Tabitha Karanja, the founder and managing director of Keroche Breweries Ltd, has single handedly run the company since its inception nearly 15 years ago as a small brewery. It is now a kshs 1.5 billion ($17.6 million) turnover company with a growing local market share.
She has survived tough competition from East African Breweries and launched more brands after investing kshs 100 million ($1.2 million) in boosting production capacity.
Here are 10 facts about her.
- Tabitha was born near Kijabe, in central Kenya.
- After attending Kenyan schools, she took up employment in the Ministry of Tourism as an Accounting Clerk.
- Tabitha got married to Joseph Karanja and together.
- They are the parents of four children; two girls and two boys. Joseph Karanja serves as the Chairman of Keroche Breweries Limited.
- Her husband, owned a successful hardware store in Naivasha town.
- In 1997, the couple closed the hardware store and went into the wine-making business
- ln 2010. she was honoured by President Mwai Kibaki with a Moran of Burning the Spear (MBS) award for her great contribution in liberalising Kenya’s alcohol market.
- As chief executive of Keroche Breweries, Tabitha Karanja has paved the way for many other female entrepreneurs in Kenya, a country where women are traditionally scarce in the boardrooms, and even rarer in million-dollar startups.
- She is barely 48 years and makes one of the most beautiful women over 45 years
- She is now seeking expansion in East and Central Africa and her dream is to cover the whole of Africa.
