Ehime Eigbe Akindele – So.ME

Nigeria Founded Frozen Yogurt Brand – Sweetkiwi Launches CPG Products in Whole Foods – Washington D.C – United States

Admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 09:15:14 +0000

Premiere frozen yogurt brand – Sweetkiwi launched its Whipped Frozen Greek Yogurt CPG line into Whole Foods Market in the DC area on July 23, their biggest retailer launch to date. They also closed a distribution deal with major east coast distributor – Rainforest. The Whipped Frozen Greek Yogurt line showcases 6 SKU’S namely; Vanilla Bean, Toffee Coffee, Chocolate Hazelnut, Raspberry Frośe, Mango Palm Mint and Hibiscus & Ginger. Whole Foods Market is the world’s largest natural foods grocery chain. Founded in 1980, it pioneered the supermarket concept in natural and organic foods retailing. The company operates some 500 stores throughout the US, Canada, and the UK, and focuses on organic perishable and prepared products.

Sweetkiwi became part of the DC food ecosystem in 2018 after partnering with Union Kitchen to create their new product line as a Union Kitchen accelerator member. Sweetkiwi is a clean label brand that makes the best tasting frozen yogurt using milk sourced from grass-fed cows and real ingredients. Their passion for creating healthy desserts began in 2011 when founded Ehime Eigbe-Akindele founded Sweetkiwi in Nigeria with the aim of creating a clean label frozen yogurt brand. Sweetkiwi is a household name in the Nigerian market and pioneers of frozen yogurt in the West African market. The brand launched 3 stores in Lagos and has collaborated with major brands such as Guinness, Nestle, Moet & Chandon, Veuve Cliquot, Hennessy to create unique flavors.

Speaking of the win “ Myself and my team are overwhelmed by all the love we have received since we announced our launch and partnerships with Whole Foods USA, it feels like Nigeria won the World Cup, this win is for us all. As a female founder, I have seen further because I stand on the shoulders of giants” – Ehime Eigbe – Akindele.

With this launch, Sweetkiwi continues to expand its business in North America, they are currently in Union Kitchen grocery stores, Yes Organic Market, Streets Market, Dawson’s Market and several other grocery stores in the DC, Maryland and Virginia area. With the partnership with Rainforest, Sweetkiwi is looking to expand throughout the East coast. Sweetkiwi was named one of the 100 most innovative companies in Nigeria in 2017 and 2018. Nigeria to the World!

About Sweet Kiwi

Sweetkiwi is the premier one-stop-shop for delicious premium healthy frozen yogurt. Their slogan ‘Healthy Never Tasted Better!’ encompasses all that they represent. The brand is founded on a mission to create healthier desserts using only the best, natural ingredients and give consumers the option to make healthier choices.

SweetKiwi is female-founded by Ehime Eigbe- Akindele. Ehime is a dairy explorer, entrepreneur and a pioneer of frozen yogurt in the African market. She started making her own frozen yogurt when she realized most available brands weren’t as healthy as they claimed and created her clean-label recipe which brought about the birth of Sweetkiwi in 2011. The brand specialises Frozen Yogurt, Smoothies, Parfaits, and Waffles and more.

SweetKiwi Is social

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sweetkiwiyogurt/

https://www.instagram.com/sweetkiwiusa/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sweetkiwiusa/

Twitter https://twitter.com/sweetkiwiyogurt

Linked in https://www.linkedin.com/company/sweetkiwi-frozen-yogurt

Website https://www.sweetkiwi.com/

Ehime Eigbe Akindele: From Citigroup to Sweet Kiwi

Admin — Sun, 27 Nov 2016 07:35:20 +0000

Ehime Eigbe Akindele: From Citigroup to Sweet Kiwi

In 2009 whenEhime Eigbe Akindele visited Nigeria on holiday from the US, she kept asking for where to buy Frozen Yoghurt and nobody could give her an answer. That motivated her to quit she job at Citi Group, in Texas, USA and come back to Nigeria to establish Sweet Kiwi. Five years after, Sweet Kiwi Frozen Yoghurt is strategically branded as the go-toplace for frozen yoghurt in Lagos, Nigeria.

A Goldman Sachs 10, 000 Women scholar and a public speaker, Ehime holds a degree in Business Information Technology and International Studies from London Metropolitan University and completed Entrepreneur Management programme at the Enterprise Development Centre of Pan African University, Lagos. She has also received certifications in restaurant management and dessert manufacturing. In this interview with Guardian Woman, she discusses plans for her business among other things.

You left your job with the Citigroup in the US to set up Sweet Kiwi in Nigeria? What prompted the decision?
I saw a gap/ opportunity in the Nigerian market as there were no frozen yoghurt stores at the time in the country and decided to take a chance by starting my own frozen yoghurt brand in Nigeria.

Why yoghurt as a choice of business? Could you have invested in another business?
I fell in love with the whole concept of frozen yoghurt, because I love dessert and this was a healthy way to have dessert without counting calories and worrying about the impact on your weight or cholesterol level.

How do you source materials for your products? Does the forex crisis impact your overhead?
The forex crisis has greatly destabilised out business. We use real yoghurt made in Nigeria to make our frozen yoghurt however the forex crisis impacts everyone as little is manufactured in Nigeria. Even items made in Nigeria have increased greatly in price, locally grown fruit as well. We get price increase notices almost monthly. We also source the majority of our other supplies abroad as they are not produced in Nigeria. Our overheads have increased greatly, it is unfortunate that the government refuses to provide forex to ensure the survival of small businesses.

What were the initial challenges you had to contend with transitioning from being an employee to being an employer of about 30 persons?
I would say the first one understood the environment I was doing business in was the first challenge. Understanding the mindset and employee culture was also another challenge. I had to grow into the role, learnt from a lot of experiences both good and bad. Took a few courses, read a lot of books. I am continuously evolving as an employer and the experiences help set the tone for our employment policies.

Staffing poses one of the major problems for niche start-ups. How easy was it for you to get 30 employees to share your vision for Sweet Kiwi?
It is not an easy task but I tried to do my best to inspire my employees and get them to imbibe the company culture. One of the ways of doing that is by setting the best example for them to live up to in the way I carry out my own duties. Continuous training and great work life balance also help.

The Economic recession has impacted people’s purchasing power. How has this impacted on your earnings as a business?
Like everyone else we have felt the impact of the recession and the decline in purchasing power. We are hopeful that things would turn around but in the meantime, I try to minimise the negative effects and maximise the positives. Every situation is a learning experience and 2016 has been a great lecturer in the art of running lean operations.

How are you dealing with these/this impact(s)?
We have been focused on a strategy to stay in the industry and not just stay but flourish in these difficult times. Part of that is running lean operations like I said earlier, we are also trying to innovate in the space to combat the effects of the recession.

Are there plans to take your business out of Lagos to other Nigerian states?
Yes, we are looking to kickstart our franchise program to grow our brand into other parts of Nigeria and the rest of Africa.

Any regrets dumping your paid job for entrepreneurship?
I would not use the word ‘Dump’ but yes I have no regrets.

Who is Ehime Eigbe Akindele?
I am a simple, goal oriented woman who loves music and strives for perfection in all that I do.

See Article on The Guardian