Latest news with #NorthWest-based
The Citizen
20-05-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
Calls for bigger slices of Godongwana's budget cake
Struggling entities are asking for bigger slices of the national budget after their funds depleted in the past financial year. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's budget 3.0 has many, including constrained provincial administrations and traditional authorities, asking for bigger slices from the yet-to-be divided national cake. With the value-added tax (VAT) issue that delayed the passing of the budget now off the table, Godongwana could be smiling as he delivers his budget speech tomorrow – four months after a hollow address in February. Political parties and rural voices weigh in Now that a consensus has been reached, with the government of national unity (GNU) parties giving budget a thumbs-up, many have come forward to claim their share, or what they think they deserve from the cake. Even the usually reticent traditional leaders have asked Godongwana not to forget them. Some provinces had been struggling to survive beyond the end of the past financial year as their budgets were exhausted. The situation worsened after Godongwana withdrew the Division of Revenue Bill and the Appropriation Bill he introduced in the National Assembly last month, due to the budget impasse within the GNU. All the provincial budgets depend on the national allocations by the minister. ALSO READ: Budget 3.0: will it be third time lucky for Godongwana? KwaZulu-Natal hangs by a thread KwaZulu-Natal, which has been hardest hit by budget depletion, had been waiting for Godongwana's allocations with bated breath after it had almost exhausted its 2024-25 financial year budgets – leaving service providers and early childhood teachers high and dry for at least two months. KZN finance MEC Francois Rogers appealed to Godongwana and National Treasury to ensure that the way forward is clearly mapped out during the coming days. 'We also call on National Treasury to ensure that there are no reductions in KZN's equitable share, or provincial conditional grants,' Rogers said. Political parties and rural voices weigh in The DA has made significant proposals dealing with comprehensive fiscal strategies. Traditional leaders also want a fair share of the budget allocations to develop their communities, whom they claimed were neglected for many years. North West-based Bakgatla ba Kgafela traditional leader, Kgosi Nyalala Pilane, was first to jump to the fore to request Godongwana to prioritise rural development. He urged Godongwana to prioritise spending that delivers real impact and avoid shortcuts that harm low-income households. Union federation Cosatu asked Godongwana not to disappoint workers and the nation. NOW READ: Budget 3.0: Provincial budgets in the firing line?
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How our viral toastie gadget is now in millions of households
'My two year-old says Crimpit more than mummy,' laughs Mike Harper, co-founder of the viral toastie tool which launched in late 2021 and is now in over 1.5 million households in the UK. Harper, a marketing expert before entering the sandwich sealer market, certainly took on risk with his fellow founder Ian Critchlow after both put life savings of around £25,000 apiece into the business which immediately took off online. The Crimpit gadget turns bread and wraps into sealed toasted food parcels. It was first created by Critchlow when he had to take his son, who was craving high-protein snacks instead of pre-made soggy sandwiches, for 5am swim sessions. Read More: 'Studying chemistry helped me sell millions of oat milk bottles' 'I was thinking why no one had done this before, it seemed so simple,' says Harper when he saw the first prototype. 'I tested it on five people who all thought it amazing and that's when I thought there was something in this.' For the first 18 months, North West-based Crimpit was a one-product business, an original thin bread sealer which could be filled with ingredients and put in toasters or air fryers. The founders ordered 5,000 units from China due to low costs on producing the moulds, with 1,000 arriving before Christmas 2021. The product sold out in three days following Facebook ads, with the remainder snapped up on a 30-day timeframe. 'We knew then that the marketing was working,' recalls Harper. When British influencer Mrs Hinch posted three months later, it broke Crimpit's online ordering system before running out of stock in the UK. It led to the founders bringing all manufacturing to the UK to react quicker to customers and demand. Read More: 'After our £50m travel company collapsed I learned to be a wartime CEO' The term 'Crimpiteers' has also been self-coined by consumers after the business set up a private Facebook community group where customers were invited after purchase. The group has now swelled to over 120,000 followers while Crimpit's product innovation, including its wrap sealer, has come from demanding consumers. 'How do you size the market, because essentially we have created our own,' adds Harper. 'There is no market data although 90% of customers use an air fryer to heat up once snacks have been crimped.' With a billion-dollar tortilla industry in the US, Crimpit is in a growth market. The business recently debuted on shopping channel QVC, its seven-minute slot garnering thousands of bundles sold, while the likes of Tesco (TSCO.L), Oliver Bonas, Lakeland and Robert Dyas stock products, which accounts for 25% of Crimpit's business. 'It is a shifting strategy in the UK,' admits Harper. 'You need to think about direct to consumer but you need to think about retail, how you approach offers and discounts and how you fit in with Easter or Christmas promos.' Read More: Impossibrew CEO says Dragons' Den failure sparked alcohol-free brand's rise Meanwhile, TikTok has opened the start-up to a younger audience and QVC to an older age bracket, where previously Crimpit's consumers were 80% female and in the 30-55 category. The founders, with around 10 full-time staff, have also set up an in-house kitchen for social media videos, a major addition in converting sales. 'It's finding those new channels and getting them to work at scale,' says are so many tools out there where someone can track sales on Amazon, realise our product is fast selling and then gone away to recreate it. There are multiple imitations of our products, where the teeth don't work or it's too thin. The counterfeiters hold nothing back. They are not only copying you but it's damaging the brand reputation when consumers email us saying it doesn't work. We sell at cost difference if those customers who have purchased a fake buy from us. It is a way of getting genuine Crimpit's out there. Counterfeits are on a big scale but we have it under control in terms of enforcing the platforms. But I still can't get my head around why eBay (EBAY) lets it happen so much. If you have a semi viral product or one that is doing well there will be knock-offs and there will be ways to get around patents, trademarks and registered designs. Read more: 'My sofa took six months to arrive — so I built a £20m business' 'I paid myself £4 an hour to get my deodorant brand off the ground' 'Want to grow an iconic brand? CEOs have to value CMOs as servant leaders'
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How our viral toastie gadget is now in millions of households
'My two year-old says Crimpit more than mummy,' laughs Mike Harper, co-founder of the viral toastie tool which launched in late 2021 and is now in over 1.5 million households in the UK. Harper, a marketing expert before entering the sandwich sealer market, certainly took on risk with his fellow founder Ian Critchlow after both put life savings of around £25,000 apiece into the business which immediately took off online. The Crimpit gadget turns bread and wraps into sealed toasted food parcels. It was first created by Critchlow when he had to take his son, who was craving high-protein snacks instead of pre-made soggy sandwiches, for 5am swim sessions. Read More: 'Studying chemistry helped me sell millions of oat milk bottles' 'I was thinking why no one had done this before, it seemed so simple,' says Harper when he saw the first prototype. 'I tested it on five people who all thought it amazing and that's when I thought there was something in this.' For the first 18 months, North West-based Crimpit was a one-product business, an original thin bread sealer which could be filled with ingredients and put in toasters or air fryers. The founders ordered 5,000 units from China due to low costs on producing the moulds, with 1,000 arriving before Christmas 2021. The product sold out in three days following Facebook ads, with the remainder snapped up on a 30-day timeframe. 'We knew then that the marketing was working,' recalls Harper. When British influencer Mrs Hinch posted three months later, it broke Crimpit's online ordering system before running out of stock in the UK. It led to the founders bringing all manufacturing to the UK to react quicker to customers and demand. Read More: 'After our £50m travel company collapsed I learned to be a wartime CEO' The term 'Crimpiteers' has also been self-coined by consumers after the business set up a private Facebook community group where customers were invited after purchase. The group has now swelled to over 120,000 followers while Crimpit's product innovation, including its wrap sealer, has come from demanding consumers. 'How do you size the market, because essentially we have created our own,' adds Harper. 'There is no market data although 90% of customers use an air fryer to heat up once snacks have been crimped.' With a billion-dollar tortilla industry in the US, Crimpit is in a growth market. The business recently debuted on shopping channel QVC, its seven-minute slot garnering thousands of bundles sold, while the likes of Tesco (TSCO.L), Oliver Bonas, Lakeland and Robert Dyas stock products, which accounts for 25% of Crimpit's business. 'It is a shifting strategy in the UK,' admits Harper. 'You need to think about direct to consumer but you need to think about retail, how you approach offers and discounts and how you fit in with Easter or Christmas promos.' Read More: Impossibrew CEO says Dragons' Den failure sparked alcohol-free brand's rise Meanwhile, TikTok has opened the start-up to a younger audience and QVC to an older age bracket, where previously Crimpit's consumers were 80% female and in the 30-55 category. The founders, with around 10 full-time staff, have also set up an in-house kitchen for social media videos, a major addition in converting sales. 'It's finding those new channels and getting them to work at scale,' says are so many tools out there where someone can track sales on Amazon, realise our product is fast selling and then gone away to recreate it. There are multiple imitations of our products, where the teeth don't work or it's too thin. The counterfeiters hold nothing back. They are not only copying you but it's damaging the brand reputation when consumers email us saying it doesn't work. We sell at cost difference if those customers who have purchased a fake buy from us. It is a way of getting genuine Crimpit's out there. Counterfeits are on a big scale but we have it under control in terms of enforcing the platforms. But I still can't get my head around why eBay (EBAY) lets it happen so much. If you have a semi viral product or one that is doing well there will be knock-offs and there will be ways to get around patents, trademarks and registered designs. Read more: 'My sofa took six months to arrive — so I built a £20m business' 'I paid myself £4 an hour to get my deodorant brand off the ground' 'Want to grow an iconic brand? CEOs have to value CMOs as servant leaders'Sign in to access your portfolio
