SOWETO GOLD, A PRODUCT OF MADMEAD BREWING COMPANY IS THE BRAINCHILD OF NONDUMISO MADLALA, AN EMERGING SOWETO BASED ENTREPRENEUR AND EXPERIENCED CHEMICAL ENGINEER.
A native of Natal, Ndumiso’s career really took off at Norit in the Netherlands where he was a junior engineer, testing the filterability of beer using a revolutionary membrane filter technology. On his return to South Africa, Ndumiso joined the brewing giant SABMiller as Project Engineer. He submerged himself in his job and was soon thereafter promoted to Area Manager at the Brutal Fruit plant in Chamdor. but he missed his liquid love ‘Amber’ and when Heineken opened their new brewery, they whisked him away to open their Sedibeng Brewery.
In his role as Project Brewer he developed the brewery organization, recruited the brewery personnel, did the technical training of new recruits, the integration of Heineken’s stringent international standards with the new brewery organization, the start-up of various process plants, commissioning of various plants and the implementation of quality systems. Again his liquid talent coupled with his organizational drive and acumen awarded him with a promotion to Brewing Manager, responsible for managing the brewhouse, cellars, filtration, utilities and ready-to-drink production units. His passion and ingenuity and foremost his love for beer is well known in the industry and SABMiller got their claws into Ndumiso again and literally stole him back as Consultant/Process Engineer where he was responsible for conducting process capability studies on filtration and brewing processes as well as drafting proposals on process engineering improvements to achieve quality standards on all beer brands. Ndumiso left SABMiller in September 2013 to pursue his passion for brewing and beer as a co-founder and majority shareholder of MadMead Brewing Co.
He holds a Junior Degree from the University of Kwazulu Natal, Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Twente Enschede in Netherlands and a Diploma in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling in London. Ndumiso’s partner and managing director of MadMead, Josef Schmid, has a background in hospitality.
1. What challenges did you face in starting up the brewery?
One of the biggest challenges is regulations. You cant just bre beer offcourse. First thing to do is to get a brand and distribution licence. Then one needs to look at their business model, their primarily stock keeping units. At the moment we are kegging meaning we can only supply our beer to restaurants. To bottle and can the product becomes quite a capital intensive process but thats something we will be looking into in our next phase of business. That will essentially make us retail ready.
The big barrier to entry in the restaurant space is two-fold. Firstly attaining the dispensing equipment which can be very expensive and secondly most restaurants are actually already full with commercial beers so finding space can be an issue. Also most of these commercialbeers belong to a single player and are often arranged in a manner that kind of limits your participation as a craft beer or smaller product. Most of these commercial kegs are piped together leaving little space for a newer entrant. Also financing the business is not an easy task. We have had to sink in R6.5 million of our own money before we received assistance from the IDC to make this work. We still need to raise further monies to expand our model of supply and distribution for retail. It is all very cumbersome.
2. What stands to set Soweto Gold apart from other craft beers in the market?
One, the brand is very powerful. Secondly, our brewing location is very unique and attractive being the brewery to exist in Soweto or any other township for that matter. But also what really counts of course is the beer itself. We are committed to quality which often a lot of micro-brewers in this country do not take pride in. Being a master in the trade and having substantial experience, we can ensure high levels of quality in our beer. Remember we do hand crafted beer. We offer a range of unique, playful and regional craft beers.
3. How does a normal work week look like for Ndumiso?
Monday to wednesday im out at the brewery (Urban Kraal Soweto) brewing beer. Thursday and friday im filtering beer. Its full on, very hands on week. In between all of the madness, i have to obviously find time to attend to interviews, photo shoots, travelling and so forth. Its quite a hectic life. We run a manual brewery so everything requires my full attention and i’m the only brewer capable. I am however in the process of training an employee so they can take on the responsibilities when i am not available. Weekends are spent attending various festivals other marketing related activities. At home i try to catch-up on as much sleep as possible. I have an 8 month old boy and a 6 year old daughter so again i have to try give them and the wife attention.
4. Beyond Soweto Gold?
Im very passionate about production so anything i can produce. We are also venturing a bit into soft-drinks and commercial beer. Im also very keen on the environment and do quite a bit of work on waste water management, water treatment etc.
5. Greatest lesson in business?
Expectations are very different from reality. When you start a business one always sees the attractive side and when you compare that to the reality of working a business, the difference is wide. So i always say manage your expectations. And also once you have started a business it does not mean your bank account will grow all of a sudden. You have to build things slowly. And of course passion cannot be ruled out, passion will take you far. You have to focus, stcik to your guns and not be derialed. Balance is also very key. It is important to have a private and social life as an entrepreneur. And lastly you must always have a plan on how you will take care of yourself besides taking care of the business.
KASIBIZ MAHALA STAFF WRITER
