Caroline Kasyoki: Imarisha Mabati Founder Who Worked As A Bank Teller, Baker

Caroline Kasyoka is the founder of Imarisha Mabati, a local company offering the best quality and affordable roofing solutions.

Founded in 2017, the company has grown from a single roofing profile manufacturer to producing over six roofing profiles and accessories.

Kasyoka established the business after quitting her job as a teller in a local bank, and working as a freelance baker.

Here is her story as told by WoK.

In an interview with Citizen TV, Kasyoka disclosed that Imarisha Mabati started in 2016 as an hardware.

In 2017, the 35-year-old explained, was when she officially ventured into production of of roofing materials and accessories.

However, she adds that before trying a hand in business, she was previously employed.

“Before starting this business, I was working as a cashier at a local bank but I always wanted to do business because my father is a businessman,” she explained.

Kasyoki resigned from her job at the bank and went into cake baking, but it was not long before she ditched it to explore other options.

“I loved cake baking but the profits were not as I expected so that’s when I decided to venture into the construction industry, specializing in roofing materials,” she said.

She noted that she came up with the business idea after identifying a gap in the market having worked in the construction industry in the past.

“I started doing research, I visited different companies both in Kenya and across East Africa that are producing roofing materials because I wanted to make material that can stand the climatic conditions here,” she especially.

Kasyoki started with one equipment and 10 workers but over time, the business was already booming forcing her to move to a bigger space, hire more workers and buy more equipments.

She mentioned deficiency of the dollar currency as one of her major challenges in the business.

“With the dollar deficiency, we buy the raw materials at a higher price making it difficult to sell out products because we have to recover the extra costs,” Kasyoki said.

The company offers a wide range of roofing products including Imarisha box, Mettro tile, Wave tile, Imarisha classic, Imarisha prime and Bamboo tile.