How a Kenyan couple captured the Japanese market in Kenya, with Wangari Wachira
The East Africa Business Podcast: African Start ups | Investing | Entrepreneurship | Interviews
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Show Notes
Near to where I live in Nairobi is a Japanese cafe.
Whenever I've been the food has been delicious, and the small place is full of people from Japan, enjoying Ramen bowls and cold imported beer.
I thought it would be interesting to interview the owner to learn about how the business started.
It turns out that the owner Wangari and her husband have cornered down a niche market in the city.
Both were born and raised in Kenya, independently decided to learn Japanese as kids and ended up getting married after a mutual friend introduced them so they could connect on the shared love for Japan
Today they run a diverse portfolio of businesses to serve Japanese consumers in Kenya.
In the interview we discuss how their businesses came to be, the interplay of owning a safari company, supermarket, cafe and farm all geared towards the Japanese market, and practicalities of, for example, selling Bento boxes in Nairobi.
It's a really interesting example of finding a business area that's aligned with your personal interests and skill set, and then occupying that niche to very high standard.
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https://theeastafricabusinesspodcast.com/2019/09/19/how-a-kenyan-couple-captured-the-japanese-market-in-kenya-with-wangari-wachira/