First we eat, then we do everything else. Food as always been a life saver till the days of Adam. But good food that gives you “foodgarsm” is everything. One traditional African sauce that is no respecter of tribe, location and class is shito. The local sauce is one savior and a universal companion when it comes to our local dishes.

Ms Phoebe Pappoe a young entrepreneur and a PR specialist by profession is the brain behind Aroma One Pepper Sauce.

Background

Phoebe is a young Ghanaian lady who gained her high school education in Ghanata Senior High school. After completion, she earned a Bachelor’s degree in communication studies (with a specialization in Public Relation) at the Ghana Institute of Journalism in the year.

The desire for cooking started way back. Growing up in a family where everyone seemed like a talented cook irrespective of the gender, Phoebe knew she was going to follow the family trend and fortuitously she chose to start a business by selling the African Black hot sauce, shito.

Back in Ghanata, Phoebe used to prepare her own shito to school and everyone loved her shito. There was absolutely no day would she open the bottle with no one coming around to ask for a spoon or even just a taste of it. Based on her family’s line and zeal in cooking, she knew even if she wasn’t going to do anything major in cooking, one day she will start a business that runs along the food line. And here she is today, started her own shito business.

The Journey

The whole SHS scenario grew into a business idea when she was in Tertiary, level 300. She thought of having a side business outside schooling and no better option came to mind than her tasty shito back in high school. There, she begun production. She started in small quantities and sold only to friends. Because of the tight student budget, most friends were reluctant to commit money to own a bottle but loved to eat it. That never discouraged her, she kept pushing it on them and gradually sold outside of her circle.

Most of her new customers were from referrals and that feedback from customers kept the infant business growing.

After school, she paused her business as her job wasn’t giving her much time. It took a while to balance work with her personal business but after a year, she begun production again. This time, she gave the business a name - Aroma One, designed a logo, gave it its unique packaging and after a while, added other branding elements like a delivery bag etc. After the branding, Aroma One gained more attention and recognition. Most old customers and social media publicity contributed to this prodigious success.

She started making the shito based on popular preference hence prepared her shito in different varieties. She had different protein content, being beef and herrings and also packaged it in 3 various sizes to cater for individual and family use.

People traveling oversees started ordering which led to creating the dehydrated version of her shito. This new form increased the life span of the shito for over 12 months and that led to the export of Aroma Shito. Both expats and locals ordered and this augmented the drive and boosted the sales.

How she attracts new client

“I must give a big shout out to my existing customers. They are definitely responsible for the growth so far. The word of mouth from my customers contribute to about 70% of my success and new most of the new businesses. I can recall I entered a pharmacy close to my work place and the pharmacist said 'I heard you make very tasty shito, can you bring me one on Monday’ and that is how it mostly is for me',” she said.

She also added that, she attributes the other percentage to digital marketing as she usually posts on her whatsapp status and also other social media platforms like instagram and facebook and that she said has generated much sales.

Challenges

My greatest challenge is with the cost of delivery. Customers feel the cost involved in delivering the shito is almost the cost of the shito hence do complain. Dispatch riders available take an exorbitant amount despite the weight or size of the product to be delivered. Another challenge she recounted was the ready available market for exporting the product in large quantities.

Her unique selling point

For Aroma One, judging from the name of the brand, she attributed her uniqueness to her taste. Unwilling to share her secret recipe, she admitted her consistent taste set her apart from all the other. She said: “Most shito makers do not have very desirable taste yet, prices are very exorbitant prices.” I hold my customers in high esteem hence the conscious effort to provide value for money with my shito in terms of taste, quantity and quality.”

Vision

The future looks very bright for Aroma One. Phoebe is looking at stuffing huge supermarkets and Marts with her tasty shito across the country. Also, she wants to increase her export quantities and capacities. Shito is loved by both locals and foreigners so she finds a fruitful opportunity to get the Ghanaian made- black hot sauce to the world. In the future, Phoebe has a vision beyond just Shito. That, she calls Aroma One Foods.