Plates and Scales
What does your company do?
Plates and Scales is health orientated catering company that is owned by a Dietitian, Reabetjoe Mokoko aka Rea-TheCookingDietitian. Reabetjoe Mokoko is seen as a seasoned Dietitian who was able to merge her love for nutrition and the culinary industry into an offering .
Plates and Scales has two fully operational kitchens in Midrand and Centurion. Both kitchens cater for an average of 200 clients on a daily basis.
At Plates and Scales we are all about giving our clients an unforgettable food experience whatever the setting, the occasion and health condition. When we cater we ensure even those with different health conditions who have special dietary requirements such as diabetes, high blood, gluten intolerance, lactose etc...are not left out as we develop recipes to suit different conditions. We are all about creating meals that are just not aesthetically pleasing but also healthy and tasty!
What is your biggest success?
We have had many wins in the past two years, but our biggest win has to be our current win of being asked to come on board to cater for South Africa's new big telenova, My Brothers Keeper. With this contract that extends till 2025 it has allowed to create 7 more jobs in our company. Which means we get to feed 7 more families. This win has also given us the ability to extend our Midrand kitchen and buy a delivery vehicle for the business.
What has been your biggest hurdle?
Having a working capital! Sounds cliche, especially for a small business. But unfortunately we still have companies that have payment terms that are not considerate of small businesses and their daily struggles. Our type of business is cash intensive and we spend an average of R60000/weekly on stock for both kitchens so we need a working capital. We have companies that respect and understand this and settle within 7 working days as per our terms while we have companies who have invoices that are overdue by months. Some month ends we find ourselves scrambling around to ensure salaries are paid.
