{"id":18490,"date":"2022-12-15T10:15:48","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T10:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/love-for-leather"},"modified":"2022-12-15T11:14:46","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T11:14:46","slug":"love-for-leather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/love-for-leather","title":{"rendered":"Love For Leather"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>Fresh from scooping the #PushaBW Award at last month\u2019s Global Expo Botswana, and counting the First Lady, Neo Masisi as a previous client, MKLA Africa are fast making their mark.<\/b><\/p>\n

Run by husband and wife duo, McFarlane and Tendani Sibanda, the business specialises in leather, expertly producing a variety of handmade products from scratch.<\/p>\n

Items manufactured range from: bags, office accessories, wallets, belts, home goods, coasters, key chains and knife sheaths.<\/p>\n

It is an enterprise 13 years in the making, with its roots dating back to 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then we made canvas shopping totes meant to minimize the use of plastic bags, but we knew very little about selling. We were just creatives with no business acumen. Needless to say, that venture never took off as we gave up too quickly,\u201d recalls a nostalgic Tendani.<\/p>\n

Although MKLA Africa was not officially registered until 2020, by that point the couple had been producing leather goods for five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make products for work, home, outdoor, travel, and daily utility,\u201d explains the Maitengwe native, whose company is based in Metsimotlhabe.<\/p>\n

The couple pride themselves on the personal touch and offering quality, long-lasting products.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also offer personalization to make each product uniquely yours. We believe in making products that will last you a lifetime, that is why we have resorted to using 100 percent vegetable-tanned leather and quality hardware materials,\u201d Tendani tells Voice Money.<\/p>\n

Having made a leather tote bag for Mma Masisi, a gift commissioned by The Fields Mall, MKLA Africa\u2019s customer list includes a number of high-profile names.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have also done corporate branded products for entities such as Debswana, Botswana Insurance Limited Holdings (BIHL), Ministry of Finance, and SEZA just to mention a few.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the inevitable challenges, Tendani admits there are four that spring to mind immediately: financing, access to raw materials, capacity, and pricing competitiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a self-funded business, we do not always have funds to order raw materials in bulk so that can result in loss of business opportunities. With regards to pricing competitiveness, our products are not mass-produced and some of the leather products in the market are made from faux leather, which is cheaper than authentic leather. There is an expectation for our products to be priced the same, which puts us at a disadvantage as raw materials and manufacturing processes we use are not similar,\u201d she notes wryly.<\/p>\n

Tendani further points out Botswana has no leather tanneries and that it is costly to source leather outside the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe successful opening of Lobatse Leather Park will be of great help to us,\u201d she adds as a positive aside.<\/p>\n

Her outlook is similarly optimistic for MKLA Africa\u2019s future, as Tendani concludes, \u201cWe would like to have an active online store so that we offer our customers convenience while growing the brand locally and internationally. In addition, we also like to move to a bigger space so that we create employment for local artisans.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. Fresh from scooping the #PushaBW Award at last month\u2019s Global Expo Botswana, and counting the First Lady, Neo Masisi as a previous client, MKLA Africa are fast making their mark. Run by husband and wife duo, McFarlane and Tendani Sibanda, the business specialises in leather, expertly producing a variety of handmade products […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":18489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,244],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-18490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-to-homepage","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nLove For Leather - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fresh from scooping the #PushaBW Award at last month\u2019s Global Expo Botswana, and counting the First Lady, Neo Masisi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/love-for-leather\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Love For Leather\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fresh from scooping the #PushaBW Award at last month\u2019s Global Expo Botswana, and counting the First Lady, Neo Masisi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/love-for-leather\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-15T10:15:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-15T11:14:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1671086917.75.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/love-for-leather#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/love-for-leather\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Love For Leather\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-15T10:15:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-15T11:14:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/love-for-leather\"},\"wordCount\":504,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/love-for-leather#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1671086917.75.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/love-for-leather#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/love-for-leather\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/love-for-leather\",\"name\":\"Love For Leather - 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