By Entrepreneur Sonto Pooe reveals how she founded Native Child, a cosmetics company that is taking Africa and the world by storm. Sonto Pooe has always been an entrepreneur at heart. For as long as she could remember, she would make clothes for her dolls. Soon enough she was making clothes for herself and her friends as a teen. She would also plait & braid hair on weekends free for family & for small pocket money for others – a skill she would need later in life.
Native Child was born in Sonto’s kitchen, where she would mix oils, testing a combination of herbs before sending them out to her family, her first test subjects. The very same family and friends assisted later in building a solid customer base. She said the name was inspired by the continent – “Being born African is not always easy in this world of polarization & discrimination and often we are seen as second best, so I wanted to create something that evoked a sense of pride and that we call our own. We manufacture our products locally using raw materials from Africa that are ethically sourced”. She is also passionate about health and combined her love of hair with health to create an ethical, plant-based brand that’s affordable to the masses.
She studied cosmetic science because she wanted to have insight on how to create the products by herself, and not to depend on outside sources. After noticing that the haircare market was flooded with chemical products, and that there was nothing that celebrated her natural kinks, it ignited her entrepreneurial spark to develop Native Child – a hair & body product line designed to represent a proud people of colour with strong roots. She launched the brand with her bestseller Hair-growth Castor Oil, which has found itself in the homes of millions of customers around the globe.
With no money to hire a designer, she created the look of her castor oil bottle on her computer using Microsoft Word. Once she got the prototype done, she sent it to the printers. She also created the first website herself after teaching herself how to do it. She initially sold the products online. This allowed the company to grow organically. Interest in the business continued to grow, but customers pushed to have the range in stores as they were weary of online shopping – that called for an innovative approach. Sonto then started approaching big retailers – today, 29 products of Native Child can be found at Pick N Pay, Game, Clicks, Akerman’s, and Dis-Chem stores nationwide. She not only made a presence in retail but has scooped several retail business awards cementing Native child as business with consumer power.
In October 2021, Native Child branched out, and launched its first hair and beauty bar at a shopping centre in Johannesburg. She has now built more beauty salons across the country.
Fast forward to 2023 Native Child is now in over 600 stores in SA, Namibia, Swaziland, Botswana, and Lesotho, and are quickly progressing to the global market especially with its sights set on the North America Market.
Sonto says she has learnt that one should never beg for good customer service but to go where they get good value for their money while good customer service is not compromised.
Her story is one of success and determination.