Lebo Magagane

Embedded Factory

What does your company do?

We design and manufacture proudly South Africa great quality mattresses, bases and bedding accessories for sectors such as student accommodation , mining , retail and Hospitality.

What is your biggest success?

To have survived the first 3 years of business, grow the revenue line and build an excellent team that has bought into the vision of the company. We have made great strides and have survived a break~in that almost forced us to liquidate the company.

What has been your biggest hurdle?

I have experienced many challenges and continue to experience them every day, it’s part of the entrepreneurship journey. The Top three challenges are as follows: 1. To put production on hold due to employee absenteeism, our main stitch employee not coming to work for extended period of time. This has motivated me to develop a skill transfer programme and to also try source machinery and equipment that can function with less human intervention 2. Delivery company not showing up to deliver to client, had to improvise and take matters into my own hands by hiring a Van and a trailer and convinced my brother to drive with me to Northern Cape, which is a 7 hrs drive to deliver an order on timeframes committed to client. We have now invested in our own delivery Van. 3.Space limitations that consequently affected production, at first I used to rent storage to store finished products until I had sufficient load for delivery. Recently we've moved into a much bigger unit, took the risk of signing a lease without having an offtake in place believing on the vision and potential of the business. Business is about taking calculated risk. Our medium term plans include acquiring our own building, we are utilising the first 4 years to strengthen our balance sheet.