During a recent visit to Malawi, we visited some of our growth programmes for an extensive interview with the entrepreneurs about their company, their lives and entrepreneurship in their country.

Richard Chirwa founded Fadeth Furnishers straight out of university, where he discovered his passion for entrepreneurship and decided he wanted to build a business for himself. Since then, Richard has founded several businesses, each of them intending to fill a gap on the Malawian market. Combating the Malawian importation problem, Richard and his Malawian team at Fadeth Furnishers create high-quality furniture and fittings, from tables and cabinets to sofas and banks, fulfilling a local need and putting the Malawian furniture market on the map from the heart of Blantyre. 

Part 1: Work

Can you tell us a bit more about Fadeth Furnishers?

Richard: As the name suggests, we're into furniture, making furniture and fittings. Our products range from fixed units, like kitchen units and partitions, to movable items. The movable items are categorized into joinery and upholstery. With joinery, we're looking at wooden finish products like banks and dining tables. With upholstery we're talking about padded items, like sofas.

How and when did Fadeth Furnishers start?

Richard: We've been around for thirteen years now and we've evolved from doing exterior and interior design into furniture. I started the business just after I left university. I was very interested in entrepreneurship and my plan was to start a business after graduating. I didn't really know exactly what type of business I would start, but I ended up doing furniture after I registered an interior design business and operated it for some time.

What inspired you to start this business?

Richard: There was a great need for furniture in the region. When we started, most Malawians were importing furniture, mainly Chinese products. You wouldn't find this type of furniture made in Malawi. So there was this gap on the market where customers would not find a nice, durable and international standard type of furniture. We came in to fill that gap. This brought so many advantages with it, because when you're importing, you have to deal with the forex issue, one of the main issues in Malawi. If you're buying locally, a client can just walk in with Malawian Kwacha and get what they want. The distance as well, shipping and dealing with freight containers is challenging. So if you can find something locally available, it's always better to buy it here than to have something imported from overseas. Then there's also the time factor. Sometimes when you're looking to buy something, you want it right there and then. If you're importing from China for example, you might have to wait for three to six months, sometimes even longer. We wanted to solve all these challenges for the Malawian market.

What are you most proud of achieving in these last thirteen years?

Richard: We have served big corporates in Malawi, including the government and big names in the private sector, but the one thing that I think we're most proud of is serving the individual Malawians that were struggling to get this type of furniture before we came into the picture. We've recently been nominated the best furniture supplier in the country, and these are not votes from the big corporates, but from individual Malawians. So that's what we're most proud of, serving the country.

Can you tell us a bit more about your ambitions and long term goals for Fadeth Furnishers?

Richard: Well, the main goal is to cut on the importation. We have quite a huge negative trade difference in Malawi because there's an appetite for importation in all sectors. We would really like to keep contributing to reducing this negative trade difference. If we don't start exporting, at least we should reduce importation so that we solve the serious forex problem that the country is facing. That's our priority. We want to make sure we meet all the furniture and fittings needs that Malawians have. From there on, we would like to go out there and through exportation leave a footprint on the Eastern and Southern African region.

Part 2: Exchange

With Exchange, you've worked on reaching the international standards you were talking about. Was this hard?

Richard: Not really. I must say with Exchange we are moving towards most of our goals. We’re already on the way, but with the programme we just had more insights, especially on the workshop setup. The Exchange volunteer that came in helped us with perfecting the workshop setup, making it more efficient. We now have four stations, which is standard for the number of our staff and the volume of our work. So we have improved on the efficiency, which is the main thing we have gained with the growth programme.

What has your experience with Exchange and your coach been like?

Richard: The most intense part of the whole programme was when our coach visited Malawi for about two weeks. It was quite intensive. He is an expert in woodwork and apart from looking at our workshop setup, he zoned in on the training and supervision of individual carpenters. We did a session on joints for example, where he looked at how our employees performed the work they already learned in technical colleges. There wasn’t anything new in terms of the technical issues, but there was a lot of advice on how to be more efficient in their work. We also stay in touch and are always in contact with him. If I have a question, especially on the aspect of machinery and tools, I go to him, because he's very experienced with these tools. He actually got me some tools I needed in Belgium and brought them here. We hope we'll keep learning more from him.

Looking forward, what is your next goal with Exchange?

Richard: Well, we've decided on several areas of need, which we reiterated in our reports after programme visits. It's usually up to the coach to decide what to focus on next, but our main focus has always been on the finishing. I think we're okay concerning the framework part of furniture construction. The finishing of wood is the area that not only for us, but for many players in Malawi is a challenge. It is something I think our counterparts in other countries are advanced at, so I would like to learn more about the science of wood finishing.

Part 3: Life

Can you tell us a bit more about yourself?

Richard: I'm really passionate about entrepreneurship and I also do youth mentoring, especially teaching them about entrepreneurship. I started this company just after I left college and I really wanted to do something of my own, for the sake of flexibility in terms of time schedules, but also the idea of getting as much out of your work as you put in. With employment it's different: you might work very hard in a particular month, but your salary will remain the same. It was really motivating for me to think that it's possible to earn as much as you are actually working. That's why I opted for entrepreneurship. 

Currently I've got a number of registered businesses. There's the furniture business, a business where we develop and build property for sale, and an enterprise that plants trees. That last one is a long-term type of business, because it takes ten to fifteen years for trees to be ready for harvest. Then I've got some other small businesses which are not really as active today.

I want to add that what I did in college is not the same as what I am doing now. I obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in statistics and demography, but I never did anything to do with carpentry in college. Some of the courses I followed, like project management, are very important to the things that we do now though, and have helped me deal with administration and operations. I've also done a lot of training on the job over the years, and I did a course in designing in Cairo, at Helwan University. As the lead designer for the business, I put this course to good use.

What inspires you in life?

Richard: Well, I'm a Christian and a very faithful person. I love meeting the needs of other people and I know running businesses is one of the ways to do just that. It's more than just accumulating and getting things for yourself; it's satisfying when you actually go out there and use business as a way of fulfilling a social responsibility. Even just meeting the needs of our customers is quite satisfying. The feedback you get always keeps you going.

Are there certain people you look up to as an entrepreneur?

Richard: There are many people in different areas. There are some that I look up to in terms of organization, or financial stability, or just solid advice. There are several people that I look up to and several organizations that we can learn a lot from. But at the end of the day, I want our brand to actually be one that people can look up to. I want people to say 'This is a Malawian brand that has accumulated a lot of wisdom from many people and it's a brand I look up to'.

If you have free time, how do you like to spend it?

Richard: I love nature and I love traveling. If I can be around trees and rivers the whole day, I wouldn't complain. We've got Zomba here in Malawi, and I was recently in Mauritius as well. It was lovely, especially the waterfalls. So the first thing from the top of my head, when you ask me what I want to do with my free time, would be to travel to a place abundant with nature, rivers, lakes, ocean, mountains. That's what I prefer.

Part 4: Entrepreneurship and Malawi

How do you look at entrepreneurship in Malawi? What do you think about the business climate?

Richard: First of all, in terms of location, Malawi is landlocked, meaning we don't have an ocean. This means we depend on surrounding countries. That makes it a bit more challenging when it comes to importing materials, equipment and machinery. But it's also an advantage, because the transportation by road is very good from here to other surrounding countries. In terms of the social economic environment, we have lovely people. The Malawians are very kind, they're very friendly, meaning it's easy to employ and maintain your staff, even though there are always people that you need to negotiate with. In terms of the economy, Malawi is one of the lowest on the charts in terms of GDP. But that's also an opportunity. Because it's an upcoming economy in full growth, we have a chance of being the leading furniture business in the country. There are opportunites, as long as you look for them.

How do you see this evolving throughout the next few years?

Richard: There's great opportunity, but unfortunately some of these things are dependent on governance. Every five years we change government, which brings about a lot of changes. We’re always hopeful that the upcoming government will maintain the existing good policies, while bringing in some new policies that are conducive to the businesses being run. But it's a challenge to continue the strategic plans that were set by the previous government.

What difference would you like to see the most?

Richard: At the moment we have just had the introduction of promotion of Malawian products, called Buy Malawi. This strategy has also been beefed up by the suspension of importation of items that can easily be found and produced locally, one of which being wooden furniture. These are some of the policies that we think are very important, not only to the growth of the furniture industry, but also for the economy at large. We are still facing forex shortages, and if we can promote our products, we're sure the situation can improve. As long as the new government can maintain these policies and even improve on them, we believe we will do better in the future.

What do you like most about Malawi?

Richard: I think the people. I love Malawian people. We live like one family. I can go out in the streets and ask anyone about pretty much anything, and they'll be very willing to assist. It's no wonder that Malawi's called the warm heart of Africa.