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Spinning chapati money

Written by Christopher Ssembonge

Saturday, 15 September 2007

I've never given much thought to how the tortillas sold in US supermarkets are made, I had seen Mexican women in Californian restaurants making fresh ones, so my mind made up massive factories filled with labourers churning out tortilla loads on command.

So how does this become about chapatis, where is the chapati angle and where are the chapatis?

You see, my missus likes to buy ready-made frozen chapatis from some Indian shop nearby. Every few weeks, she goes to this grocery store to buy rice, ready to eat chapatis and other foods. The chapatis are made by a company in New Jersey and go by the Indian name Paratha. I've always thought that they were not really chapatis but since I cannot cook chapatis even if my life depended on it, I try not to give voice to my thoughts lest I be denied the pleasure of even these parathas. Imagine then how I must look forward to the nights when my missus evens it out and gives us a treat of home cooked Kenyan chapati.

On the very day we had these pretend chapatis for lunch, we went out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Earlier that day, my curiosity on the parathas had led me to examine the packaging as I tried to find out where they were made. It surprised me to see that they were made right here in the US. This got me thinking that there may be a machine thingy of some sort that can be used to manufacture chapatis in industrial quantities.

You can then imagine my delight when at dinner, I saw a kitchen-scale gas-powered tortilla making machine in the Mexican restaurant. Sat as we were by the kitchen, I managed to catch a glimpse of the machine in action. With my mind now tangled in the mystery, I made sure that I had asked a waiter about the machine and also that I had taken a picture of it with my cell phone. And when we got home I went online to look up tortilla making machines.

For anyone thinking of venturing into that business here, I don't think the perishable nature of chapatis and the population of Kenyans in the US would make it a lucrative business. But that is not to say that there can be no use for the machine in Kenya. The market potential for this kind of business in Kenya is enormous. Think about mid-to-high cost schools, middle class restaurants, working class Nairobians who live on their own and don't have time to cook, think of the demand from weddings and all manner of social functions. The intrepid entrepreneur, you could even have hawkers peddling chapati's to hungry motorist stuck in traffic jams on Uhuru Highway.

To cap it all, you don't have to worry about the cost of cooking gas. Instead of using Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG), you could use bio-gas to cook the chapatis. All you need to do is locate your business close to a dairy farm and set up your own bio-fuel supply. That way you are immune to the price of energy and can sell your chapatis competitively. As the business expands, may be you can now switch to LPG. For all its worth, it may also possible to get favorable funding from a NGO or micro-financing institution for such a venture in Kenya.

Had I been a Kenyan abroad facing the prospect of deportation or stuck in a low-end job, this is something I would quickly jump onto. It may seem unappealing at first but when the money starts to flow in, no one will care about how you made your wealth. if you are lucky, they may even call you Machapati like the Munguku founder in Kiambu who started out selling eggs and now has businesses worth multiple millions.

Christopher Ssembonge
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written by emmo opoti , September 16, 2007

Great stuff Chris. Always eager to see an entrepreneurial mind. I have a whole book of ideas, many of them fantastical, but I am always thinking how to start a new business and what products to conjure.

First things first. The idea may work very well in the United States, the clue may be in expanding beyond the Kenyan market. After all, if it is a machine then it can probably be set to make all the regional variations on chapatis, including parathas and phulkas. Even in Kenya this may be a requirement for although we call them all chapati, there is much difference in the preferred renditions, usually based on what one's mother spun.

Personally, I cannot abide thick ones, or hard ones. I know a couple of creative cooks who add a little egg white and milk to their chapatis.

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Fast food Innovation
written by pndiangui , September 16, 2007

Great Great Article ...
Infact the fast-food industry in Kenya is in dire need of entrepreneurial zeal to create enormous wealth in the country. I have watched franchised Multinationals like Steers and Nando's mis-price and mis-segment the market only to the detriment of their own franchisees leading to the exit from the market of some like Nando's.
Many of us have ever sat in Tom mboya street in the famous chips za kusimama; Chips & sausage outlets where customers have the chips while standing.Usually a meal of combined sausage and chips used to retail for Kshs.18 in 2002.
This is the true mass market of fastfoods in Kenya and other African Nations.
All is required is to align the production processes well with a growth oriented franchise strategy targeting all towns. And I think diversifying these operations using this machine to produce mass-chapatis while maintaining low costs is a worth-while strategy.
That will in one way put the standards of the low-end fragmented fasfoods in the country higher by default while eliminating some of the poor health conditions of preparing the food whilst still keeping the cost affordable to the ordinary mwananchi. At the same time with such superior and stable franchises capturing customers from Nairobi river-road to Kisumu , the value-chain of potatoe production , Wheat and other supportive and supply industries serving such chains will be more stabilized. Acountants, IT workers and marketers serving as employees of these major chains will have had a chance to serve their country through better empolyment opportunities. Expanding such chains into TZ ,Uganda , Zambia, Nigeria ETC ETC will only serve to enlarge these opportunities. For those entrepreneurs who will be willing to share a piece of their success with other Kenyans while seeking capital for further expansion , Nairobi Stock Exchange offers that window to raise the capital. And that also presents the SACCO's , Cooperatives, the Pension fund schemes and other individual Kenyans a chance to own part of that wealth creation process. So yes its the same analogy of a barclays Bank versus an Equity bank in the food industry too. The mis-pricing by the Multinationals due tother corporate headquaters business processes that are not aligned with the Kenyan environment, will not capture the mass market in this part of town. A Kenyan-born solution is required to standardise the fastfood industry in the country and the Chapati making mechanisation can be part of that solution.

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written by Stephen Wanyama , September 16, 2007

Brilliant Chris. Like Emmo above, I think the business could work in the US too, perhaps the entrepreneur would have to get creative and maybe have it as part of another operation, but it could work still. Two key things to think of are freshness and branding.
With your biogas idea you could position your product as green, and with a good South Asian name you will be ready to go.

I have seen countless Kurds, Afghans, Indians and Pakistanis and so on come to the UK penniless, and while the Caribbeans and Africans are busy buying big cars and throwing parties, start fast-food chains that keep growing and growing. As always, the trick is to start a business.

Have you heard of 'cutting chai' in Mumbai? They sell you a cup of tea that is neither full nor empty out of stalls on the roadside. I have heard of this one man in Mumbai, who started out as a chai trader, even doing a mobile chai business of the back of a bike, progressing to a cart, and then on to a restaurant, and now a large chain in India's financial district.

It is true like you say that many of us shy away from mass market products, believing that there is not much at the bottom of the pyramid. My grandfather always asked me what I would think of a factory making matches, that had 10% of the Indian market.

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written by Ssembonge , September 17, 2007

Thanks for your compliments.

Ndiangui, You hit it right on target when you say mass market. That is what making money is all about. What's more, the ability to make a lot of chapati's, like bread, would guarantee you some good cash flow.

Emmo, The problem with the US is that it is very expansive and the Kenyan population is geographically fragmented. The cost of inputs and the lack of outlets would make it unprofitable even in large Kenyan communities like those found in Boston, DC and Dallas.

Stephen, like you've said, when it comes to starting a business, a lot of people prefer running a fancy enterprise and would rather not get their hands dirty. This is our own undoing. We just want the glamour.

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Lest I bust your bubble
written by Don , September 17, 2007

Great observation and idea. However, I returned from Kenya a few months ago. While there, I was buying Kenyan packed chapos and paranthas in the supermarkets and, once heated, they tasted as good as the homemade ones. So, that market is already discovered, you can only innovate to compete in it. But, the tortilla portion of it is a different matter.

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written by Ssembonge , September 17, 2007

Don thanks for the comments. I haven't seen the chapos but someone else brought this to my attention. That said, i can assume they have not fully penetrated the market and there is room for competition. My guess is that who ever is doing it is based in industrial area and has high overheads so on a smaller scale someone can do it cheaper than them.

Which establishment did you buy your chapos from? Nakumatt?

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both Nakumatt and Uchumi...
written by Don , September 17, 2007

...those are the only ones I shopped at. Judging from the products and their packaging, I think one is an industrial producer and another an SME; can't remember the names. I agree with you that the market has hardly been exploited. Most Nairobians didn't know of their existence because there's no promotion. Others were skeptical seeing me purchasing them, until they tasted with nods. So, a new aggressive entrant can cut a niche in the market.

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home made chapati
written by Amina , September 18, 2007

Of course nothing tastes better than a homemade chapati. Sorry folks, but forever the health nut, I do not see in a market such as ours the need to create unhealthy eating habits.

I don't remember my mother cooking chapatis-- a working class Kenyan woman (not Nairobian), she found making chapatis rather tasking. But we ate them at least once a week. She bought them from a food vendor, Mama Safi, who made them fresh every day.

Most processed foods have high levels of sodium resulting in increased health risks. Increased sodium levels over the years has a predictable effect on raising blood pressure. An increased "need" to eat processed food only brings this threat closer.

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Just like mom\'s
written by Jayawardene , September 19, 2007

Ssembonge, What a great and original topic thanks. Peter Ndiangui is absolutely right in saying that fast food in kenya needs a shot in the arm to give it some focus, direction and growth.

Emmo and Stephen both claim that it is important that budding enterpreneurs are supported.I agree; diaspora people face many hurdles in attempting to set up on their own. How great it would be if like-minded people came together to share their innovative ideas and support one another.

We owe the greatest debt to Amina for her contribution. I consider myself a real fan of Chapter. It is an important part of my diet. In our anxious need to develop and grow our economy let us not throw out the baby with the bath-water.

Do those factory made chapos taste anything like the real McCoy? This spinning machine sounds like a great labour saving device but how will you ensure that the final product is as fresh as Mama Safi's. Could it be that what is needed is a machine that does the hard, time-comsuming work of kneading, rolling and spinning, then the sheets are packed ready to cook,
thus avoiding the use of preservatives and ensuring a fresh home-made taste for the good Amina.

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Tasty Ideas
written by John Ongeri , September 19, 2007

A very good topic. What I understand from many of the comments here though is that there is a really serious need for us to begin to understand the language of business. Creativity and innovation are all around us just waiting to be tapped.

The above example of Ssembonge's 'chapati spinner' to mass-produce a very popular product for time-poor overworked urbanites seems like a very good idea.

Mama Safi need not be threatened. The introduction of these factory chapatis should spur her into action marketing her own products with the key words such as 'authentic', 'hand-made', 'Original' and 'traditional' allowing her to charge a handsome premium in a very large market. We all win!

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