THE eDikeni brand expanded its product range with eDikeni Lager, launched at the Granary in Gqeberha on Saturday. eDikeni founder Lereko Ntshona said the beer along with other fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) in the pipeline, would ensure eDikeni Restaurant sells its own products when it starts to franchise.
In an interview at his home eDikeni (also known as Alice), Ntshona said the brand already has bottled water in its product range, adding that coffee and other products under the eDikeni brand are in the pipeline.
“The idea was to create the flagship brand eDikeni first, and that came with the restaurant which I’m in the process of franchising now to get a wider reach in different areas. But we need to bring our own products, so we started with eDikeni Water, then eDikeni Lager. There’s an opportunity for coffee and all sorts of other FMCG to be packaged under the eDikeni brand,” said Ntshona.
Brewed by Apiwe Nxusani-Mawela – South Africa’s first black female brewmaster, eDikeni Lager is just a starting point to create goods that come out of Alice that can be seeded into the mainstream economy, said Ntshona.
The 36-year-old started eDikeni Restaurant in Sandton in 2019, but has been a businessman since 2007. He was part of the Blaque magazine team and founded a marketing company VIP Guest.
“Blaque was an interesting space because people were always fighting for advertising space. There was a greater opportunity to engage our subscriber base through experiential events. That culminated in a marketing company called the VIP Guest, which I founded to create an access point where brands, consumers, and talent meet and to create engagement opportunities,” said Ntshona.
“We were managing brands that we didn’t create in spaces that we didn’t own, we didn’t have the headache of ownership. But the aim was to always over time get to a point where I manage brands that I created in spaces that I own.”
And with eDikeni Restaurant and goods under the eDikeni brand, that vision has come to fruition and continues to unfold. At the centre of the vision is to develop the villages surrounding eDikeni where Ntshona’s roots are.
“Ultimately the vision is to create a cooperative here in Alice, that aggregates all the producers and capacitate small-scale farmers from the villages to produce not only for our franchises but also greater demand so that it scales up. Should Pick ‘n Pay or Woolworths say we want those tomatoes from Alice on our shelves, the focus will be around quality assurance, research and development and packaging and non-financial support to capacitate those farmers,” said Ntshona, who is a marketing graduate.
“There’s already the Fort Hare Dairy Trust and why shouldn’t our milk and our eggs come there? Money tends to flow to the cities, but at some point, it needs flow back to the communities.”
Ntshona was a co-owner of another restaurant before he started eDikeni. “But there was always a greater vision of setting up something that’s a bit more meaningful, so when I found space on Alice Lane in Sandton, I knew that it’s been brought to me.”
Different areas at eDikeni Restaurant are named after the villages surrounding his hometown. The bar is KuNtselamanzi. “Quite fitting for a bar, place of quench,” he jokes. The patio upstairs is named KwaMavuso, which is also befitting since the actual village is on a slope overlooking the town.
“The upstairs area is more linked to my personal history as part of the Ntshona family because we are from Sheshegu (village), so Sheshegu is the kitchen where all the ingredients come together. That’s the nourishment.”
He acknowledges his lineage including his great grandfather who went over the hill to KwaGaga. “KwaGaga is where the daytime library which is linked to Lovedale Press. People there are in love with African literature, they actually sit there and read the books and buy them. KwaGaga is where all of that the empowerment, the knowledge, the sense of identity is. Past KwaGaga you get to Ayanda House, which is this very home that was built in 1952 by Dr. Ntshona and my grandmother. Ayanda is my grandmother’s firstborn, my aunt.”
eDikeni in Sandton is not a restaurant, but an institution that really aims to focus on shaping and uplifting the communities from where we come," said Ntshona.
“It’s far bigger than a plate of ulusu (tripe) and steamed bread. Even these books we stock, there aren’t platforms that celebrate our identity. If you go to Exclusive Books, you won’t find books by SEK Mqhayi or AC Jordaan. We need to start building that depository and find a way to digitize those books.”
The eDikeni restaurant is right in the heart of Sandton next to the convention centre. “Sandton City is right next door and all hotels and all the major corporates like Bloomberg, Sanlam, Marsh, Procter & Gamble, Bank of China, Absa. Pre-lockdown for covid, 3000 people would come to that precinct every day to work, and then suddenly they disappeared. So the jazz evenings are meant to bring people closer. It’s become a destination venue; all that activity is attracting quite a few people while keeping to covid regulations.”
PICTURES: Supplied by Lereko Ntshona/ eDikeni
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