'Ice Scream' 4 Africa
Ice Scream 4 Africa: a for-profit co-operative, making and selling ice cream on the streets of Kampala, by Ugandans, for Ugandans
Sobre ti
Background Information
Nombre
Joe
Apellido
Doherty
URL en Twitter
URL en Facebook
The competition is only open to people between 18-34 years-old and resident in UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark or the Netherlands. Does this apply to you
Sí.
Country of residence of entrepreneur
UK
Tell us about your personal background. Why are you passionate about this issue? Making an idea a reality takes innovation, dedication and strong leadership. Do you have the necessary entrepreneurial skills to realize your vision?
I am a 33 Year Old Company Director and Sales director In our family business based in N. Ireland. Our business (www.waferltd.co.uk) which we set up in 1989 manufactures Ice Cream Cones and wholesale distributes ice cream ingredients. I have experience setting up businesses making and selling ice cream in Ireland and the UK. Ice Cream is a major part of my life! I eat, sleep and dream it!
My other passion (apart from my lovely wife and 2 babies :-)) is development projects in Uganda. I have volunteered for an NGO called Africa Greater Life Mission in Uganda over the last 10 years, raising money in the UK and bringing it there to oversee it spent on projects such as social housing, schools, feeding programmes and environmental projects. AGLM is also a registered charity in the UK - www.aglmuk.org.
I graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with an LLB Law Degree. I later graduated from University of Ulster with an LLM in Human Rights Law.
I am N. Ireland director and board member of the Ice Cream Alliance (www.ice-cream.org) the trade body which represents independent ice cream manufacturers in the UK.
Sobre tu organización
Nombre de la organización
Africa Greater Life Mission
Sitio web de la organización
País de la organización
Reino Unido, XX, LONDONDERRY
Países en donde este proyecto está creando impacto social
Uganda, KMP, Kampala
Tu organización es
Empresa
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Innovación
La necesidad: ¿Cuál es el problema que tratas de solucionar?
Ice Scream For Africa is primarily a poverty alleviating project. Unemployment in Uganda is due in large part to a lack of opportunities for people and lack of support for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Many Ugandans are educated, are very industrious and want to work rather than receive hand-outs.
La solución: ¿Cuál es tu solución? Sé específico.
Ice Scream For Africa will create employment for Ugandans, giving them the opportunity to earn their living in a sustainable way. We will manufacture ice cream initially on a small scale to be sold by vendors on the streets of Kampala. Its very much the 'Trade not Aid' ethos - using local ingredients to make a fantastic product that Ugandans can sell and take pride in earning a living.
El Modelo: Muéstranos a través de un ejemplo específico cómo tu solución hace una diferencia, incluye tus actividades primarias
We will be a 'for-profit' company owned by its workers in a co-operative. Vendors will be provided with training and sales skills to qualify to be part of the business. They will then be loaned, in a micro-finance model,the physical tools they need to sell the ice cream such as shoulder bags, ice boxes and on a larger scale, tricycle carts. They will make a living and repay the value of their 'tools' depending on how much ice cream they sell. Ongoing training of employees/shareholders will be am essential part of company growth-business management and sales skills will be imparted in monthly sales meetings by experienced Ugandan business people and also UK supporters from the business community.
El mercado: ¿Quiénes son tus pares y competidores? Identifica a otros que también estén trabajando para dar respuesta a las necesidades que tú abordas y en qué te diferencias de ellos. ¿Cuáles son los desafíos que estos jugadores podrían representar para tu éxito o crecimiento?
There is a demand for ice cream all year round and is consumed by all all ages and classes of people. The main competitors are Fido Dido, Simka, Snowman’s ice cream and some is imported from Kenya.
The main ice cream parlours include: Bimbo Ice cream, Buddz ice cream, Fido dido, 2 others at Garden city Mall , Oasis mall with three vendors combining Ice cream with snacks.
What differentiates us is our route to market -we will not sell from high rent locations such as malls- rather direct in the streets through vendors. Most shopping (clothes, cosmetics, electrical) is done in malls and most of them are located close to the taxi/bus terminals. Therefore 'IC4A' will serve it’s customers from all bus/taxi terminals through vendors and strategically located ice cream pitches.
Select the stage that best applies to your business
Operando menos de un año
Esta presentación se trata de
Impacto social
What is the social impact you have had to date and how you measure it?
Ice Scream 4 Africa is a new project and in its own right has had no social impact. However, Africa Greater Life Mission, the NGO in Uganda under the auspices of which this project falls, has been established over 15 years. It has a great track record of building social housing and a school, establishing a feeding programme in Bulabakulu village in North Kampala, creating an Eco-friendly fishery project in that village, sponsoring hundreds of children and much much more. As a long-time volunteer for AGLM I am coming into this project with lots of experience in Uganda and with development projects. We can measure our positive social impact simply by counting the hundreds of children we have successfully brought up, fed and put through school. AGLM is also a registered charity in the UK.
Sostenibilidad
How does your model address financial, social, and environmental sustainability?
We 'The West' have been giving Africa aid for 50 years and conditions there have improved marginally. Aid is an element in the answer to the 'Africa problem' but the solution must ultimately be self-brought by Africans with their own ideas, hard work and pride. Mohammed Yanus' idea of for-profit social businesses is something we would like to emulate in Uganda.
Charity and aid rely on limited resources, temporary ideas and policies. Business and capitalism within the right framework is sustainable in the long term as it is governed by the basic rules of supply and demand, hard work and endeavour.
Ice Scream 4 Africa will have the support and safety net of the advice and framework of the initial donors and UK businesses. However, within the year and in the long term it will generate its own profits. Employee-vendors (who will be shareholders) can go as big they wish as when they pay off the loan of their first tool, they can receive another 'tool', a bigger one if they wish and continue to grow their sales area.
As sales grow, manufacturing will have to grow to match demand. Profits go back into buying more tools for more vendors and for more training programmes.
Awareness & learning
How do you see social entrepreneurship contributing to the improvement of developing countries?
I see it as absolutely essential. Aid has a place and is very important but the last 30 years has shown that Aid is not the solution - it is only part of the solution. Developing countries have to work their way off their knees. They can do this with pride if they are given the opportunity from businesses that are not just about making money but also making a difference. Capitalism in its extreme is ugly and selfish but this can also be true of charity. Where capitalism can be harnessed and the rewards put back into the community to be self-generating and then it becomes socially responsible and socially productive.
What aspects of your stay in Uganda as part of the competition do you think you will find most challenging and rewarding?
I have spent quite a bit of time in Uganda and other parts of Africa and there are so many cultural differences than be very frustrating. 'Uganda time' is what some locals call the unduly lengthy time it can take to get anything done! In the World Bank rating list of 'places to do business' (www.doingbusiness.org) , Uganda lays an unhealthy 123rd out of 182 and in terms of ease of starting a business it lays 143rd! There is a lot of red tape- in 2012 NRM, the ruling political party, changed the process of obtaining a business license, slowing business start-up. The key is to accept the things you cannot change and try and use waiting time as wisely as possible!
In general however, Uganda is an overwhelmingly rewarding place to be. It never ceases to amaze me how there can be so much beauty and love in in such difficult and oftentimes unjust circumstances. The people are warm and funny and the children are never without a smile on their face.
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