Raymond Chimhandamba, Handas Consulting03.01.20
The natural hair care movement is alive and well in South Africa (see Out of Africa). But convincing consumers to make the switch from relaxers and other chemical solutions is not always easy. Experts note one of the biggest issues in growing the sector has been education. Many women who've relaxed their hair since childhood struggle with a steep learning curve when switching from straightened hair to their natural texture.
According to Candice Thurston, founder of Candi&Co, a salon franchise targeted at black women, women still deal with the scalp burns from relaxers, damaged hair caused by tightly installed braids.
“So many women I meet don't believe their own hair can be beautiful," she explained.
To move the South African industry forward, Thurston is educating hair stylists through an academy.
"There are stylists who don't believe you can blow-dry afro-textured hair without relaxing it first," she noted.
Over and above this education gap, there was also a product and services gap. In 2016, L'Oreal, the market leader in the hair care sector in South Africa, launched a specifically formulated Dark and Lovely Au Naturale range. Retailers such as Clicks and Massmart have invested heavily in the natural hair care category and expanded shelf space for home-grown and international hair care brands. P&G's has re-formulated its Head and Shoulders brand to meet the concerns of women with afro-textured hair called Heads and Shoulders African Scalp. Still, one of the major challenges faced by the natural hair care industry in South Africa is the pricing model.
"South African women are tough to move. For years, cheap product has been the benchmark and people have a hard time going from paying R40 (about $2.79 at current exchange rates) for a shampoo to paying R120 ($8.36)," said Carice Anderson, an African-American living in Johannesburg, who is a popular columnist and commentator on all things natural hair. “Natural hair products are generally made from higher quality ingredients, unlike the cheaper petro-chemical based options. This price inconsistency and misalignment extended to the services sector as well.”
According to Thurston, competition is fierce.
“It's difficult to change that mind-set when women have become used to paying R200 ($13.93) for braids done downtown. But it's also about professionalizing our industry and making sure we can pay stylists well for their time."
She adds that for the industry and investors, there is a big knowledge gap that exists, especially since relaxer sales are still significant.
"We deal with conversations in boardrooms where people wonder whether our target audience exists, or whether this is a passing trend,” said Gill. “We've had to convince funders that the market is active, willing to spend and discerning about the product they use."
The natural hair care industry is worth billions in rands in potential. The Perfect Hair is now available in 20 Edgars stores in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. Candi&Co is growing and has expanded to seven franchises. South African Huffington Post mentions that, “Adore Hair and Beauty raised R70,000 (nearly $5,000) in funding on Go Fund Me in one month. While consumer confidence has dropped and apparel figures have declined, the Lipstick Index has accounted for a stable demand in the cosmetics, fragrances, hair and beauty sectors.”
As Euromonitor Sees It
Dry shampoo is a small but growing niche market in South Africa, according to Euromonitor International. In some drought-stricken areas, where water rationing is the order of the day, consumers have been forced to consider dry shampoo as an option.
In 2018, Procter & Gamble retained its market leadership of hair care in the South African market despite ongoing losses in valueshare. L'Oréal South Africa was a close second. According to the same report, Amka Products (Pty) Ltd, an ethnic haircare market player, was the No. 3 player, with a growing grip on ethnic hair care. The company has historically catered primarily for African hair and dominates perms and relaxants. It will be interesting to see how Amka embraces growing demand natural hair.
The category is likely to become fragmented, with the emergence of locally-manufactured brands that are sold mostly through informal channels such as social platforms, according to Euromonitor. Furthermore, locally-manufactured products using natural ingredients and produced on a smaller scale are likely to gain in popularity. In my opinion, natural ingredients offering higher quality at higher price points, will also grow and create the long-awaited premiumization of the segment.
Euromonitor concedes that the sector has remained resilient despite the sluggish economy. In line with the growing e-commerce trend, beauty products, including hair care, have a growing online presence. In these tough times, in the lower segments of the consumer markets, economy brands are faring better than the premium offerings, for very logical reasons. Manufacturers are also using packaging formats to offer savings to consumers.
Clicks Supports the Natural Hair Movement
Clicks organized a hair expo in 2018, in Johannesburg and in Cape Town. The event featured about 30 stands advertising local and international products stocked by South Africa’s largest drugstore chain. The event included talks on how to care for natural hair. The array of products included budding local product lines to American brands that South Africans have long coveted via social media and natural hair blogs. In other words, the event was clearly a move by Clicks to advertise its new stock. The event affirmed Clicks commitment to the natural trend.
Mintel’s researchers agree.
Tonya Roberts, a multicultural analyst at Mintel said, “Our research indicates that wearing their natural hair makes black women feel liberated, confident, and different from others, giving them a tremendous sense of pride in being black while displaying their natural beauty.”
At the event, natural hair experts addressed crowds on stage and took one-on-one questions from individuals at the stalls. Lynsey Chutel, a writer for Quartz Africa magazine, who attended the event, said she received invaluable life-changing advice about her hair from Celebrity Hairstylist Stacey Ciceron who, as a woman of mixed racial heritage with two different hair textures, on how to keep both of them healthy.
Interestingly, visitors were not able to make any product purchases at the event. According to Chutel, the expo was a smart way to drive customers to Clicks branches nationwide and create loyalty among a growing market segment. Clicks commenced stocking a natural hair line in 2014 but in the past year, the business has rapidly increased stock levels, driven by “a huge demand for natural hair products in South Africa,” says Ester Appels, the manager of ethnic hair for the Clicks Group. “We recognized the gap and have over the past few years made huge efforts to source the best of local and international natural hair brands for our customers.”
Natural Hair Movement Gains Momentum
The weekend-long event did not just acknowledge the hair care needs of women of color. After years of pacing up and down drugstore aisles and frustrated by the limited number of products available for natural black hair, it affirmed very clearly that the country’s 25 million women of color, a segment of the South African market that has long been ignored, were finally worth investing in.
Also attending the event was Janine Jellars, a journalist, editor, podcast host and author of the The Natural Newbie Guide, who observed, “The fact that we spent years in a majority black country with a only one small shelf dedicated to so-called ‘ethnic’ hair is farcical. We’re seeing progress now, but I think this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are so many niches and concerns that still aren’t being catered to.”
In hair care, the term “transitioning” refers to when women of color move from chemically straightened hair to natural. Chutel explained it’s a very personal process that requires patience to grow out straightened hair or cut it off in what some call “the big chop.” It comes with a psychological shift very much akin to reclaiming one’s power that comes with wearing natural hair in spaces like the office or the classroom, which have traditionally branded such hairstyles as unruly, unprofessional, or in some cases, downright unacceptable.
Jellars says that it is a steep learning curve for women who’ve spent most of their lives relaxing their hair. Her book gives a step-by-step guide on how to go from chemically straightened hair to natural. It is a learning curve that the hair care industry and retailers like Clicks want to join. More women are joining an international movement that demands products that nourish the diverse coils, springs, and waves of afros in all their forms instead of destroying them.
Driven by the lack of products for afros, waves and curls, Mahisha Dellinger launched Curls 16 years ago in the US. Today, it’s distributed nationwide in several major retail outlets.
“All the experts or the people in the industry assumed it would be a fad. It’s been around now for all these years. It’s not a fad,” she said.
As more women choose to go natural, beauty industry giants want to build their own brands.
There is evidence that points to the fact that as more women choose to go natural, beauty industry giants now want to build their own brands. L’Oreal bought popular line Carol’s Daughter and Shea Moisture was acquired by Unilever.
“Now what you’re starting to see is the shift, especially in the advertising world with brands, when they hire a black woman, she has curly hair,” said Blogger Sequoia Blodgett.
According to Mintel, as Black consumers in the US embrace the natural hair movement, its impact is greatly shaping the US Black hair care market. New research reveals that sales of styling products now comprise 35% of Black hair care sales. Relaxers are projected to drop from the No. 2 spot within the Black hair care market, which also includes shampoo, conditioner and home hair color, to No. 4 this year. While Clicks does not give official data, it confirms the same trends in their stores around southern Africa.
The Hair Dressing Industry in South Africa
According to a report by the South African government, the hairdressing and beauty industries are predominantly made up of small enterprises, where the owner/manager fulfils many roles in an increasingly competitive market. An estimated 73% of all businesses in the hairdressing sub-sector are Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, the hairdressing and beauty industries are characterized by low barriers to entry and high levels of competition, which also has the effect of driving down profit margins. No surprise, then, that the industry is also characterized by a high level of entries and exits. According to the same report, the hair care sub-sector is the second highest contributor to employment creation.
A study conducted by Cosmetics Europe (2016), found the European hairdressing industry is dominated by SMEs which employ, on average, five hairdressers. This is very similar to the South African hairdressing sector, which is also dominated by SMEs and micro-enterprises. Therefore it is a reasonable assumption that a similar number of hairdressers are employed in the formal salons in South Africa. One can therefore estimate the number of qualified hairdressers working in the formal hairdressing industry in South Africa to be approximately 31,685. We can also assume that another 4 or 5 individuals may be employed by the salon—such as a receptionist, a cleaner, and two to three assistants who wash customers’ hair and assist the hairdressers with other related tasks.
Based on these assumptions, it would be a fair estimate that formal salons in South Africa employ between 9 and 10 individuals. We can therefore estimate that the formal hairdressing industry in South Africa directly employs approximately 57,715 individuals. In the absence of any formal research on this sector, the estimates provided are currently the best that this study has been able to provide.
The industry is concerned about the apparent size and scope of informal employers and employees within the hair care sub-sector. A critical focus area is the skills development, with afro hair care being singled out as a key skill that is needed in the industry, according to this report by the Services SETA, South Africa, 2014. In addition, a study conducted by Gobile (2015) found that there is a gap in management qualifications among salon owners and managers. The study by the South African Government’s services SETA indicates that technical skills (such as creating hairstyles, applying color, cutting, perming and styling) were prioritized over actual management of the business or even business growth.
Hairdressers tend to be passionate about what they do, so there was a tendency to rely on their technical skills to make their businesses succeed. The salon owners also rely on staff with similar technical skills and will often ask suppliers for advice on managing their businesses or increasing their turnover. Consequently, it seems that hair salon owners may neglect the management side of the business, and instead tend to place more focus on their technical, creative side (Gobile, 2015). This indicates to me that suppliers to the SMEs that offer more services than just their products, are likely to succeed.
On a personal level, as a regional key account manager sub-Saharan Africa for a cosmetic raw materials supplier, I observed similar trends. Instead of simply proposing a perfume to a small to medium size customer in the region, I would also bring formulations of pearly shampoos to the customer, which were very useful to them because they did not have the capacity to formulate in-house. Even if they did, it took them longer create it. It is important to note that pearly shampoos were in vogue at the time. By selling other services from other related suppliers, I was able to add more value to my customer and achieve more sales. Proving yet again the power of collaboration.
In fact one medium size customer of mine in West Africa, who manufactured shampoos and lotions, would take my perfume samples and drop them on the hot coals as he smoked his hubbly bubbly (hookah) and smell the air to see how long it took for the fragrance to disappear. He called it the test by fire. I am not sure how scientific it was but he actually selected his candidates that way and I would make my sale. And as a small business, he certainly used to find the formulations that I shared very useful.
ResearchAndMarkets.com notes there has been an increase in the number of startups that cater for niche markets such as natural products or ethnic personal care products. The industry offers great scope for SMMEs in line with the growing demand for affordable home and personal care products, as the manufacture of products on a small-scale is a relatively simple process. Manufacturers also have the opportunity to make private label products, which are steadily making inroads. Stakeholders believe that small-scale entrepreneurs can compete effectively if they provide superior customer service, serve a specific local community, or cater for the needs of a specialized niche market.
Mordor Intelligence predicts the South African cosmetic and personal care market will top $6.1 billion by 2024, representing a CAGR of 9.9%. That estimate is in contrast to recent economic uncertainty in the country, where the GDP grow rate has fallen from nearly 3.3% in 2011 to 0.8% in 2018, according to Mordor.
Despite economic hardships, there is room for growth, especially for products that tout “free-from” claims, according to experts.
“Social media marketing, through beauty blogs that review and warn against harmful products containing sulphates, parabens and other damaging chemicals. are increasingly popular, further impacting the sales of products. Consumers’ increased awareness means they are now looking for styling products that last longer but are also free from harmful chemicals, resulting in a number of products being phased out.”
No surprise, then, that E-commerce is flourishing due to increased online availability of desirable products with all the desired properties, according to a PwC report.
About the Author
Raymond Chimhandamba is founder and director of Handas Consulting (Pty) Ltd. He has 20 years’ experience in the FMCG sector in Africa region and experience in launching and building FMCG cosmetic and personal care brands in Africa. Chimhandamba is an internationally published FMCG expert and a thought leader in the hygiene sector in Africa, an international speaker and a mobile tech enthusiast. He is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Contact him at ray@raychimhandamba.com
According to Candice Thurston, founder of Candi&Co, a salon franchise targeted at black women, women still deal with the scalp burns from relaxers, damaged hair caused by tightly installed braids.
“So many women I meet don't believe their own hair can be beautiful," she explained.
To move the South African industry forward, Thurston is educating hair stylists through an academy.
"There are stylists who don't believe you can blow-dry afro-textured hair without relaxing it first," she noted.
Over and above this education gap, there was also a product and services gap. In 2016, L'Oreal, the market leader in the hair care sector in South Africa, launched a specifically formulated Dark and Lovely Au Naturale range. Retailers such as Clicks and Massmart have invested heavily in the natural hair care category and expanded shelf space for home-grown and international hair care brands. P&G's has re-formulated its Head and Shoulders brand to meet the concerns of women with afro-textured hair called Heads and Shoulders African Scalp. Still, one of the major challenges faced by the natural hair care industry in South Africa is the pricing model.
"South African women are tough to move. For years, cheap product has been the benchmark and people have a hard time going from paying R40 (about $2.79 at current exchange rates) for a shampoo to paying R120 ($8.36)," said Carice Anderson, an African-American living in Johannesburg, who is a popular columnist and commentator on all things natural hair. “Natural hair products are generally made from higher quality ingredients, unlike the cheaper petro-chemical based options. This price inconsistency and misalignment extended to the services sector as well.”
According to Thurston, competition is fierce.
“It's difficult to change that mind-set when women have become used to paying R200 ($13.93) for braids done downtown. But it's also about professionalizing our industry and making sure we can pay stylists well for their time."
She adds that for the industry and investors, there is a big knowledge gap that exists, especially since relaxer sales are still significant.
"We deal with conversations in boardrooms where people wonder whether our target audience exists, or whether this is a passing trend,” said Gill. “We've had to convince funders that the market is active, willing to spend and discerning about the product they use."
The natural hair care industry is worth billions in rands in potential. The Perfect Hair is now available in 20 Edgars stores in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. Candi&Co is growing and has expanded to seven franchises. South African Huffington Post mentions that, “Adore Hair and Beauty raised R70,000 (nearly $5,000) in funding on Go Fund Me in one month. While consumer confidence has dropped and apparel figures have declined, the Lipstick Index has accounted for a stable demand in the cosmetics, fragrances, hair and beauty sectors.”
As Euromonitor Sees It
Dry shampoo is a small but growing niche market in South Africa, according to Euromonitor International. In some drought-stricken areas, where water rationing is the order of the day, consumers have been forced to consider dry shampoo as an option.
In 2018, Procter & Gamble retained its market leadership of hair care in the South African market despite ongoing losses in valueshare. L'Oréal South Africa was a close second. According to the same report, Amka Products (Pty) Ltd, an ethnic haircare market player, was the No. 3 player, with a growing grip on ethnic hair care. The company has historically catered primarily for African hair and dominates perms and relaxants. It will be interesting to see how Amka embraces growing demand natural hair.
The category is likely to become fragmented, with the emergence of locally-manufactured brands that are sold mostly through informal channels such as social platforms, according to Euromonitor. Furthermore, locally-manufactured products using natural ingredients and produced on a smaller scale are likely to gain in popularity. In my opinion, natural ingredients offering higher quality at higher price points, will also grow and create the long-awaited premiumization of the segment.
Euromonitor concedes that the sector has remained resilient despite the sluggish economy. In line with the growing e-commerce trend, beauty products, including hair care, have a growing online presence. In these tough times, in the lower segments of the consumer markets, economy brands are faring better than the premium offerings, for very logical reasons. Manufacturers are also using packaging formats to offer savings to consumers.
Clicks Supports the Natural Hair Movement
Clicks organized a hair expo in 2018, in Johannesburg and in Cape Town. The event featured about 30 stands advertising local and international products stocked by South Africa’s largest drugstore chain. The event included talks on how to care for natural hair. The array of products included budding local product lines to American brands that South Africans have long coveted via social media and natural hair blogs. In other words, the event was clearly a move by Clicks to advertise its new stock. The event affirmed Clicks commitment to the natural trend.
Mintel’s researchers agree.
Tonya Roberts, a multicultural analyst at Mintel said, “Our research indicates that wearing their natural hair makes black women feel liberated, confident, and different from others, giving them a tremendous sense of pride in being black while displaying their natural beauty.”
At the event, natural hair experts addressed crowds on stage and took one-on-one questions from individuals at the stalls. Lynsey Chutel, a writer for Quartz Africa magazine, who attended the event, said she received invaluable life-changing advice about her hair from Celebrity Hairstylist Stacey Ciceron who, as a woman of mixed racial heritage with two different hair textures, on how to keep both of them healthy.
Interestingly, visitors were not able to make any product purchases at the event. According to Chutel, the expo was a smart way to drive customers to Clicks branches nationwide and create loyalty among a growing market segment. Clicks commenced stocking a natural hair line in 2014 but in the past year, the business has rapidly increased stock levels, driven by “a huge demand for natural hair products in South Africa,” says Ester Appels, the manager of ethnic hair for the Clicks Group. “We recognized the gap and have over the past few years made huge efforts to source the best of local and international natural hair brands for our customers.”
Natural Hair Movement Gains Momentum
The weekend-long event did not just acknowledge the hair care needs of women of color. After years of pacing up and down drugstore aisles and frustrated by the limited number of products available for natural black hair, it affirmed very clearly that the country’s 25 million women of color, a segment of the South African market that has long been ignored, were finally worth investing in.
Also attending the event was Janine Jellars, a journalist, editor, podcast host and author of the The Natural Newbie Guide, who observed, “The fact that we spent years in a majority black country with a only one small shelf dedicated to so-called ‘ethnic’ hair is farcical. We’re seeing progress now, but I think this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are so many niches and concerns that still aren’t being catered to.”
In hair care, the term “transitioning” refers to when women of color move from chemically straightened hair to natural. Chutel explained it’s a very personal process that requires patience to grow out straightened hair or cut it off in what some call “the big chop.” It comes with a psychological shift very much akin to reclaiming one’s power that comes with wearing natural hair in spaces like the office or the classroom, which have traditionally branded such hairstyles as unruly, unprofessional, or in some cases, downright unacceptable.
Jellars says that it is a steep learning curve for women who’ve spent most of their lives relaxing their hair. Her book gives a step-by-step guide on how to go from chemically straightened hair to natural. It is a learning curve that the hair care industry and retailers like Clicks want to join. More women are joining an international movement that demands products that nourish the diverse coils, springs, and waves of afros in all their forms instead of destroying them.
Driven by the lack of products for afros, waves and curls, Mahisha Dellinger launched Curls 16 years ago in the US. Today, it’s distributed nationwide in several major retail outlets.
“All the experts or the people in the industry assumed it would be a fad. It’s been around now for all these years. It’s not a fad,” she said.
As more women choose to go natural, beauty industry giants want to build their own brands.
There is evidence that points to the fact that as more women choose to go natural, beauty industry giants now want to build their own brands. L’Oreal bought popular line Carol’s Daughter and Shea Moisture was acquired by Unilever.
“Now what you’re starting to see is the shift, especially in the advertising world with brands, when they hire a black woman, she has curly hair,” said Blogger Sequoia Blodgett.
According to Mintel, as Black consumers in the US embrace the natural hair movement, its impact is greatly shaping the US Black hair care market. New research reveals that sales of styling products now comprise 35% of Black hair care sales. Relaxers are projected to drop from the No. 2 spot within the Black hair care market, which also includes shampoo, conditioner and home hair color, to No. 4 this year. While Clicks does not give official data, it confirms the same trends in their stores around southern Africa.
The Hair Dressing Industry in South Africa
According to a report by the South African government, the hairdressing and beauty industries are predominantly made up of small enterprises, where the owner/manager fulfils many roles in an increasingly competitive market. An estimated 73% of all businesses in the hairdressing sub-sector are Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, the hairdressing and beauty industries are characterized by low barriers to entry and high levels of competition, which also has the effect of driving down profit margins. No surprise, then, that the industry is also characterized by a high level of entries and exits. According to the same report, the hair care sub-sector is the second highest contributor to employment creation.
A study conducted by Cosmetics Europe (2016), found the European hairdressing industry is dominated by SMEs which employ, on average, five hairdressers. This is very similar to the South African hairdressing sector, which is also dominated by SMEs and micro-enterprises. Therefore it is a reasonable assumption that a similar number of hairdressers are employed in the formal salons in South Africa. One can therefore estimate the number of qualified hairdressers working in the formal hairdressing industry in South Africa to be approximately 31,685. We can also assume that another 4 or 5 individuals may be employed by the salon—such as a receptionist, a cleaner, and two to three assistants who wash customers’ hair and assist the hairdressers with other related tasks.
Based on these assumptions, it would be a fair estimate that formal salons in South Africa employ between 9 and 10 individuals. We can therefore estimate that the formal hairdressing industry in South Africa directly employs approximately 57,715 individuals. In the absence of any formal research on this sector, the estimates provided are currently the best that this study has been able to provide.
The industry is concerned about the apparent size and scope of informal employers and employees within the hair care sub-sector. A critical focus area is the skills development, with afro hair care being singled out as a key skill that is needed in the industry, according to this report by the Services SETA, South Africa, 2014. In addition, a study conducted by Gobile (2015) found that there is a gap in management qualifications among salon owners and managers. The study by the South African Government’s services SETA indicates that technical skills (such as creating hairstyles, applying color, cutting, perming and styling) were prioritized over actual management of the business or even business growth.
Hairdressers tend to be passionate about what they do, so there was a tendency to rely on their technical skills to make their businesses succeed. The salon owners also rely on staff with similar technical skills and will often ask suppliers for advice on managing their businesses or increasing their turnover. Consequently, it seems that hair salon owners may neglect the management side of the business, and instead tend to place more focus on their technical, creative side (Gobile, 2015). This indicates to me that suppliers to the SMEs that offer more services than just their products, are likely to succeed.
On a personal level, as a regional key account manager sub-Saharan Africa for a cosmetic raw materials supplier, I observed similar trends. Instead of simply proposing a perfume to a small to medium size customer in the region, I would also bring formulations of pearly shampoos to the customer, which were very useful to them because they did not have the capacity to formulate in-house. Even if they did, it took them longer create it. It is important to note that pearly shampoos were in vogue at the time. By selling other services from other related suppliers, I was able to add more value to my customer and achieve more sales. Proving yet again the power of collaboration.
In fact one medium size customer of mine in West Africa, who manufactured shampoos and lotions, would take my perfume samples and drop them on the hot coals as he smoked his hubbly bubbly (hookah) and smell the air to see how long it took for the fragrance to disappear. He called it the test by fire. I am not sure how scientific it was but he actually selected his candidates that way and I would make my sale. And as a small business, he certainly used to find the formulations that I shared very useful.
ResearchAndMarkets.com notes there has been an increase in the number of startups that cater for niche markets such as natural products or ethnic personal care products. The industry offers great scope for SMMEs in line with the growing demand for affordable home and personal care products, as the manufacture of products on a small-scale is a relatively simple process. Manufacturers also have the opportunity to make private label products, which are steadily making inroads. Stakeholders believe that small-scale entrepreneurs can compete effectively if they provide superior customer service, serve a specific local community, or cater for the needs of a specialized niche market.
Mordor Intelligence predicts the South African cosmetic and personal care market will top $6.1 billion by 2024, representing a CAGR of 9.9%. That estimate is in contrast to recent economic uncertainty in the country, where the GDP grow rate has fallen from nearly 3.3% in 2011 to 0.8% in 2018, according to Mordor.
Despite economic hardships, there is room for growth, especially for products that tout “free-from” claims, according to experts.
“Social media marketing, through beauty blogs that review and warn against harmful products containing sulphates, parabens and other damaging chemicals. are increasingly popular, further impacting the sales of products. Consumers’ increased awareness means they are now looking for styling products that last longer but are also free from harmful chemicals, resulting in a number of products being phased out.”
No surprise, then, that E-commerce is flourishing due to increased online availability of desirable products with all the desired properties, according to a PwC report.
About the Author
Raymond Chimhandamba is founder and director of Handas Consulting (Pty) Ltd. He has 20 years’ experience in the FMCG sector in Africa region and experience in launching and building FMCG cosmetic and personal care brands in Africa. Chimhandamba is an internationally published FMCG expert and a thought leader in the hygiene sector in Africa, an international speaker and a mobile tech enthusiast. He is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Contact him at ray@raychimhandamba.com
