Vaka CEO Message on the 10th Anniversary

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a step. I cannot believe its 10 years since the Vaka Building Materials and Hardware story begun. It all started when I was sitting in the class doing my MBA entrepreneurship module in 2007 at Norwich Business School. I had to come up with an innovative idea that would stand the taste of times. An idea of the trucking business came up as well but it had very limited success therefore I had to explore other opportunities.

Through our Zimbabwean community's social events and gatherings, the idea of a one stop shop building material supplier came to mind. At every one of these events I went to in the United Kingdom, 99% of the people always brought up issues they were facing with their family and friends back home. The hope of one owning a house back home would die a natural death due to lack of support from family and friends in the area of procuring building materials.

In most cases sub-standard materials were purchased and there was serious loss of trust among family members. Due to this challenges faced by diasporans, Vaka Building Materials and Hardware was birthed. The Kundoro family had experienced its success in the construction industry with my father being a Class 1 builder. With this background, it would ensure a smooth and progressive flow of the idea and aft er thorough market research I started working on it.

The business idea was to open a company that catered for Zimbabweans in the diaspora by supplying all the building materials they needed to build. I must admit, it didn't make much sense to my professor but to many Zimbabweans in the diaspora it made sense. I was keen on this not just ending up on paper.

I organised a plane ticket to Zimbabwe to go and meet with some companies in Zimbabwe however I was faced with some challenges as no company was keen to explore or give their support, that combined with the significant decline in the economic growth in Zimbabwe which included a shortage of materials the prospects of pursuing the Vaka Project was doomed. Because of my determination to help people through the business I decided to forge ahead with the project without any partners or suppliers to work with. This was a challenge in itself as no one could give us a good testimonial. The project started on a high note with quite a large number of enquiries which materialised into actual orders. The business started to run.

During that time I had not quit my full time job trying to balance a full time job with a new business became a challenge. We had no social media or online banking facilities to make the business run smoother which led to it being a hit and miss between 2008 and 2013. I would like to thank Zimtile, Willdale and Duraworld who became our first partners that trusted us to carry their brands and drive growth over the past 5 years and many others who came over the years.

As we celebrate 10 years of helping Zimbabweans we now have over 20 companies on book. We have become a trusted household for individuals and companies building in Zimbabwe. As we look forward the next 10 years we are exploring new partners and new ways of working. We are keen to bring on board fi nance companies to work in partnership with to strengthen our position in the market. Our "One stop building partner" model is a developing concept in Zimbabwe that has been successful in many other countries and I am confi dent as many Zimbabweans build, they will use Vaka Building Materials & Hardware as their preferred building materials supplier.