‘I was inspired by my passion for cooking’

Oluwafunmilola Shelika, chief executive, g&f’s smoked Edibles, a firm using smokehouse grilling method to produce healthy hygienic ready-to eat  livestock meat explains how she started the business in this interview with OLUYINKA ALAWODE.

Starting out

I started the business in 2009  with very little money though I used my savings from my last employment to get the machineries/equipment .

Products

Our products are smoked catfish,croacker,chicken , turkey and gizzard. They are all in bite sizes ready to eat and to be dropped in stews and soups

Uniqueness

I was inspired by my passion for cooking and also the need to meet a need for our working class mothers and ladies alike.  These women have to cook when they return home from work and often have to start boiling chicken at night to make stew or soup.

So my firm delivers oven fresh chicken meat and fish and they are prepared in a clean surrounding. It is healthy- no carcinogenic substance settling on it from smoke. As a result of our process of smoking, the chicken meat  is low in cholesterol, thereby very ideal for health-conscious people. We also cut the chicken in ready to eat sizes so that the person cooking would not have to spend time cutting.

Background

I have a degree in Marketing from Enugu State University. I worked at the then Oceanic Bank and later went into advertising, working with FCB Impact, a subsidiary of Centerspread FCB.

Challenge

Getting our products known in the face of so many other products in the market and distributorship are some of the main challenges.

Future prospects

Because we started small, now that the business is growing, we need to expand so we can meet our orders

Staffing

I currently work with temporary or part time staff for now and the number depends on how big the orders we have.

Advice to youths

Hard work pays and entrepreneurs should not despise the days of little beginnings.