SA winery opens branches in Zim Chief executive officer for Bayede Zimbabwe, Kenneth Gombe and Anita Reyneke marketing manager, Gauteng at ZITF last week
Chief executive officer for Bayede Zimbabwe, Kenneth Gombe and Anita Reyneke marketing manager, Gauteng at ZITF last week

Chief executive officer for Bayede Zimbabwe, Kenneth Gombe and Anita Reyneke marketing manager, Gauteng at ZITF last week

Rejoice Mberengwa Business Reporter
A SOUTH African wine making firm, Bayede, has opened two distribution centres in Harare and Bulawayo as it seeks to tap business opportunities in the country.

The firm was among scores of foreign firms that participated at the just ended Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo.

Bayede means “hail the king” a term that reflects royalty, culture and quality endorsed by a royal family in South Africa.

Anita Reyneke, the company’s marketing manager based in Gauteng province told Business Chronicle that their products will be sold alongside traditional South African beads.

“We’re distributing the wines to restaurants from Centurion restaurants in Harare and we’re working towards working with Food Lovers’ Market in Bulawayo,” he said.

“The beads will be tagged around the wine bottles. These are crafted by the local community through projects from orphanages, old people’s homes and schools.”

Reyneke said the total cost of a wine bottle sold includes the $0,60 value for the bead, which will be channelled to the charity homes who made it.

He said their enterprise also seeks to empower university students, who would be engaged to conduct wine tasting by customers and get paid for it.

He could not disclose how much students will get for that.

Kenneth Gombe, the chief executive officer for Bayede in Zimbabwe said they chose to work with the wine business because wines were big business in Zimbabwe, especially in the tourism industry.

“In Zimbabwe wine business is coming up and will be one of the biggest industries given that the country is a tourism destination. We believe by venturing into the wine industry we took the right step,” Gombe said.

He said Bayede Zimbabwe will be working with retail outlets, hotels and universities.

Reyneke said being at the ZITF this year afforded their company an opportunity to work with Zimbabwean firms and students who are studying food science from local institutions.

“Being at the trade fair this year made me realise we need to get products from Zimbabwe on board. I met Midlands State University students who made peanut butter from marula nuts. As Bayede, we would like to distribute such products in South Africa to raise the Zimbabwe flag,” she said.

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