Easter Kojwang is the visionary behind Eastnat, a thriving enterprise that was born in August 2015. At the time, Easter had been unemployed for several months and had just moved to Nairobi from Eldoret. Despite finding work with two different companies in a matter of months, she realized that employment was not her calling. Instead, she took a leap of faith and started her own business with just Sh9,000 as capital. Today, Eastnat delivers honey worth millions of shillings to various companies and is considered a big player in the industry.
Early Entrepreneurial Ventures
Easter had always been business-minded, even while she was in college pursuing a degree in Tourism and Hospitality Administration at Moi University. During this time, she sold smokies in the evenings and managed to make at least Sh1000 a day. She soon expanded her business by securing a location closer to the lecture halls, where she started selling juice, smokies, smokie dogs, pilau, chapati, and other food items to her fellow students and teachers.
Savannah Foods and Beyond
After completing her studies, Easter opened a small eatery called Savannah, where she continued to sell food. However, her prices were considered a bit steep by some, who preferred to buy from street vendors. This eventually led to the downfall of her business, forcing her to close shop and move to Nairobi to stay with her grandmother in the village.
During her time in the village, Easter was sent to harvest peanuts and it was here that she came up with the idea to start a peanut butter business. With her savings depleted and only Sh9,000 left, Easter got to work on making peanut butter on a larger scale. She marketed her product in Operation Free Pot Belly, a Facebook group she was a member of, and soon sold out.
Customers then started to ask if she sold anything else, like honey. This reminded Easter of her dream in college to sell honey. She had once purchased 5 liters of honey from a farmer and all her friends wanted it, but when she ran out she could not find the farmer again. This led her to believe that honey was a highly marketable product.
During one of her peanut butter deliveries, she met a vendor selling honey and bought ten kilograms on credit. Within two days, she sold it all and went back for 30 kg, which sold out in a week. From there, she continued to expand her business and today she provides thousands of people and institutions with her products. It took her a year of sales to save up enough money for a good location, during which time she continued to hawk her products elsewhere and even met customers at hen inns to sell her goods.
Expansion and Growth
Today, Eastnat has expanded beyond honey and peanut butter to include a variety of whole foods such as sea moss, propolis, charcoal masks, and activated charcoal. Easter believes her business is a one-stop-shop for healthy foods and has products to help with skin, digestive, joint, hormonal issues, and boosting immunity.
In a previous YouTube interview with Ken’s Money Matters, Easter revealed that she had delivered orders worth over Sh2 million to various institutions. Her very first large order was worth Sh1.2 million and, at the time, she had never delivered that much honey. This did not stop her from rising to the challenge and expanding her brand.
Easter’s vision is to grow her brand to the point where she has outlets across the capital and can be found in major retailers.
