MADE IN KENYA: Local venture making carrier bags, cable clips and plastic chairs

In August 2017, Kenya banned the manufacture, sale, and use of single-use plastic carrier bags in a bid to stop pollution and environmental degradation. This is when Sarah and her team at Dawn Manufacturing ventured into carrier bags manufacturing. 

"The idea came that we can start producing the non-woven bags that were introduced into the market, so we started with a small machine and we gradually grew. Now we have 10 machines," says Sarah Ngare, the co-founder of New Dawn Manufacturing.

With addition of more machines, New Dawn now makes a wide range of products, using raw materials mostly sourced locally. Today they are manufacturing seats.

"We use the PC material. We acquire most of this material locally but there is some that we don’t have locally, so we have to import. We pour the PC material in our machine tank, already we’ve installed the molds. We have different molds depending on the seat you want to make. We give it four minutes, after which you get the seat. Our production capacity in a day is around 120 seats being that we work 8 hours and a seat takes four minutes," she explains.

Sarah says they make products targeting both households and institutions. 

"We have seats for kids, for events, for institutions and for churches. For the non-woven bags we target mama mbogas and all the markets around. For the cable clips we target plumbers and all fundis around. For the spoons, forks and knives we target hotels. The reception has been good, we’ve sold in different parts of the country," she adds.

Through this, New Dawn has created employment opportunities for locals in Ndeiya, and is contributing to Kenya’s economic growth. They plan to open more outlets in the country.

"Right now we have 30 employees, some came in trained, others we trained them here. In the near future we see New Dawn having more branches and also adding more products," she explains.