Dairy farmer goes fizzy

NOT many Eastern Cape residents know that a popular South African soft drink is made right here in our province.

Visionary businessman Ken Clark is not only the founder and managing director of Twizza Soft Drinks, he is also the founder and owner of Crickley Dairy.

Both companies have factories in Queenstown, where Clark is based, and another Twizza factory is also operational in Middelburg, Mpumalanga.

Clark employs 540 people.

"To be a successful entrepreneur one does not necessarily have to be in the bright lights to go for it," says the humble businessman, explaining that Queenstown and Mpumalanga were the ideal geographical locations for the distribution of the dairy and soft drink products.

Clark said branching out into a carbonated soft drink line in 2003 was not such a strange move for a former dairy farmer who had been running Crickley Dairy for more than 30 years in a very difficult and competitive industry.

"I have a technical mind.

"I thrive on new technology and filling a bottle really is similar for both dairy and soft drinks – it is what you put into the bottle that is different.

"There were a number of similarities from a process point of view and both industries are hygiene intensive. We had an established customer base in the Border/Transkei region with the dairy and used this synergy to introduce the soft drinks into the market," Clark said.

Both companies have expanded their markets with Crickley's milk, yoghurt, amasi and juice now being sold in the entire Eastern Cape and Twizza soft drinks across Southern Africa.

The Mpumalanga plant covers the markets in the upper region of the country and selected neighbouring countries. Clark said about 80% of the distribution of both the dairy products and soft drinks are done internally and the rest are outsourced.

He stresses that Twizza products do not fall into the "cheap and nasty" category of soft drinks on the market but the focus has always been on producing affordable quality.

"We are passionate about making the best product we can make and the key to the secret of our success in the market is producing affordable quality soft drinks.

"Our factory in Mpumalanga is state-of-the-art and technologically probably one of the best in the country," Clark said.

Clark started Crickley Dairy in 1984 in Indwe and later moved the operations to Queenstown in 1996. His wife, Mary-Anne, had been involved in the business since the early days and their two sons, Robert and Noel, also work in the businesses. The couple's other two sons, Thomas and Lyle, are still qualifying in their various trades but Clark said both had showed interest in joining him once they gain suitable experience to inject the business with new ideas and thinking. - Cindy Preller