Wedgehut Ltd is a potato processing enterprise Located at Cape business park, Eastern Bypass, Ruiru, Kenya. We are passionate about potatoes value addition easing the time taken to source, prepare, cook, and serve. This ensures it gets to the plate with a rich delicious natural taste.
Wedgehut Ltd can process up to 6 Tonnes of Potatoes per day serving a diverse clientele that includes; Hotels, Restaurants, Hospitals, Food Caterers, Schools, and individuals. Once an order is placed, we ensure deliveries are always made on time without any delays.
Through our efforts to advocate for food safety in line with our manufacturing goals, we have been featured in several articles as well as channels such as;-
Food Business Africa – Jan/Feb 2023
Wedgehut’s CEO and founder Wanjiru Mambo highlights how the company is capitalizing on opportunities in Kenya’s potato value chain. She also shines a light on how their processing is up to the recommended standards with zero preservatives thus ensuring a rich natural taste.
Kenyan entrepreneur profits from potatoes
Wanjiru, with her background in marketing and accounting, initially found it challenging to get to grips with the complexities of food science and production. “I remember one thing that caught me off guard. We were planning our packaging when we found out that the bags had to be approved by the Kenyan Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Forestry. I was learning on the go.” Another hurdle was how to perform quality control at the supply level.
During the first month of production, many potatoes purchased from farmers were wasted in the factory, as their quality was not suitable for processing. Wanjiru also faced the task of establishing trust in the fast-moving consumer goods sector, a field where “people first test you on something small before wanting a bigger association”. “Initially I had to work extra hard to get clients to believe in me,” she says.
An ongoing challenge, present from day one, has been maintaining sufficient working capital. Wedgehut would receive orders but lack the necessary funds to purchase raw materials. While farmers demanded cash payments, retailers sought to buy on credit.
Serial entrepreneur carves a niche with potato processor
Wedgehut Foods buys potatoes from farmers, brings them to the Ruiru factory, sorts and processes them into several products such as French fries, potato wedges, lyonnaise, potato cubes, and whole potatoes that are peeled, cut, and cleaned to remove starch, then vacuum-packed to reduce oxidation, then chilled.
Their clientele cuts across from supermarkets (Naivas, Quickmart), hotels and fast food chains, (Safari Park Hotel, Ole Sereni, Java, Galito’s), institutions (Strathmore University), caterers, and domestic consumers and with a capacity of five metric tonnes per day. Ms. Mambo says they are barely scratching the surface.
The mother of three started small. “The machines we have now are not what we began with, at the beginning, we had a 500 square feet facility with a five kilogram (Kg) per minute peeling machine which I bought using my savings. Right now, we have an 80kg per minute machine with a factory space of 4,000 square feet,” she says. Ms. Mambo adds that she was lucky to find a company that was closing down and which sold her a few pieces of equipment that she paid for in installments and also took a chama loan and as the company grew, her bank came in handy.
She advises that if one wants to start a business, begin with what you have, however small and where you are, and let the growth of the business push you to the next level. Being a food processing company, Wedgehut Foods had to establish standard operating procedures, and food safety audits, and compliance with these has propelled its growth.
Wanjiru Mambo-Agriculture Honoree
Wanjiru Mambo, CEO and founder of wedgehut Limited aims to eradicate the traditional norm of men going to find city jobs while women stay home farming to put food on the table. She strives to empower such women so that they do not just do normal farming but that they understand the aspect of agro-business. Wedgehut Limited has had two main impacts on society; (1) They work with underprivileged people mostly mothers who just want to put food on the table.
(ii) Farming, there is a big issue of food insecurity in Africa. And the only way to move away from the conversation where Africa is not able to feed itself is to empower farmers to adopt proper practices for a better yield.
Sideline Interview with Wanjiru Mambo, Founder & CEO, Wedgehut Limited
Wanjiru Mambo shares her insights at the #AfricaFoodSafetySummit2022, Africa’s most influential food safety, quality, and compliance management conference and exhibition held at The Emara Ole Sereni Hotel Nairobi, Kenya. It is not food if it’s not safe, her words, not mine.
She also explains that from the wedgehuts processing, they ensure that they follow all precautions to make sure that by the time the food is getting to the fork or the plate it’s safe for consumption. And they do this by ensuring that the people and the methods of handling the potatoes also the operational area are friendly and safe for food production.
In conclusion, any farmer or trader who wishes to supply Wedgehut with Markie’s potatoes can contact us via the Facebook page or simply fill in the details through the website. At wedgehut foods ltd, we aim to provide you with the best home and commercial varieties of potatoes that have a longer shelf-life and are well cut, packaged, and delivered to your doorstep.
Besides delivery of the best-peeled potato products, we also help farmers achieve the best results by linking them with the best potato seeds company to ensure maximum return during harvesting.
We are actively taking orders from eatery establishments that are looking for a guaranteed supply of peeled potatoes such as French fries (chips), lyonnaise (Bhajia), cubes, whole potatoes, and wedges.
To quickly place your order, contact us at 0715 424767 or email; info@wedgehutfoods.co.ke. You can also visit us at cape business park on Thika Road, northern by-pass Junction.
