MPUMALANGA COMPANY TO PENETRATE ANGOLAN MARKET

MPUMALANGA COMPANY TO PENETRATE ANGOLAN MARKET 

An Mbombela-based Mpumalanga beauty and personal care company, Magetz Guest Amenities is on the verge of breaking into the Angolan market after its products caught the attention of many Angolans.  Magetz is one of the 24 South African companies that showcased their products and services at the Angolan international trade fair which ended in Luanda at the weekend.

The participation of the companies in the week-long popular exhibition was funded by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) with the aim of increasing exports of the South African manufactured goods to various countries.

Magetz manufactures a range of personal care products including body lotion, bath salts, shower gel, bubble bath, tissue oil and body butter. These are distributed under the brand name Velvet.

“The trade fair was really a success for our company. I travelled to Angola with one mission in mind, and that was to find a distributor for our products. But the show visitors fell head over heels in love with our products and by the end of the exhibition our stock had been cleaned out,” says a delighted Ms Makgethwa Mashiane, the Managing Director of Magetz.

She added that more importantly her mission to find a distributor for her products in Angola looked like it would be accomplished as there were numerous Angolan businesspeople who visited her stand and expressed interest in doing business with her.

“The trade leads emanating from people who showed interest in distributing our products are innumerable. But I can confidently say about six businesspeople are potential clients that require serious follow-ups soon. They are already having registered and operational companies and are currently sourcing cosmetic products from various countries such as Brazil and Portugal. They are keen to order these products from South Africa due to the cost implications. These people are already asking about the pricing and other import-related information such as container sizes and customs issues,” said a delighted Mashiane.

She added that there was also quite a significant number of people who were interested in natural hair products which she had not planned to market at the show.

“People here want real natural oils for the hair instead of the creams and sprays. We do produce the products for the hair but we have not been marketing them so much because our target is body products. But the demand here was an eye-opener and it means that we need to look into that kind of a potential market here in Angola and service it,” said Makgethwa adding that the tissue oil and body butter were two of her products that were a hit with the Angolan women.

She would be working hard in the next few weeks to ensure that the trade leads she obtained in Angola translate into actual business that should result in her company exporting its products to that country in the near future. This would go a long way in assisting her contribute to creating employment in Mpumalanga in particular and South Africa in general.

At the moment Magetz employs five permanent and two temporary workers at their Rocky Drift industrial area premises. Accessing the market in Angola means that her production of her products will increase in order to supply the new market, and this result in her employing more people.