SPONSORED – From humble beginnings, to a super wedding

Michael Magoronga – Midlands Correspondent

Theirs is a true story of ‘from grass to grace.’

A Kwekwe couple who started off as mere civil servants, had to quit their jobs as their business which started as a side hustle, began to pay off in a big way.

Tatenda and Talent Madziwo (both 34) were mere civil servants when they met and got married a decade ago.

Tatenda worked in the Ministry Public, Labour and Social Welfare while his sweetheart worked under the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement.

In 2014, they launched the Royal Secrets brand which manufactured perfumes. But as it where, the business did not flourish as expected. However, when they rebranded in 2016 and re-launched the product, this time it was a huge success.

Noticing the success, the couple decided to diversify and ventured into skin care lotions to add to their perfume range. The company which started in the small mining town of Kwekwe has since conquered the country with 8 branches in Zimbabwe and 16 outreaches.

Tatenda and Talent Madziwo

In Botswana, where the workshop is housed, the company has 6 branches and 13 outreaches while in Malawi there 2 branches and 8 outreaches.

In Zimbabwe alone, the company now employs more than 3 000 workers and a total of 7 000 workers across the SADC region.

Royal Secrets is now targeting to spread wings to Namibia and Zambia.

“We are now targeting to open branches in Namibia and Zambia. In fact some of our sales personnel sell the product in Namibia and people there have been calling for us to open branches there and we are responding to that,” said Royal Secrets Chief Executive Mrs Madziwo.

On the decision to wed, the couple, blessed with 3 sons, Mrs Madziwo said it had been their dream all along.

“We always wanted to wed from the start when we got married but we were incapacitated as we could not afford to fund the wedding. But now we have no reason not to wed so we decided to tie the knot in style,” she said.

She said the business thrives on network marketing.

“We thrive on network marketing where people introduce each other and benefit. We also empower youths where those who fail to raise capital, we give them the product on credit and they go on to sell and pay the money after selling the product,” she explained.

As part of their corporate social responsibility, the company is donating skin care products, basic groceries and access to medication to the people living with albinism.

“We are donating sunscreens to the people living with albinism as most of them fail to access the due to high prices. We however decided to also give them foodstuffs like basics like cooking oil and mealie meal among other basic foodstuffs. We also pay for medical bills for them and meet all their medical expenses,” she said.

People living with albinism from across the Midlands Province attended the wedding in solidarity with couple.

According to the Madziwo’s the wedding is supposed to serve as a motivation to others, that no matter how tough things are, hard work pays.

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