Boxman Windhoek is a franchise company that supplies a specialised range of boxes and related products to customers when relocating.
The company also offers packaging material and other related amenities.
Boxman Windhoek, which trades under the name Essential Enterprises, was started by Ekandjo Kalenga, Joseph Elago and Gerald Nghama locally in March 2016, after they bought the franchise name from a parent company in South Africa for N$150,000.
According to Kalenga, who is the company’s Chief Operations Officer, their initial idea failed to take off due to unforeseen circumstances, but luckily for them the owners of Boxman South Africa heard about their venture and approached them with the idea of specialised range of boxes and related products, which resulted in the birth of the Boxman Windhoek concept.
“We met and deliberated with the owners until we paid the franchise fees in 2015, which is when we took it up and subsequently opened our doors in March of the following year.
“The franchise fee is a one-off payment with a binding agreement that we only get goods from them. We run our business independent from them, but we stick to the franchise rules and regulations as well as order the goods from them.”
Kalenga said they offered products such as home mover kits, moving boxes, and stock boxes for industry, packaging material, document storage, added extras and specialist boxes, bin boxes for industry, gift boxes, corporate gifts, storage solutions, braai products and cleaning materials.
He said they were still looking to join hands with a moving partner, who would allow them to offer an all-inclusive service which will include moving services and packaging for customers’ goods when moving.
A former Information Technology technician at the Bank of Namibia, Kalenga said the unique factor about Boxman products and services was that nobody was doing this locally and that their products are stronger and able to carry customers’ fragile and priced possessions.
“Our products are able to carry weight of up to 40kg for ordinary boxes and still remain intact,” he said.
The major highlight to date for the trio, as explained by Kalenga, is that they started breaking even a few months ago. He said they were hopeful that the trend would continue and start making profits.
“There were several challenges that we faced from the start and they set us back financially, but with some strategic moves over the past year, we have manged to get our heads out of the gutter now.
“These include operational costs such as office space, daily running of the offices and making people know about our products and services. Now we have manged to put these to rest and we are able to manage our money better from a deficit we were sitting on last year.
“Our products are now available all over Namibia and we have struck some agreements with some courier companies to avail our products across the whole country. We are not yet where we would want to be, but we will get there and we are determined to do so going forward,” he said.
The company only has offices in Windhoek, but there are plans in the pipeline to open four other satellite offices in strategic towns next year, for easier access to their clients.
He said as their company grows and expands, they were continuously assessing customers’ needs and adding to their range of products and services to ensure that they supply customers with a comprehensive package so that relocating goes as smooth and hassle free as possible.
Boxman Windhoek has three fulltime employees and is looking at employing an extra marketing intern in the near future.
