A 26 year old Benjamin Gsell from Vienna, Austria is not your normal second hand clothe customer in the common Gikomba market.
At such a young age, it should be a man looking to explore the world of high class of blue collar jobs, But Gsell is different.
The fact that Benjamin Gsell left his good paying job in Dubai for a mitumba selling career makes his entrepreneurial story interesting.
Speaking to local paper, The Standard, Gsell was impressed with Kenya on his first ever visit in 2017. He never thought twice and decided to come back 6 months later and start his new business.
“While visiting Nairobi for the first time in March 2017 and driving through the city, I was stunned by the proliferation of second-hand clothes along the streets,” Benjamin says.
He says that with a capital of 5.5 million shillings, he decided to invest in Kenya after he was fascinated with the environment
I have three shops in Nairobi’s Gikomba market, with most of my containers offloaded in Donholm. I sell my products to wholesalers looking to buy up to 100 bales – though, depending on the size of the bales, I can sell up to 10 bales at wholesale prices. I sell a bale at Sh4,000 to Sh19,000, depending on what’s inside, as well as sell some items on retail to boost profits.
He source his clothes from UK then they are brought in via Mombasa port before SGR transports the cargo to Nairobi terminus where they can easily get.
Then they have to sort well with his group, to ensure quality of the clothes.
When starting his business, it was not all rosy for Gsell, he has to encounter challenges such as trusting his partners, breaking into the market and also pricing with quality assurance.
He also experienced delays at the ports and SGR
