In August 2012, 28-year-old former Paralympian Sarisa Ferreira’s family was going to lose their family farm due to drought and floods. Sarisa decided to start a business to save it. This was the beginning of Areli Veg, a small business that plants vegetables and citrus, packages the produce and distributes to retailers.
Eventually, Sarisa was able to build her business to the point where it was producing a turnover of R4 million in a year with six employees. Being disabled herself, Sarisa made it the mission of Areli Veg to create jobs for women and disabled woman who were unemployed in the region. But in order to grow, more funding was needed. Moreover, Areli Veg is situated in Patensie in the Eastern Cape, which means the business is creating much needed jobs in an area with exceedingly high levels of unemployment.
Thanks to Anglo American’s enterprise development arm, Zimele, Areli Veg got to continue on its growth path and now turns over R4.5 million in as little as five months with a staff complement of 87 – providing fresh-from-the-farm packaged vegetables and citrus to major retailers like Pick n Pay.
The business has even completed its first export, delivering a load of butternuts to Germany. Not only this, but Sarisa has even been nominated for Businesswomen of the Year by the Businesswomen Association of South Africa.
“When we got in touch with Zimele, we were only in business for one year,” says Sarisa. “With the kinds of orders we were receiving, the small factory we had simply couldn’t deliver to our growing market. We needed to expand, get more equipment and more space. Without Zimele my business would not be where it is today. Through Zimele, even in a year’s time we could accomplish what we would only be able to do in ten years without them.”
Zimele gave Areli Veg the loan it needed to buy more equipment and employ more staff to meet the demands of the market. Thanks to Anglo American and Zimele, Sarisa can now plan for the future.
“In the next ten years I want to see my business debt free. I want to expand by building a cutting up and vegetable processing facility. This will help us push production to full capacity and enter into some exciting future markets. Thanks to Zimele and a lot of hard work and dedication, this is all very possible,” says Sarisa.
Since 1989, Anglo American’s enterprise development arm, Zimele, has enabled the companies it funds to stand on their own two feet and grow through a strategic blend of financial support and mentorship.
The initiative has become a catalyst for emerging black business, with the knock-on effect being sustainable job creation and socio-economic development in predominantly rural and peri-urban mining communities.
Between 2008 and 2013, Zimele empowered over 1,600 businesses, employing over 30,000 people.
Sarisa and Areli Veg team believes wholeheartedly in the power of enterprise development and knows that initiatives like Zimele are the key to building a better and more sustainable South Africa. “Enterprise development gives small businesses the funds they need to become big businesses, helping them become successful faster. Thank you Anglo American and Zimele for believing in South Africa.”