Local artist and entrepreneur Toto Ndameshime, also known as ‘Chubby Beats’, recently announced a new product to his ever-growing Chubby brand, called Fruity Sip.
In 2016 Ndameshime launched his brand called Chubby Wear Clothing which grew into a wide range of products to include Bubbles Sparkling Water, Chili Chillatoz Hot Sauce, and DrinkMe Lemon Juice.
He is also preparing to introduce a new line called FruitySip in December.
“We recently launched a FruitySip 100% organic orange juice produced in Namibia. We have been working on this for two years with my business partner Mr MK, a food chemist from Botswana. We had a trial run in the market for reviews over one month and the product has been received very well by a mixed group of young and elderly consumers. We are also proud to announce that we will be having a full-scale launch early in January 2025,” he said.
Ndameshime and team recently rebranded Chubby Water to Bubbles Sparkling Flavoured Water to be launched on 23 December 2024 with eight different flavours.
“I always believe in re-inventing myself, I love being an industrialist by not setting limitations to one’s creativity. Because anything is possible, and I want to show anyone out there that anything is possible and I love challenging myself in any industry,” he said.
Chubby Beats said the Chilli Chillatos Hot Sauce has been in demand over the years and everyone can’t get enough of it.
Ndameshime said they operate from Wambolokasie Chubby Foods and Beverages at the moment, adopting a face-to-face customer service.
“Over the years, we have mostly been receiving online orders through our website and social media platforms across the country and at social events like festivals and from kapana street vendors. We have also been supplying restaurants and food outlets,” he said.
“However, our research analysis shows that online B2B, or selling directly to consumers through our 18 agents across the country has been giving us a better footprint, doing door-to-door sales. This works better for our business model but our dream is to supply big retailers such as the Metro, Shoprite, Woermann Brock, SPAR across the country.”
On the music scene, Chubby Beats recently released a single titled Mwakukuta, featuring Lantana.
Chubby Beats told VIBEZ! the new single is an Afro Urban-Kwaito song and has been in his archives for some time.
“I truly felt our industry was missing our own authentic original old-school vibe that we are known for across Africa. And bringing Latana on board as a lyrical Hip-hop artist, who is fresh on the scene we felt the need to mix it up to a bit to show diversity across different genres,” he said.
Ndameshime released another single a month ago titled ‘Rewind’ featuring Chester House Prince and Makuva Magogos as he gears up to release his second album.
Ndameshime adopted an impactful sales technique of selling at the robots to increase revenue over the years, which was inspired by DJ Sbu, when he purchased both his books and saw how he was pushing the sales of his Mofaya drink in townships.
“Untimely if shops don’t want us, we go directly to the people who always support us. I can testify that selling on street corners or at robots has enabled me to grow brand awareness and make more sales than products standing on the shelves because by selling on the ground we meet different people and build relationships, which is important to us,” he said.
Chubby Beats says he has been firmly focused on building his company Chubby Foods and Beverages because the Namibia entertainment space is difficult to sustain if shows, merchandise, brand deals, and album sales dry up.
“For me, this was always part of my plans and journey because building a generational wealth of companies is my ultimate goal in life. So that I leave something for my children and their children and to help uplift our economy by creating jobs,” he ended.
-slunyangwe@nepc.com.na