Twiga Foods appoints new CEO

Twiga Foods appoints new CEO

Twiga Foods, a Kenyan-based start-up connecting smallholder farmers in rural areas to informal retail vendors in cities has appointed Peter Njonjo as its Chief Executive Officer.

Njonjo has been leading Coca-Cola West and Central Africa business unit as President. He takes over from his co-founder Grant Brooke, who retains his executive role in the organization, working with Njonjo to expand the start-up’s footprint into the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.

Launched in 2014 to address inefficiencies in Africa’s large, but highly fragmented informal fruit and vegetable markets, Twiga Foods is a mobile-based, cashless, business-to-business (B2B) supply platform that links farmers with food vendors.

Twiga has grown to work with over 17,000 farmers and 6,000 vendors in Kenya across 20 counties. The company initially started off matching vendors to banana farmers, but now works with other products such as tomatoes, cabbage, mango, potato, and onion. Farmers who sign up with Twiga receive a payment within 24 hours.

The company operates collection centers across the country, in addition to a central packhouse with cold storage facilities, and mobilized trucks and vans for swift collection and distribution of produce. The smooth logistics system limits Twiga’s post-harvest losses to five percent, as compared to 30 percent at informal markets, where farmers typically sell produce.

Twiga also lists products from many of Kenya’s leading Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) brands, as it moves towards offering a one-stop shop for urban kiosks, grocers, and mama mbogas.

Outgoing Twiga Foods CEO Grant Brooke said the platform has increased efficiency in the food supply chain, reduce waste, and lower food prices for end-consumers, scoring a major victory for food and nutrition security in Kenya.

“If my leadership was the period in which Twiga was proving a point that there’s a better way to build food safe and secure markets, Peter’s leadership will be about institutionalizing this way of doing business and scaling it. Peter’s experience in building efficient supply chains and last-mile distribution in over 33 African countries makes him uniquely suited to lead us,” said Brooke.

Njonjo said he looks forward to scaling up the company’s vision of more efficient food markets in Africa and improved food security for our people.

“Twiga Foods is living proof of the latent opportunity to drive agricultural transformation and investment for local consumption,” added Njonjo.

Through the Twiga Foods platform, a vendor can order stock, and the firm – backed by a logistics infrastructure that includes trucks, refrigerated warehouses, depots, and sales teams – is, by the next day, able to deliver a better, low-cost, quality product, compared to informal, broker-controlled markets.

Over the past five years, Twiga Foods has raised Sh3 billion to fund its expansion from tier-1 funds, including IFC Ventures, TLCom, Wamda Capital, DOB Equity, 1776 Ventures, Omidyar Networks, Blue Haven Initiative, and the Adolf H. Lundin Foundation, among others.

It was voted Most Promising Company of the Year at the 2018 Africa CEO Forum Awards in Abidjan, Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies 2018, and the Global Winner of the 1776 Challenge Cup.

“Starting new ventures is really my skill-set and passion, while proficiently running institutions is Peter’s skill-set and passion. Twiga has an aggressive growth plan and this transition leverages on our respective expertise,” said Brooke.

Inefficiencies in the supply chain have been blamed for high food prices in African cities, where close to 90 percent of the supply comes from informal retail outlets. Kenyans spend 45 percent of their disposable incomes on food, compared to 14 percent for South Africans and 10 percent for citizens of most European countries.

Who is Peter Njonjo?

Until his new appointment, Peter Njonjo was the President of The Coca-Cola Company’s West Africa business unit.

Prior to that, Njonjo was General Manager of the East Africa franchise. Since 2011, Njonjo led Coca-Cola’s franchise bottling system in East Africa, overseeing 13 bottling companies that directly employ more than 7,500 people across six countries.

In this role, he stewarded system investments of more than $1 billion over five years and led the restructuring of Coca-Cola’s route to market across East Africa to drive long-term sustainable growth.

He also led bottling mergers and acquisition activities across the region, including serving on the global team that created Africa’s largest Coca-Cola bottler – Coca-Cola Beverages Africa.

Prior to that role, Njonjo served as Coca-Cola’s Country Manager for Kenya from 2009 to 2011, overseeing activities for seven independent franchise companies.

During his 18-year Coca-Cola career, Njonjo also has served as Executive Assistant to the President of the East and Central Africa business unit; as the East and Central Africa business unit Planning Manager; and as Finance Manager for Coca-Cola’s leading juice supplier in Kenya, Beverage Service Kenya. He joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1998 as an accountant based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Njonjo is President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kenya and has been voted among the top 100 young leaders in Africa by Forbes Afrique and “Top 40 under 40” by The Business Daily in Kenya.

A native of Kenya, Njonjo holds a Masters of Business Administration in Strategic Management and a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business Administration from United States International University in Kenya. Njonjo is also a Certified Public Accountant.

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