by Mbaliyethu( Lisa) Mthethwa, co-founder of Frutee Belliez
When we started our journey in 2009, my sister Lona and I just wanted to sell fresh fruit salads to students in school, so we could promote a healthier lifestyle. We are meant to have a minimum of five fruits and veggies a day but some of us don't even have one. Growing up, fruit salads were always perceived as a dessert. Veggies were always seen as something that is nasty.
When our business, Frutee Belliez, was born, we wanted to change the narrative, especially in our lives and that of students. We started approaching schools from our township Umlazi because that's where we come from and the mission was "Bring down the vetkoek!"( a vetkoek is like a doughnut only without the sugary topping and its round like a tennis ball, and you can have it plain or with different savoury fillings, the most popular being polony and cheese).
So imagine a child having that in the morning, then having another one during their first tea break as well as on their lunch time. By the time a child has to go back to class, they can't concentrate and they fall asleep.
My sister and I being very enthusiastic wanted to change that. So Lisa resigned from her job as she used to work for one of the financial institutions in South Africa ( The Green One) and used her last salary to start the business.
The plan was to make fruit salads in a transparent cup, include 5 different fruits, arranged in layers so that you could see every fruit we put in - it had to look pretty appetizing. Prior to us starting this business we never used to eat fruit salads because of the way they were always presented, they used to look mushy.
We started by making 30 cups every day of the week, of which on a good day we would sell only 5. Some days we wouldn't sell any. Can you imagine the wastage? The amount of fruits and money we would lose! Unfortunately there are only so much fruits you can eat trying to salvage your losses. It's sad to say but we lost the battle to bring down the vetkoek as we had to educate the students first about the importance of fruits before bringing a product to them which they were not used to. So what then... it had only been a couple of months and we had already failed. Once the fruits have been peeled and chopped they spoil quickly and when mixed with other fruits they ferment quickly. They require the right temperature for storage so that they can last longer.
How we wished someone could have told us this before, but we have learned a lot throughout our journey ever since. Starting something new without prior knowledge is never easy and 11 years down the line we are still learning.
Mbaliyethu(Lisa) Mthethwa and Masibonge (Lona) Mnguni are sisters and founders of Frutee Belliez which was registered and also started trading in March 2009. They have over 10 years experience as entrepreneurs. Their business is an Agroprocessing company focussing on processing of fruits and vegetables and supplying them to industrial kitchens as well as catering companies. Lisa has a Degree in Business Management and Marketing. She was also trained at Seda as a Business Advisor . In 2017 successfully completed SANS 10330:2007 Auditing of HACCP Management Systems based on ISO 19011 and ISO 17021. Lona has a Diploma in Biotechnology. In 2017 successfully completed SANS 10330:2007 Auditing of HACCP Management Systems based on ISO 19011 and ISO 17021. They have won numerous awards with the most recent being awarded Top Processor in KZN in the Department of Agriculture Female Farmer Entrepreneur Competition in 2018.