Veronica Nyakianda Gakio is the founder of Ankole luxury that deals in the designing and manufacturing of bespoke handmade jewellery, accessories which include but not limited to necklaces, earrings, bangles, pendants, cufflinks and candle holders.
Each piece has been handcrafted by a small dedicated team of highly experienced local artisans using repurposed horn, brass and stones.
Ankole Luxury also deals with the design and manufacturing of leather bags. As a brand, Ankole Luxury supports, empowers and works with local artisans for all their production.
Veronica actively volunteers in two organizations, Andy Speaks for Special Needs Persons and DTSK (Differently Talented Society of Kenya) which advocates, creates awareness and provides psychosocial-support to parents of children on the autism spectrum.
During the week, Today Africa had a chat with Veronica where she shared her journey as an entrepreneur. Read the conversation below.
Tell Us More About Yourself
My name is Veronica Gakio. I’m the founder of Ankole Luxury. Ankole Luxury is a brand that makes jeweleries using cow horn, brass and semi-precious stones, as well as crocheted bags. For the crocheted bags, we’ve partnered with a group of women, several groups of women who work in the rural communities who make our bags and then we do value addition using leather finishing. Maybe we didn’t handle it.
What Inspired You to Start Ankole Luxury? How Did You Come Up With the Idea of Using Horn, Brass, and Stones for Your Jewelry and Accessories?
I’ve always been a person who likes unique things, especially jewellery. So when I was a teenager, I’d just buy the normal Chinese jewellery being sold. And then I’d always walk around, I’d change things here and there so that I have something very unique.
So when I came to know that horn can be used to make jewellery, I decided to open my own brand, which focuses a lot on custom-made jewellery. And we also don’t do mass production. We do a certain number of items, especially for our B2C clients, so that they can also have that feel of having unique items that they’re wearing.
Can You Give us the Estimate of the Amount of Money You Used in Starting Your Business and What Areas of the Business You Used For?
I started with around, I think, almost 300,000 Kenya shillings. So how I used the money is I built a website, then I did production of my first line. It involved a lot because to get the items on the website, I also had to do professional photography. That’s how I used that money.
Could You Share a Specific Challenge You Have Faced While Establishing Ankole Luxury and How Did You Overcome It?
Challenge is trying to get people to understand that horn jewellery is actually very unique, very bespoke items, because I don’t know about other countries but I know in East African countries, people relate horn to something that has been trashed so it should not be something that’s expensive.
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While we are trying to educate people and even having videos on our platform, social media platforms, trying to show people that by the time the horn gets to that small piece that’s on your jewellery, it’s quite a huge process. Because we cut the horn, we boil the horn, we flatten the horn.
Then we start tracing to suit the shape you want. So it takes a whole lot to get a small piece from that big, large horn. So people have been starting to understand it and actually starting to appreciate them. Africans are starting to appreciate our jewellery more than the white clients.
How Do You Ensure Fair Wages and Ethical Working Conditions for the Artisans and the Women Groups You Work With?
I pay them fair wages because whenever there’s a new collection for the jewellery, I sit down with the artisans because these are not in my workshop. They are people I outsource, but there are particular people I work with.
So we sit down and discuss this new design that I’m making, how much they feel is fair to them to charge me, not to overprice me. But to always take into consideration that I’m also in business. And we’ve been working quite well. So we always sit down and discuss the amount we both agree on.
And everybody is happy, both them and me. When it comes to the women, they already have their set prices. If they make this particular bag this size, this is the amount of money I’ll give the woman. So it’s something that we sit down and discuss. So it’s fair for both teams.
Can You Share With Me the Time You Have Failed in Business and How You Moved On?
I started my business in November 2019. And just a few months later, COVID came. So I had not done much. Remember, I started in November, the whole part of production, and there were quite a number of items. So by the time we finished, and then the photography, the website was almost ready in January.
Then COVID came. So I could not do business. So I was stuck with these items. I’ve spent my savings of 300,000 Kenya shillings and I’ve got nobody to sell to. 2020, I was not doing any business. I cannot say I was in business as much as I was in business. So I almost gave up. Then even two of my friends were encouraging me. In 2012, I started doing it, but slowly selling to friends, trying to get rid of the stock that I had made.
Then when I realized people are starting to know about my brand, sometimes like, for example, early last year, I’d go to these workshops and people would say, oh, you’re Ankole Luxury. I saw your item with someone and I love your product. So I started now realizing that people have recognized my brand and I now need to really put my all back into it.
How Do You Ensure That Your Manufacturing Process Aligns with Environmentally Friendly Practice?
I believe as much as we are buying the horn that it’s no longer being picked from where it used to be discarded. I believe the fact that now we started using horn, not just me, but other brands started using horn, it helped with cleaning the environment.
Because horn became an important commodity. So it’s no longer trash, but it’s treasure. So Ankole and other brands using horn have made it to be more of a treasure. Hence now it’s no longer polluting the environment as it was before. Then when it comes to brass, we always try to use as much as possible unless pieces that are not good, but we use recycled brass.
We go to these big factories and you know, they’re small pieces that they’re not using. We buy from them so that they don’t just discard them in the environment. Then when it comes to packaging, whenever I have to involve anyone to do our boxes.
I have to hear their story. They have to let me understand where they get their boxes, because if they’re not environmentally friendly, I can’t use them. So the packaging we are using right now is used from recycled paper from Tanzania. So, we try to use as many sustainable materials as possible.
Have You Been Funded Before? And How Did You Raise Your Fund If You Have Been Funded Before?
No, I’ve never been funded. And so far I’ve not applied for any funding. For now I’m self-funding my business.
Could You Elaborate How Partnerships with Local Artisans and Women Groups Contribute to Brand Success and Social Impacts?
From the success stories we’ve heard from our partners, both the women and the artisans. It is through us giving them work, they are able to be able to feed their families, they are able to educate their children. So that collaboration or partnership works very well because it’s a win-win for both parties.
And then we also collaborate with other brands, like we do leather items, but we don’t make it ourselves. So we work with a company that does all the parts from A to Z for our leather bags, because we do leather bags. So we felt like instead of me also doing the same thing that my friend is doing, why not collaborate with her?
Just give her a design. This is the kind of bag I want. This is the kind of leather belt I want. And then she does it for me. So I feel like collaborations and partnership is what we need to enhance more. And it’s going to benefit at the end of the day.
What Marketing Strategies Have You Used to Attract and Retain Customers for Your Brand?
I’ve been more focused on paid posts and ads on social media. So that has already given us so many clients, even not only in Kenya, but even in the US, regionally and in other countries. Just by the fact that we do the paid posts, we try to do as many as possible so that we can reach a wider audience. And it’s been working for us.
Because now whenever I’ve been doing feedback from our clients, whenever someone approaches me, be it a B2C or a B2B, I’ve always been asking them, where did you get to know about us?
And they’ve been telling us, I’ve been interested in buying things from Africa. And then your page just popped up when I was scrolling my Facebook or my Instagram. I decided to read more about the brand and I liked what I saw. That’s why I want to buy products from you.
Click to read part two of this interview with Veronica Nyakianda.
