Very Tsonga leaves a lasting taste

LIMPOPO – Businesswoman Mashudu Mfomande is the owner of the fast-growing beverage business, Very Tsonga, which offers from Very Tsonga Brandy to the Very Tsonga Craft Gin, which comes in crystal, blueberry, citrus and rooibos flavours.

She said she first started with Mash Wines and Beverages, but during the Covid-19 lockdown, business was hard hit with the restrictions on liquor sales.

Very Tsonga is a cultural brand that promotes transformation, unites the traditional and contemporary aspects of Vatsonga culture, and introduces Limpopo to the rest of the globe, she said.

Mfomande relates how she was raised in an entrepreneurial environment: “My parents had a spaza shop, a restaurant, and a shebeen. I was an entrepreneur growing up, learning from those businesses as my master class.” Her father had a positive impact early on in her academic career, she told CV.

“He intended for me to pursue commercial studies and pursue a career as an economist, but when I graduated from high school, my parents couldn’t afford to send me to university. Instead, I enrolled at the FET College in Phalaborwa where I studied business management.”

Today, she likes the reaction she gets from customers who buy the Very Tsonga brand.

“Having started something that means so much to people, is a big thing for me. I get to remind myself every day why I do what I do, despite the challenges. Rome was not built in one day, and success comes bit by bit. To make a million you need to start with one and that keeps me going every day.”

She said her secret to success is consistency.

“People who will later do business with you are people who will see your consistency with your brand by putting it out there. Owning a beverage brand is everything to me, I have learnt that the Very Tsonga brand is not necessarily my brand, but the pride of tribe, province, and a country. As a black person it doesn’t matter where you are, there is a sense of understanding and resonance with a brand which has taught me to be humble and surrender the ownership of the brand to the people,” she said.

She told CV that her goal is to have her own distillery one day.

“I am working with a well-renowned winery distillery. The bigger goal is to have my own farm where I can farm all the produce used to process the wine and gin, a tasting room, and a space that will attract tourists.”

Support from her family is something she values dearly.

“Things are tough when you start a business. It will initially take all your money and everything that you have and while all this is happening you will need a partner who is understanding.”