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"GROWING vegetable yourself is the optimum solution if you're trying to live on a minimum wage," says Claire Reid, a 24-year-old budding entrepreneur who's planting a seed that – if nourished well over time – could blossom into a flower of inspiration to many innovative thinkers in a country desperately in need of venture creation.
Reid is the brains behind Reel Gardening – a simple, cost-effective and convenient gardening concept she invented as a Grade 10 pupil in 2002 and for which she's become the centre of attention over the past eight years, receiving nominations and scooping numerous local and international awards for her project.
Since February, Reid has been working up to 16 hours a day trying to cope with the demand for her Reel Gardening strips after the product formally hit the market, thanks to an R800 000 loan to kick-start the concept from small business incubators Anglo American Zimele.
"Our online orders are skyrocketing. We're getting about 50 online orders a day. At times, stock gets sold out in a day," says Reid – who's also taking a Masters in architecture at the University of Pretoria.
Reel Gardening is a pre-fertilised seed strip that encases seeds in biodegradable paper. The strip is planted vertically and indicates the correct depth it must be buried below the soil by a colour-coded sign. Currently, reel produces 10 different types of veggies, 10 types of herbs and three types of flowers.
The venture started off as a father and daughter initiative to try and save money on basic vegetables by developing a home garden. "My dad was very entrepreneurial. From a very young age he encouraged us to focus on the value of money. He told us money made is far more valuable than money given to you. So from an early age I was making Christmas cards and selling them to people on the street," says Reid.
Her dad told her if she started a vegetable garden he'd buy from her instead of the local outlet. That was music to the ears of the aspirant entrepreneur, even though she had scant ideas of how to start. "I literally had land – within reach of sunlight – the size of a door," she says. "I figured out I could plant five tomatoes, three beans and spinach."
But when she went to buy seed she realised home gardening wasn't made easy for anyone. Seeds were packaged in large quantities, costing more than a small garden would need, and instructions not written so that the average person could understand. "I thought I needed to create a way that made gardening fun and easy for me: it must be 'doable' and cost effective. That became my framework."
After pondering for a while, she took strips of newspapers and stuck them together with baking flour, with liquid fertilizer and the seeds inside, and planted the strip. It made sense for her to use paper and flour because both decompose and wouldn't harm the seeds.
Coincidentally, she was also struggling with science at school – a subject she badly needed to pass with good marks, as she wanted to study architecture at university. "My science teacher said if I had anything I could do for extra marks – like a science project – that could be taken to the Eskom Expo and I could get extra marks."
She proposed the strips project she was doing at home. After various tests she was given the green light and it was subsequently presented at the Eskom Young Scientist Expo. Her project won a gold medal at the national awards.
It caught the eye of the then department of water & forestry, which asked for tests to be conducted on how much water her invention saved. The results showed it saved up to 80% of water during germination, because you can see where a seed is and water it directly. The department then sent Reid as SA's representative to the Stockholm Junior Water Prize. "It was amazing. I ended up winning the international prize – literally with my newspaper stuck together with flour and water."
Lacking development
Since then, Reid has been nominated for various awards, winning a number of them. But the downside was even though everyone was excited about her project, nobody actually came forward to fund the development of the business, she says. As a result, during her time at university her project lay dormant until she started working.
It was revived when she did her internship at TPSP Architects, where she was encouraged to develop her concept and subsequently introduced it to Anglo American Zimele.
After Anglo came to the party, research was conducted for about a year to source the right paper and fertilizer that wouldn't burn the seeds and was organic.
The market response has been overwhelming. The business is split in two: there's the retail side (which sells the strips in bulk to retailers, such as Pick n Pay and Builders Warehouse); the other is community development (corporate social investment and Government), where organisations develop gardens at schools and other community centres. For example, SA Breweries bought strips for 600 gardens, which it distributed to communities for Nelson Mandela Day.
Nevertheless, Reid is still grappling with cash flow issues as orders pile up but payments arrive late.
Reel Gardening currently employs seven people, most of whom are previously unemployed mothers. Production equipment is mainly a hand-operated machine (it doesn't use electricity) she designed with a family friend, a mechanical engineer. On average, Reel produces around 62km of strips a month.
Apart from its vegetables, herbs and flowers, Reel Gardening is slowly branching out, with its goal to increase its flower range and consider planting indigenous trees. "I want to have a production facility in every province. I also want to be in every retail store and encourage every corporate to have a garden. And we're already in many countries outside SA."
- Finweek
Reid is the brains behind Reel Gardening – a simple, cost-effective and convenient gardening concept she invented as a Grade 10 pupil in 2002 and for which she's become the centre of attention over the past eight years, receiving nominations and scooping numerous local and international awards for her project.
Since February, Reid has been working up to 16 hours a day trying to cope with the demand for her Reel Gardening strips after the product formally hit the market, thanks to an R800 000 loan to kick-start the concept from small business incubators Anglo American Zimele.
"Our online orders are skyrocketing. We're getting about 50 online orders a day. At times, stock gets sold out in a day," says Reid – who's also taking a Masters in architecture at the University of Pretoria.
Reel Gardening is a pre-fertilised seed strip that encases seeds in biodegradable paper. The strip is planted vertically and indicates the correct depth it must be buried below the soil by a colour-coded sign. Currently, reel produces 10 different types of veggies, 10 types of herbs and three types of flowers.
The venture started off as a father and daughter initiative to try and save money on basic vegetables by developing a home garden. "My dad was very entrepreneurial. From a very young age he encouraged us to focus on the value of money. He told us money made is far more valuable than money given to you. So from an early age I was making Christmas cards and selling them to people on the street," says Reid.
Her dad told her if she started a vegetable garden he'd buy from her instead of the local outlet. That was music to the ears of the aspirant entrepreneur, even though she had scant ideas of how to start. "I literally had land – within reach of sunlight – the size of a door," she says. "I figured out I could plant five tomatoes, three beans and spinach."
But when she went to buy seed she realised home gardening wasn't made easy for anyone. Seeds were packaged in large quantities, costing more than a small garden would need, and instructions not written so that the average person could understand. "I thought I needed to create a way that made gardening fun and easy for me: it must be 'doable' and cost effective. That became my framework."
After pondering for a while, she took strips of newspapers and stuck them together with baking flour, with liquid fertilizer and the seeds inside, and planted the strip. It made sense for her to use paper and flour because both decompose and wouldn't harm the seeds.
Coincidentally, she was also struggling with science at school – a subject she badly needed to pass with good marks, as she wanted to study architecture at university. "My science teacher said if I had anything I could do for extra marks – like a science project – that could be taken to the Eskom Expo and I could get extra marks."
She proposed the strips project she was doing at home. After various tests she was given the green light and it was subsequently presented at the Eskom Young Scientist Expo. Her project won a gold medal at the national awards.
It caught the eye of the then department of water & forestry, which asked for tests to be conducted on how much water her invention saved. The results showed it saved up to 80% of water during germination, because you can see where a seed is and water it directly. The department then sent Reid as SA's representative to the Stockholm Junior Water Prize. "It was amazing. I ended up winning the international prize – literally with my newspaper stuck together with flour and water."
Lacking development
Since then, Reid has been nominated for various awards, winning a number of them. But the downside was even though everyone was excited about her project, nobody actually came forward to fund the development of the business, she says. As a result, during her time at university her project lay dormant until she started working.
It was revived when she did her internship at TPSP Architects, where she was encouraged to develop her concept and subsequently introduced it to Anglo American Zimele.
After Anglo came to the party, research was conducted for about a year to source the right paper and fertilizer that wouldn't burn the seeds and was organic.
The market response has been overwhelming. The business is split in two: there's the retail side (which sells the strips in bulk to retailers, such as Pick n Pay and Builders Warehouse); the other is community development (corporate social investment and Government), where organisations develop gardens at schools and other community centres. For example, SA Breweries bought strips for 600 gardens, which it distributed to communities for Nelson Mandela Day.
Nevertheless, Reid is still grappling with cash flow issues as orders pile up but payments arrive late.
Reel Gardening currently employs seven people, most of whom are previously unemployed mothers. Production equipment is mainly a hand-operated machine (it doesn't use electricity) she designed with a family friend, a mechanical engineer. On average, Reel produces around 62km of strips a month.
Apart from its vegetables, herbs and flowers, Reel Gardening is slowly branching out, with its goal to increase its flower range and consider planting indigenous trees. "I want to have a production facility in every province. I also want to be in every retail store and encourage every corporate to have a garden. And we're already in many countries outside SA."
- Finweek
