deliveries now stretching to several hundred fruit boxes every week in the greater Cape Town and Winelands areas.
With a number of large corporate clients on board, they are also aiming to have their Gauteng distribution branch up and running in October.
Fin24 found out more about these two entrepreneurs.
Tell us a bit about yourselves.
We are siblings and we are both passionate about healthy eating and active living. Prior to starting The Fruit Cube in September 2014, Andrew worked locally and abroad as an engineer, and Lesley as a qualified nutritionist. Our full energy is now thrown into the running of The Fruit Cube.
How did you become entrepreneurs?
For many years we had both independently been harbouring the desire to start our own businesses, and The Fruit Cube was just one of a number of business ideas that we threw around the table at family lunches.
However, after investigating the opportunity a bit further, and with the assistance of connections we had in the fruit industry, we very quickly became "entrepreneurs" with reduced bank accounts and found ourselves at full tilt planning the launch of the business.
We both phased out of our previous jobs over a period of three months while we built the foundation of The Fruit Cube (for instance, cemented partnerships with suppliers and couriers, developed the website and corporate identity, developed a client database and marketing material, and set up the key financial elements of the business).
What gap did you see in the market?
Many of us try to eat healthily, but the lack of time to buy or prepare healthy food can be a major obstacle for employees who often work long hours and are on the go all day. The result is that we fuel our bodies with unhealthy foods – often provided at great expense by employers – that do no good for our energy levels, health, and productivity.
This is where The Fruit Cube comes in. By delivering boxes of mixed seasonal fruit to offices we provide a convenient way for companies to boost employee wellbeing by doing away with unhealthy office snacks and providing their staff with easy access to a healthy snacking alternative. All orders are conveniently managed online and customers benefit from free delivery, making this an easy and affordable investment in human capital and a very tangible staff benefit.
At a rate of R108 per box, customers receive a great selection of top quality fruit with the added convenience of delivery straight to the office.
Offering fresh fruit is a very cost-effective corporate wellbeing strategy: providing an employee with three pieces of fruit each week costs the same as providing him or her with about two average quality muffins each week. We have found that quite a few of our customer companies that were supplying their staff with snacks like pastries and muffins, have simply reallocated a part of their existing refreshment budgets to introduce fruit deliveries.
Summer season fruit varieties that customers can look forward to are strawberries, nectarines, plums and grapes. These are packed in addition to apples, pears and bananas.
What were the challenges for you as entrepreneurs?
- Self-funding a business through the startup phase (and during the subsequent growth phases) brings with it a degree of financial pressure. Fortunately, however, the way the business is structured means that it is not capital intensive. Our order volumes have also grown rapidly over the last year which has kept the business on a stable financial footing from early on.
- Untested market potential in South Africa for our unique service meant that sales volumes were very much unknown before we began. Thankfully for us we have had a very positive response to our service from businesses to which we now deliver several hundred fruit boxes each week.
- Starting a venture in an industry that was new territory for us meant that we had to go through a steep learning curve on many fronts. Mishaps are unavoidable in a new business, but support from our key business partners (suppliers and service providers) allowed us to navigate through the early stages without any major hiccups or surprises.
What is your recipe for handling challenges and for reaching success?
- Putting together and building the right team – from produce suppliers, to pack-house partners and delivery partners – is critical to the success of our business. It is because of these relationships that we can handle challenges as they arise and keep growing the business successfully.
- Flexibility is vital. We encourage customer feedback and will always try to adapt our service and product to meet customer needs. We can only be successful if our product serves a customer’s needs.
- Planning. We regularly put aside structured time to plan for business growth and to look at how we can streamline our current business processes.
What are your future plans?
The Fruit Cube is currently delivering several hundred fruit boxes each week in the greater Cape Town and Winelands areas, with orders growing each week. We’re very excited about growing our customer base in the Cape as well as opening up a branch in Gauteng in October this year. We’re also looking at expanding the product range in the near future.
Any advice for other entrepreneurs?
- Your new business must excite you. You will be putting in long hours and without a real passion for the new business you will quickly lose momentum.
- Delegate, but keep in touch with every aspect of your business. This allows you to throw your energy into the parts of the business that you are good at and enjoy, while people with different skills sets and interests focus on other aspects of the business.
- It’s such an exciting time to be entrepreneurs in South Africa. If you never leap you’ll never know.
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