What began with eight chest freezers in a family garage has become a growing food business with products reaching shoppers across South Africa.
Sisters Jane Bisset and Amy Weare We Are Food. (Image supplied)
In 2013, sisters Jane Bisset and Amy Weare started We Are Food from their family home in Umhlanga Rocks, making home-style frozen meals for relatives and neighbours.
More than a decade later, the Durban-based business is producing gourmet ready meals for Spar's Signature Selection range, marking a significant step from small family operation to national supplier.
The journey has involved plenty of hard work, a fair amount of learning on the job and a relationship with Spar that started with just one freezer.
It started with a freezer in a family garage
The original idea came from a simple problem. A busy working mother in the family wanted the convenience of a ready-made meal without having to compromise on the quality and care associated with home cooking.
Jane, who had a passion for food and a year of culinary training behind her, began making frozen meals for family and friends.
The demand quickly grew beyond the family circle.
By 2015, We Are Food had moved out of the home kitchen and into a small industrial facility in Durban North. Amy joined the business full-time the following year, bringing commercial experience while Jane focused on operations.
Today, what started in a family home has become a 500m² manufacturing operation employing more than 30 people. The company has supplied major South African retailers and even exported its products to the United Arab Emirates.
Despite the growth, the sisters say the original philosophy remains much the same.
“We still stay true to our roots: a passion for food and, more importantly, love for the people who eat it.”
From one Spar store to a national opportunity
We Are Food’s relationship with Spar started at a much smaller scale.
In 2015, a family friend introduced Jane and Amy to the manager of Holdens Spar on Florida Road. The store agreed to give the young business a chance, starting with a single freezer.
The sisters then spent hours in stores doing tastings, merchandising their products and chatting directly to customers.
That hands-on experience became an important part of their growth. Instead of simply putting products on a shelf and hoping shoppers would notice, Jane and Amy learnt what customers responded to, built relationships with store owners and staff and got a first-hand understanding of how the retail environment worked.
As awareness of the brand grew, more Spar stores began approaching them.
Seven years after that first freezer, the relationship evolved again when We Are Food joined the first intake of the Spar Supplier Development Programme in 2022.
Turning a daunting process into a growth opportunity
At the time, We Are Food had limited formal food-safety structures. Working towards Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) certification was therefore a major undertaking for the business.
For two entrepreneurs without formal food-safety training, the process could easily have become a barrier to growth.
Instead, the supplier development programme provided training, specialist expertise and practical guidance as the business introduced new systems and strengthened its processes.
“What seemed like a daunting, almost unachievable task became a reality with the encouragement and support of the Spar Supplier Development Programme team,” say Jane and Amy.
The certification ultimately became about much more than compliance. It helped We Are Food qualify as a national supplier, strengthened confidence in the business and opened the door to bigger retail and export opportunities.
Building businesses beyond the shelf
We Are Food is one of thousands of emerging food businesses that have received support through the Spar Supplier Development Programme since its launch in 2022.
The programme has assisted 3,188 micro and small food businesses, with 424 suppliers achieving food-safety compliance and another 1,063 progressing towards compliance.
For Yolisha Govender, national supplier development Specialist at The Spar Group, the goal is to help businesses develop the capabilities needed to grow within formal retail, rather than simply helping them meet a single requirement.
“Food-safety compliance can be one of the biggest barriers between a great local product and a sustainable retail business,” says Govender.
The idea is that once businesses have the necessary systems and knowledge in place, they can use that foundation to pursue new customers, markets and opportunities beyond the original retailer.
For We Are Food, that next opportunity has now arrived.
From local freezer to Signature Selection
More than a decade after placing its first freezer inside a Spar store, We Are Food has secured an order to produce gourmet frozen ready meals for Spar’s Signature Selection range.
The products will be manufactured at the company’s Durban facility and distributed nationally, putting the sisters’ food in front of a much wider customer base.
Getting to this point has also meant preparing the business for what comes with a larger order.
Additional freezer capacity has been required, while shifts and production planning have been adjusted to manage increased demand. SPAR Encore is also providing flexible dispatch support, allowing finished stock to be released as it becomes ready.
And then there is the people side of growth.
With the existing team already operating at capacity, We Are Food is bringing in additional employees and expects some casual workers to move into permanent positions as production increases.
Growing a team, not just a business
People have always been an important part of the sisters’ approach to building the company.
Of their more than 30 employees, only two are qualified chefs. Much of the wider team has instead been trained and developed within the business.
For Jane and Amy, that means hiring for potential and passion and giving people the opportunity to build their skills along the way.
It is a philosophy that has become particularly meaningful given their own experience of growing the company through some difficult years.
Between 2019 and 2023, the sisters welcomed four children while also navigating the Covid-19 pandemic, civil unrest and the Durban floods.
They credit their families, friends, colleagues and a network of women around them with helping them keep the business moving.
Their advice to other women building businesses
If there is one lesson the sisters have taken from the past 13 years, it is that entrepreneurs don't have to figure everything out alone.
They have actively sought advice from store owners, industry leaders, executives and even competitors, using conversations with people around them to learn what they didn't know.
Their advice to other women is refreshingly straightforward: ask.
Ask for the meeting. Ask the question. Ask for advice. Put yourself forward.
“There have been so many moments when we could have looked at the next step and decided it was too big for us,” say Jane and Amy. “What we’ve learnt is to ask anyway.”
What comes next for We Are Food?
The move into Spar’s Signature Selection range is another milestone, but the sisters aren't treating it as the finish line.
We Are Food is already working with Spar’s development team on new dishes and potential additions to its frozen-meal range.
For a business that started with a family, a love of cooking and eight freezers in a garage, the jump to national retail is a pretty significant one.
And during Women’s Month, the story offers a useful reminder that growing a small business isn't only about getting your product onto a shelf.
Sometimes, it is about having the right support, asking for help, building the capabilities to take on bigger opportunities and being brave enough to say yes when they finally arrive.
