SHE MEANS BUSINESS| Kenya’s flavoured tea pioneer – Flora Mutahi

Starting what is today known as Melvin Marsh International 30 years ago, Flora was the pioneer of free-flowing salt in Kenya.

She, however, admits that she quickly learnt that that the salt business was not going to be her ticket to financial success because of how cheap it was.

Flora quickly pivoted into the world of flavoured tea and is the pioneer of flavoured tea in Kenya, starting off with making tangawizi tea and diversifying into other flavours.

She aims to take Kenya to the globe when it comes to value addition, adding that she wants to see Kenyan tea of shelves around the globe rather than the country’s tea being exported for value addition outside the continent.

Flora launched the Scale Mastery programme, an accelerator programme to assist entrepreneurs—particularly women and youth—in transforming their stuck or stagnant businesses into structured, scalable, and profitable enterprises.

The program addresses common challenges faced by African entrepreneurs, such as limited access to finance, inadequate infrastructure, regulatory hurdles, and a lack of structured growth strategies.

Flora says, "Africa has one of the highest rates of entrepreneurship globally, with 22% of the working-age population engaged in early-stage businesses. About 58% of MSMEs in Africa are owned by women, yet many struggle to scale due to challenges like limited access to finance."

Watch this week's episode of She Means Business for more on Flora's journey.