Margaret Komen is the director and founder of Mace Foods, a large-scale producer of spices, vegetables, herbs and other export-ready items.
In a past interview, she stated that after graduating from university, she got a job and worked in a lab.
However, Maggie stated that she is not a routine person, and as a result, completing the same things every day became tiresome for her.
She quit her work and went to a trade show in Germany, where she saw an opportunity to get into agribusiness.
Maggie also stated that some of her family members opposed her decision to cultivate and sell chiles because of their worth.
“I saw an opportunity in chilies, so I arrived and started. When I first started the business, my family thought something was wrong with me since who would start selling chilies? My aunties tried to convince me to abandon the project and go back to employment or get into another business,” she told me.
Despite objections from her family, Maggie founded Mace Foods, which has been in business for 20 years.
“I am a different person now than I was 19 years ago… If I could go back in time, I would have done some things differently,” she saif.
Maggie expressed a desire to invest in individuals over time by allowing them to learn from her entrepreneurial journey.
“As my business grew, I never invested in employees. What you’re doing is yours, and you are the one who owns it. It’s not easy for another person to take it from you
“If you’re in the value-added space, your innovation will help you thrive. There’s so much opportunity; you just have to choose and specialize,” she said.
Maggie had a difficult start in business because most critical aspects of the company were centered in Nairobi.
“It was very difficult if you’re based in Eldoret for example; even packaging, getting people to design things and formulate products was really tough,” she told me.
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As a new entrepreneur, Maggie struggled to obtain the necessary technical skills to run her business. As a result, she encourages college students to be deliberate in their course selection.
“Don’t just enroll in a course because your parents desire it; instead, investigate technical colleges. In manufacturing, we lack machine operators, food technologists, and other expertise.
“This way, you end up spending a lot of time training people who did other things to be able to do what you’re doing,” she said with regret.
Maggie also struggled to raise funds to expand her firm since many financial institutions viewed agribusiness as a dangerous investment.
“For a long time, it was just family money, my own money, and angel investors. It wasn’t until 2021 that I found an investor who contributed a significant amount of money into my company,” she explained.
Maggie runs two processing lines at Mace Foods: the chilly line, which includes 12 products, and the veggies line, which specializes in African green vegetables.
“We were targeting the diaspora, but we discovered that there is a market even in major cities. We have five goods in this line,” she stated.
Maggie said that exports account for 70% of her company in both veggies and chilies.
“We send chillies to pharmaceutical firms in South Korea and Spain, as well as food in Italy and Germany. We export vegetables to the United States to serve Kenyans who live there. We operate with a large distributor in the United States and are searching for distributors in the United Kingdom and the Middle East,” she explained.
