Geologist-turned-entrepreneur Brad Meiring uses an online delivery service in South Africa to get people to reconnect with their food.
PILES OF EMPTY WOODEN crates are ready for packaging, stacked up in a scullery. As the morning mist dissipates in the lawn, a pick-up van parks near the doorway.
There is an enterprising hustle and bustle between the van and the kitchen door. Men hurriedly create an impromptu conveyor belt offloading supplies from the van into the scullery.
The daily work rituals progress, and Brad Meiring, the 37-year-old founder of Munching Mongoose, casually engages in a conversation with the supplier.
From starting his business with 12 boxes, the online delivery service established in 2014, now dispatches about 150 boxes a week in Johannesburg.
Meiring sells customizable grocery boxes filled with organic produce, from fruits and vegetables to staple foods such as milk, cheese and breads. His business has a turnover of R450,000 ($31, 241) a month.
It was a conversation at a dinner with a friend in Nelspruit that planted the seed of opportunity. It turned him from geologist to entrepreneur.
As a geologist, he had been against the commercial exploitation of the environment.
“In geology, it is about how we can put a big hole in the ground to make us some money. That didn’t sit well with me and that is why I geared away [from
it]. You are very much in touch with the ground and so is farming. I suppose you could link the two. When I shifted from geology, I tried to get into the environmental field using that knowledge,” the entrepreneur says.
Operating from a pomegranate farm, in the picturesque rural area of Muldersdrift, 27 kilometers from Johannesburg, the calm of the place is an obvious contrast to the hustle and bustle in the economic hub of big city Johannesburg.
It is a contrast he sees changing with time, as people have become more open-minded to experimenting with healthier options, his packaged organic food one of them.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April 2019 من Forbes Africa.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April 2019 من Forbes Africa.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
TRACK, WATCH, BEFRIEND
IN THE PRISTINE WILDERNESS OF GABON ARE THE MAJESTIC AND GENTLE WESTERN LOWLAND GORILLAS. A FIRSTHAND REPORT FROM OUR TRAVEL WRITER ON WHAT GOES INTO HABITUATING THEM.
CHALLENGING BUT NECESSARY: THE AI BALANCING PROBLEM
Artificial intelligence (AI) continues transforming many industries, providing unprecedented opportunities for innovation and efficiency. However, these advancements bring complex challenges that necessitate a delicate balancing act.
BEYOND ACADEMIA: THE SOCIETAL IMPACT OF MULTILATERAL EDUCATIONAL COLLABORATIONS
The great poet William Butler Yeats once said, \"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.\"
The Business Of Dance: Embracing One's Individuality And Style
In the dynamic world of street dance, passion and perseverance pave the way for success. Living out this ethos is South African born B-girl turned businesswoman, Courtnaé Paul.
COMPASSION FATIGUE: THE DANGEROUS DESCENT FROM HELPING TO HURTING
It is a workplace reality that caring too much for your colleagues can hurt you.
IT HAS NEVER BEEN MORE CRITICAL TO FIND OUR NICHE
Have you found your niche? I received a lot of advice when I set up my company, but perhaps the most important consisted of just three words: Find Your Niche.
HOW TO MAKE AFRICA WIN OFF THE FIELD TOO
When all else fails, try sports. It's good for the soul.
BEAN THERE, DONE THAT
British author Roald Dahl tapped into every chocoholic's imagination when creating Willy Wonka's bizarre chocolate factory in his 1964 children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN WORKING WITH AL PACINO ON BROADWAY'
Arnold Vosloo Actor
BLENDED FINANCE: BRIDGING THE GAP IN EMERGING MARKETS IN SUPPORT OF THE SDGS
Amid the widespread global support for the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there was an underlying concern among economists and financial advisors in the emerging and frontier markets: public sector and donor funds were stalled, if not regressing, and the funding gap to realize the SDGs was increasing.