Winnie Lamani’s flame-grilled chicken with a special basting sauce keeps customers coming back for more so much so that the Orange Farm-born entrepreneur’s business is now expanding from a restaurant to an express supermarket. 

Named “The Shack” because of its unique container structure, the restaurant offers more than just delicious food to its customers. 

“I saw an opportunity to offer flame-grilled chicken in a formal way because we do a lot of chicken in the township but it’s always informal. We have things like chicken dust that is sold on the side of the road and I feel like the only formal chicken we find in the Orange Farm township is always southern fried chicken and I wanted to offer an alternative.

“I saw a gap and that’s how the business was born. We offer flame-grilled chicken that has our own flavour profile with our own sauces and spices, which makes it addictive because it tastes like no other,” the 36-year-old former retail worker told Sowetan.

And now that Lamani’s business, which she opened in August 2022 has found its feet in the market, she is in the process of building an express supermarket that will sell convenient items to her customers. 

“For any entrepreneur you need to spread your business out because firstly it makes better financial sense and secondly it will allow me to employ more people in addition to the eight permanent staff members that I already have.

“The express supermarket will also be convenient to our customers because we are open till late, and they can still come to get good quality items they need without the pressure of time,” she adds while showing Sowetan the space that is already furnished with shelves, fruit, veggies and egg racks as well as fridges for beverages and meat. 

“We just need to add two till registers and are waiting for a few more items from our supplier and then we’ll be good to go,” she proudly says. 

Although Lamani’s business is now booming, she does admit that the road from having a business idea to execution was not easy. 

“After having the idea of opening the flame-grilled chicken restaurant, I started to obsess over it and did a lot of research about how the chicken must be cooked, who will supply it, how to serve it fresh all the time and how to train staff, and all of that. I’d learn so much and would stay up in the mornings and would ask people who had walked this path before.

“I hit a lot of brick walls with people saying no to me, but because of passion I kept going,” she said,  adding that funding was a major challenge she faced. 

“The biggest challenge for me was finances because I started with nothing. Before that my husband and I had ventured into buying into supermarkets and petrol stations but that did not go well, and we lost everything we had. So, getting funding was a challenge and banks were not interested in assisting me because I had no security. I tried to get help from the banks for two years with no luck,” she recalls.

However, in 2021, she discovered strategic creative marketing agency Empowaworx that assists with connecting aspiring entrepreneurs to opportunities with the correct stakeholders.

Lamani had finally reached a breakthrough.

“Things turned around for me when I started working with Empowaworx. I hadn’t known much about government initiatives and always thought they were too much work and I wouldn’t get anywhere. But when I went to Empowaworx, I sat there and saw that there were people there who were decision makers and would receive my application.

“That gave me a one-on-one opportunity to meet with the decision makers who would assist me and open doors for me,” she reveals.

“I met with the MEC [economic development MEC Parks Tau] and put the application through and they agreed to take a risk on me. For me that was a game changer because I’m here today.” 

Lamani encourages entrepreneurs to explore government initiatives. 

“It’s not easy because the list of requirements is long and just keeps going. But if you know what is expected from you, it’s doable. All you need is to have knowledge about different aspects of your business,” she said. 

While issues such as constant power outages and the lack of basic services such as water affect Lamani’s business, she is keeping her head high and has big plans for The Shack. 

“What’s next is expansion. We know the concept works and we’ve mastered consistency, so all we need to do now is build more franchises and multiply,” she says. 

magadlam@sowetan.co.za