The timing of Germiston-based female business partners Lesego Phiri and Veli Khumanda to launch their logistics company, Maeto Holdings, could not have been worse.

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Little did they know when they launched in December 2019, that within four months the Covid-19 pandemic would be wreaking havoc on humanity, bringing economies the world over to a halt and wrecking many start-ups like theirs before they had even taken off.

But the pair turned adversity into opportunity, realising that the restrictions on their operations gave them time to prioritise optimisation and efficiency as a means of survival.

Emerging leaner and stronger from the experience, the two have never looked back and have now set their sights on expansion into Africa.

Maeto Holdings is a black women-owned logistics company which offers forward and reverse logistics nationally, as well as consulting support to a range of other industries.

Between them, Phiri and Khumanda have over 38 years of experience in human capital and operations.

The majority of their experience is multi-industry and was obtained from FMCG, petrochemical, automotive, small-mining and cement work.

The company’s name was derived from the Setswana word ‘leeto’ which means trip or journey as maeto is the plural form of ‘leeto’.

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This name symbolises the journey the directors have undertaken in birthing this company and the numerous trips and journeys that the fleet of trucks is yet to take.

The brand uses PRIDE as a meaningful acronym to describe its values denoting people, reliability, integrity, dedication and excellence.

In the formative days of the company acquiring clients was not easy as they were still in the process of acquiring trucks.

Khumanda said the two ‘rolled up their sleeves’ and knocked on the doors of various companies, cold calling and pitching their services.

The Maeto duo were granted the opportunity to pitch their presentation to the head of supply chain management at Distell where they asked to be granted a chance to prove themselves.

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This is how the company became a supplier of Distell in March 2020 – at the cusp of the Covid-19 pandemic and with no fleet of trucks.

Khumanda describes their experience as a supplier of Distell as ‘nothing short of amazing’.

“We want to grow beyond the borders of South Africa in the next five years,” said Phiri.