A 26-year-old Limpopo entrepreneur is pioneering the food industry, producing the world’s first chicken feet and hoendernekkies in a blikkie.
Eiren Drake, with his business partner and late grandfather Spence Drake, produced their first 400g can product line through their business, Tin Stuff. The duo started constructing a canning plant in Tzaneen in 2017 and officially launched their product in 2020, amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
Drake credits his upbringing in rural Limpopo for this business idea.
“As a young boy, I spent a significant amount of time with my late grandfather’s employees, whose children were my friends and playmates. It was then that I was first introduced to the widely loved and consumed dish of chicken feet, which very quickly became one of my favourite meals - and it still is today!” says Drake.
Drake says that he learned a lot about local food and culture through his upbringing. He says that the business idea was a solution to many families’ struggles accessing good quality protein.
The Tin Stuff factory now employs 35 people per production shift, with room to increase to 60 full-time employees, should product demand increase.
Among the employees integral to Tin Stuf’s mission are several of his childhood friends who introduced him to the dish as a child. “Today, they are the very people behind our innovation to develop a new product concept and our inspiration to follow through and attempt to launch it,” he said.
Not too long after the launch of Tin Stuff, tragedy struck, and in November 2020, Drake lost his co-founder and grandfather.
“The unexpected passing of my business partner, investor, life coach, mentor, and beloved grandfather was, by far, the most difficult challenge that I’ve had to mitigate,” Drake says.
However, in February this year, things turned around when Drake was approached by the Shoprite Group and agreed on a three-year exclusive deal to supply the retailer.
“As a small business owner and my very first engagement with formal retail in the corporate space, it has been an absolute honour and great privilege to work under the guidance of the Shoprite team,” said Drake.
“They haven’t just had a significant impact on the future of our small business, but rather, Shoprite has become the future on which the existence of our business is now based,” he added.
IOL