Business does well
Soapmaker to explore new markets
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IN the past five months alone, Abhishek Sapra has made over 22,000 handmade soaps literally from scratch, every single day without fail.
The owner of Taveuni-based Vuna Enterprises (Fiji) Pte Ltd, a company that specialises in handmade body products, said he invested around 13 hours a day in his soap making business.
The 38-year-old graduate in Public Relations and Advertising from City College, New York, said all his products were made from locally grown ingredients.
“My great-grandmother used to make soaps for our family and my interest in soap making over the years has led me this far,” he said.
Mr Sapra said he had learnt the basic craft of soap making in the initial days with the help of an American scientist who was introduced to him by his sister.
“For the first few years, I was trying to get my soap making better and better with a lot of practice and now for the past three years, it has been a proper business.”
He said he made almost 200 soaps in a single day.
“I have now three full time people working with me because the orders have increased and we are getting a lot of interest from local resorts and hotels for our products.”
Mr Sapra said they were also producing lotions which were sold in Taveuni.
“Every ingredient in all of our products are either made in our estate, sourced locally from a neighborhood estate or from Rotuma.”
He said Handcrafted Island Essentials, a boutique based in Sofitel Resort was his only local buyer.
“Even the locals love our soap. We’ve had good reviews from people who recommended our handmade soaps which can be used for body, face and hair as well.”
Mr Sapra said they were looking to slowly explore new markets in the coming days and were already in talks with another potential local buyer
“We are not a big commercial company so we make very high end customised products keeping our buyer in mind,” Mr Sapra said.