Timbali paves way for franchise system
The way forward is to produce enough food for everyone
MBOMBELA – The concept of a franchise, usually pertains to store- or restaurant chains, but the team of forward thinkers at Timbali Technology Incubator is applying it to farming. Empowering rural small-holding farmers through franchising holds great potential, according to Timbali CEO, Ms Louise de Klerk.
She presented the idea at a breakfast held at Friedenheim Farm, where Timbali is situated, last Tuesday. Timbali was established in 2003. It means “flower” in siSwati. De Klerk explained how American businessman Mr Ray Kroc had taken a small restaurant owned by the McDonald’s brothers, maintained the assembly-line preparation, standardised operations, ensuring every burger would taste the same in every restaurant. He set strict rules for franchisees on how the food was to be prepared, portion sizes, cooking methods and times, and packaging.
Kroc also rejected cost-cutting measures and strict rules were also applied to customer-service standards with mandates. This led to their overwhelming worldwide success. “This is what we are applying now with small farm holders. These same principles lead to enormous success.”
She said Timbali, with their partnerships with government projects like The Jobs Fund, Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency, Seda and private sector businesses like Sygenta had added to their success.
“Young farmers need an overall support structure. This means bringing the market to them. They need brand awareness, and an overall structure of discipline to provide the quality the market expects.”
Young farmers pay a levy to Timbali which provides them with training and a support structure whereby their products are delivered and packaged for market distribution.
Their overall business can be seen in retail outlets under the branding of “AmaVeg” or “AmaBlom”. Their success can be contributed to keeping a weekly scoreboard, instead of one every two months.
Sygenta managing director, Mr Antonie Delport, said the future was shaped by everything people did. “The way forward is to produce enough food for everyone.” Sygenta became involved with Timbali in 2008. “We became involved as it does not matter the size of your farm – you still play a critical role.”
Delport said their business spent
R60 million per day on research and development into smarter farming. “George Washington said agriculture is the most heartfelt, most useful, and most noble employment of men.”
Seda manager, Mr Tashveer Bodhi, said Seda was an incubator for incubators like Timbali. “It is a highly recommended model for its ability to create markets for small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs) and also linking these SMMEs with bigger markets which they would not have achieved on their own.”
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