How failure led to a blossoming veggie peeling business

When the Covid-19 pandemic wiped out Malebo Moloto’s online appliance business, leaving him with losses of about R150,000, he believed he had reached rock bottom.

“I was really struggling. I even thought about getting a job because things were rough,” the 34-year-old entrepreneur from Meadowlands, Soweto, recalled.

Today, Moloto is the founder of Thumbchef, a business that supplies fresh-cut vegetables, salads and fruit packs to eight supermarkets while employing 10 people.

His journey, however, began far from supermarket shelves.

Before founding Thumbchef, Moloto ran an online business selling kitchen appliances through a dropshipping model. But when Covid-19 disrupted the supply chain, suppliers ran out of stock, leaving him unable to fulfil customer orders.

“I had to stop operating because people were ordering products that weren’t available anymore. I was refunding customers and paying transaction fees, and my Google Ads costs kept climbing. By the time I realised what was happening, the damage had already been done,” he said.

The business collapsed, costing him about R150,000.

Instead of giving up, Moloto received advice that would change his life.

“Someone asked me, ‘Why don’t you ask your community what they want instead of trying to guess?’ That was probably the best business advice I’ve ever received.”

He created a simple survey asking residents what they spent their grocery money on each month.

The responses pointed to three categories: meat, pantry items and vegetables.

“I wanted to sell meat because that’s where people spent the most money, but I didn’t have a car or refrigeration. Pantry goods needed too much capital because I would’ve had to stock so many different products. Vegetables were the only thing I could realistically start with, though I knew absolutely nothing about them.”

Determined to learn, Moloto spent weeks visiting the Johannesburg fresh produce market, studying prices and learning how the industry worked.

“It took me almost two months just to understand how vegetables are priced. One day carrots would cost one price, and the next day they’d be completely different. I was confused, but I kept going because I knew sitting at home wasn’t going to change my situation.”

He started selling vegetable combo packs door-to-door in Kibler Park, pricing them between R99 and R190.

Initially, the business generated about R12,000 a month.

As he built relationships with customers, they began asking him for something unexpected.

“You’d be surprised how many people don’t know how to cut a pumpkin,” he laughed.

“People kept asking me, ‘Can you cut the pumpkin? Can you cut the carrots?’ That’s when I realised convenience was the real product.”

That insight transformed his business.

Working from the back room of his home, Moloto and his mother spent nights washing, peeling and cutting vegetables for customers.

“My mother helped me a lot. We’d stay up until late at night preparing vegetables for deliveries the next morning. Sometimes I’d even borrow her salary to buy stock and pay her back a few days later. She also let me use her car because I didn’t have one.”

He credits his mother for helping him survive those difficult years.

“The little she had as she worked as a social worker took us very far, especially my business.”

A major breakthrough came when he walked into a SPAR supermarket in Kibler Park carrying some of his prepared vegetables.

“I told the manager I cut vegetables and that I have a lot of waste. I asked him if I could sell them to him. He simply said, ‘Bring them’.”

When Moloto returned, the manager pointed out everything that was missing.

“He looked at my products and asked, ‘Where’s your packaging? Where’s your branding? Where’s your barcode? How am I supposed to sell this?’”

Instead of feeling discouraged, Moloto went home and researched every requirement before returning with professionally packaged products.

His first supermarket order was worth just R200.

“That manager taught me everything I needed to know about retail. Looking back now, I realise he wasn’t rejecting me; he was preparing me.”

One supermarket soon became two, then three, and today Thumbchef supplies to eight supermarkets.

The business now turns over more than R300,000 a month.

Though supermarkets have become his biggest customers, Moloto says he wants to return to his roots by bringing door-to-door vegetable deliveries back to Soweto.

“I actually never sold in my own hometown. It’s something I really want to do because I know there are families who would benefit from having affordable vegetables delivered to their homes.”

The journey, however, was never part of his original plan. Moloto, an accounting graduate from the University of Johannesburg, says entrepreneurship was something he stumbled upon.

“I never wanted to be in business or accounting. I was actually interested in technology,” he said.

“But because my mother didn’t understand that career path, she asked me, ‘How are you going to make money in technology?’ She didn’t support that career choice, so I ended up studying accounting instead.”

Though he completed his degree, Moloto says he always felt out of place.

“I’m the sort of person who likes to finish what I start, so I finished my degree. But deep down, I knew accounting wasn’t where I belonged.”

Years later, after experiencing failure and success as an entrepreneur, he realised his true calling was not behind a desk but in building a business that solves everyday problems for ordinary people.

Looking back, Moloto believes the biggest mistake many entrepreneurs make is building businesses around what they want instead of what customers need.

“Go and ask people what they need. Your customers will always tell you exactly what they want. If you listen carefully, they’ll build the business for you.”

Sowetan