“Well, we have now officially opened our first Jibu water franchise!
Even though we have been selling water unofficially since last week, the Grand Opening at our first Kampala, Uganda site yesterday went about as well as could be expected. Hundreds of people visited the shop and many bought water in all of our various bottle sizes.
Our site is in the very diverse Wandegeya neighborhood with a slum on one side, a university on the other and mostly middle class for the rest. Our tagline, “Pure Water. Perfect Price.” seems to fit because every person so far, regardless of means, has said that the water tasted good and was very affordable. We already even have a few return customers. We know that the real proof of success will be the consistency and growth of the business over time of course, but it feels like we are off to a very good start.
It is generally true in my experience that going from zero to one in business is pretty hard and this first launch has certainly been no exception. Especially with the many innovations we are introducing into the market. But hopefully the momentum we have gained and many things we have learned will make it easier as we attempt to go from one to five on this current trip.
The second site in Kampala will open next week. It is ready to go but we wanted to make sure we got the first launch right before doing the second. We are confident Alfred, our very competent partner here, will be able to accomplish this launch even without our presence in Kampala. Tomorrow we are off to Congo for two more launches hopefully and then to Rwanda for one more.
Thanks again for all of the support and rooting on you have done. There are a few pictures attached and many more will be posted on Facebook and Twitter in the days ahead which you can access from our website.
Gratefully,
Randy Welsch “
