Eye for business led Birungi into juice processing

Taking stock. David Birungi takes stock of the days activities at the Repro Uganda juice producing unit. PHOTOS BY ERONIE KAMUKAMA

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According to David Birungi, the NSSF Friends with Benefits contest, which will reward the winner with Shs30m, is a good starting point that he must win, writes Eronie Kamukama

David Birungi never give up. He knows many of his failings in business but has only learnt to walk away and make a new chapter.
In the past, he set up some businesses including a supermarket in Kampala, a crude waragi store and coffee trading among others.
They failed but somewhere within was the belief that he was still one step away from another business breakthrough.
The presence of Mukwano Group of Companies for so many years exemplified the epitome of hard work and patience.
He knew a juice processing factory that had collapsed in the district. He was also familiar with farmers whose pineapples needed a market in the aftermath.
This knowledge gave him an idea that stayed there with many others that he had over the years.
He went from the thought of drying the fruits and exporting them to processing juice and establishing a big factory all over East Africa via Masaka.

But the huge sums of money required in both projects made it difficult to implement.
He calculated his personal savings, picked his own brain again and his idea would still not mature.
The money was anything but sufficient. Perhaps talking to National Social Security Fund (NSSF) was a good idea, he thought.
He had worked at dfcu Bank for 10 years. At 40 years, he walked away to become his own boss.
“If you want to make money, you must to be free,” he says.
It was now 2018 and he was already eligible for withdrawal benefits. The Shs36m at NSSF eased the impossibility that had settled in his mind.

Approximately Shs10m was used to start the construction of a family house while Shs15m was invested in the business. The balance catered for domestic needs.
“We began with Shs1m. Slowly by slowly, we would buy pineapples from farmers, squeeze them, cook the juice and preserve it. We would buy plastic bottles, labels from Kampala, come and package and take to market. Then the NSSF money came,” Birungi tells his story.
Today, the company that has since been registered as Repro Uganda buys two tonnes of pineapples every week in a good harvest season.
Each tonne costs the company Shs1m. These are enough to sustain the business in the offseason.

“We get enough pineapples in the harvest season, cook them and preserve over 100 jerry cans. Within two months, the season is back and we are back to production,” he says.
It sends its tuk-tuk (auto rickshaw) to villages in and beyond Masaka district, to Lyantonde and Sembabule districts.
Products move faster in the dry season. Company estimates indicate 30 cartons of juice are sold every week.
“We are not competing with these big soda companies. In villages, they do not reach there and when they do, they are expensive. Our products are half the price so we are not scared of competition,” Birungi says.

As the director, he honestly says he hardly finds any solace in high transportation and packaging costs.
“We have stomached that because we are always told that production is a process. We do some small increases in price so that we can meet the cost of operations,” he says, adding: “If government was sympathetic with small and budding investors, they would not tax us. Once they tax you when you are just starting, you lose morale and decide to leave the business.”

The company has had to perch on the shoulders of Uganda Small Scale Industries Association and Uganda National Bureau of Standards to streamline manufacturing processes and establish its place as a competitive brand.
For now, it needs a boost to soar. Budget proposals indicate more than Shs400m is what is required to set up new factory premises, buy better machinery, build networks with out-growers and employ more staff, from the current five.

Business worth
The NSSF Friends with Benefits contest, which has a Shs30m cash prize for the winner, he says, is a good starting point and he must win.
“Once you convert assets we have, we are over Shs20m,” he says, “We don’t have our own garden to feed our factory. The factory is there. What I am doing is not gambling so I think I should win. We are looking at further processing and we shall bring passion fruits, jack fruit, mangoes onboard once we have the capacity,” Mr Birungi says.
To vote for David Birungi in the NSSF Friends with Benefits competition, dial *254# or go to www.nssfug.org”