Winjoy Kananu is a mitumba bales importer and trader operating from Gikomba Market, Nairobi County.
When she ventured into entrepreneurship, she started off by hawking eggs before trading fruits and eventually dealing in mitumba clothes.
Kananu attributes her success in business to hard work and the passion that she has towards businesses that she engages in.
Here is her story as told by WoK.
In an interview with Imagine Business, Kananu explained that she first ventured into business by selling eggs.
She hawked eggs for a year before she started selling fruits.
“I was selling all kinds of foods but I was buying them in bulk then I’d later distribute them to the retailers,” she noted.
Kananu then ditched the hustle and started selling mitumba clothes after buying a single bale at Gikomba.
“I bought one bale and started selling pieces for almost one year until the COVID-19 pandemic came disrupting businesses,” she said.
She was out of business for a while but later reinvested and bought several bales of mitumba clothes.
Kananu sells bales ranging from Ksh 8,000 to Ksh 40,000 depending on the type of clothes that the client wants.
“It is packaged according to categories, we have children wear, heavy clothes, summer clothes; it depends with the client,” she said.
Her initial capital was Ksh 200,000.
She invested most of her capital in moving stock which include children and ladies wear which tend to be bought faster.
“I didn’t start importing from the word go, I started with a few bales which I bought from local suppliers then I started from there,” Kananu said.
Kananu imports her bales from the United Kingdom.
“Mitimba clothes from the UK are of good quality and most of them are medium sizes. Other countries some are short or oversize,” she explained.
She further disclosed that the price of a bale depends on the buying price, the quality and quantity.
She makes between Ksh 2,000 to Ksh 3,000 profit per bale, with the operational costs per month standing at Ksh 500,000.
“The mitumba business is nice, when you have good quantity and quality you will get clients who would be coming back for more,” Kananu said.
Other than selling bales locally, she has also exported to among other countries Tanzania, Uganda and South Sudan.
She markets her business through social media platforms such as Facebook.
In future, Kananu hopes to expand her business and open branches in other towns across the country.
