We are going to be featuring Young Wine Business owners on a regular basis and dropping competitions here and there for you guys, just to say thank you for the continued support since the Wine Wednesdays journey began, in 2017.
Today we chat to Award Winning Siphakamiso Duma, owner of Duma Wines.
We are highly passionate about what we do, and strive to produce unique and accessible wines with consistent quality. Our wines are of a premium quality aiming to indulge your palate with a refreshing quality that is long lasting. We strongly aim to inspire young individuals to become role players in the South African wine industry.
What inspired you to starting a wine business? My fascination for wine started back in 2016 with my current job at the time was being a Cashier, while having a major influence in the interest of wine. Sphakamiso was a very curious young individual who believed more in doing research on current interests, and that time my interest was on wine. I fell in love with wine while scanning out the groceries for customers, and my interest was in why do we have so many cultivars in wine. My curiosity gave me an opportunity to come across a wine course, which help me a lot in the understanding of wine and the industry. It was even more easier when I was given an opportunity to work as a wine controller ,and understood more about wine.
How long did it take you to get the business off the ground? Getting the business off the ground was a bit of a hustle and challenging because the business was Self-funded, established at during the Covid19 pandemic period of time, where our type of product offering was banned in the country, plus the June/July 2021 unrest we encountered in KwaZulu-Natal. The challenges were for a passionate individual who has a vision to where there are looking to be in future.
Do you have any investors, or is everything self-funded? Duma wines is a self-funded business which have managed to grow decisively with the assistant of our once-off investors which have help the company grow in the past year. Our Sponsors where:
.Gagasi Fm
.YOCO
.East Coast Radio
.Hippo.co.za
.Phantom Digital Designers
Have you always wanted to have your own wine business? I only realized that I’m in love with wine right after 2016 when I obtained a certificate of achievement from Wine Of South Africa and had an opportunity to be feed my mind with more wine knowledge until I obtained another certificated in 2019 called “The Science Of Alcohol”. Combining my wine sales, advisory experience within the wine industry together with my studies was a reason I gave birth to this business of wine and owning my own wine brand.
Currently Duma Wines is working on ideas and strategies to grow the business decisively and recover from the negative impact brought by the recent pandemic and unrest to the business in the year 2021. But as a young business, we have a lot of projects ideas that will help us advanture into a different world of business in terms of growing while creating new opportunities for the next generation.
Awards and Winnings.
- Sunday World Unsung Heroes Awards 2021 – Category: Youth In Business – Awards
- KwaZulu-Natal Youth Business Awards 2021 – Categories: Food & Baverages – Nominatin Certificate.
LOOK OUT FOR A COMPETITION SOON.
