DURBAN - Brighton and Debbie Matake are a couple who turned a passion of making peanut butter into a successful business that is now being distributed throughout the Western Cape.
The peanut butter is called eDen All Natural; the entrepreneurs say they pride themselves in manufacturing a product that is all natural as their peanut butter does not have any additives, preservatives or sugar.
The Matake's started making peanut butter from their home and afterwhich started selling to their friends and colleagues. They soon realised that people's demand was more than their supply so they started stationing at markets and eventually got a store at the V&A Waterfront.
While selling at the V&A Waterfront, two buyers for Pick 'n Pay walked into their store, liked their product and decided to put eDen All Natural onto their shelves. In 2016 they were listed with Pick 'n Pay and in the very same year they made their first delivery to Pick 'n Pay.
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Now eDen All Natural can be found in both Pick 'n Pay, Wellness Warehouseand Spar, restaurants and various other companies. According to Brighton, the journey to where they are today has been a step by step process. The couple had to save their money to buy equipment from China.
One of their challenges that they have is the sourcing the peanuts for the peanut butter. Some of the other big companies purchased the entire crop of peanuts from farmers and so they have to purchase the peanuts from them.
eDen All Natural was the winner of the Eskom Business Investment Competition last year, winning in the Agriculture and Agri-processing category.
Their all natural peanut butter is available in smooth, crunchy, cinnamon and raisin, honey ,choc chip and hot and spicy.