Die Bloubakkie has no brakes!
While thousands of holidaymakers relax in Kleinmond, there’s one place where no one switches off: Die Bloubakkie. This is where Johan Olivier and his team make sure that his customers never have to go without the best, freshest vegetables and fruits. And to think it all started in a real (yellow!) bakkie…
When last did you find a snail in a bunch of fresh spinach? It’s quite something to behold: the slow yet determined gripand-glide, grip-and-glide, tentacles-inthe air march deep into the folds of the green leaves. Behind the shell there’s the unmistakeable slimy trail; in front of it, a bite that – with no ill intentions – has been taken from the edge of a leaf.
But this morning, none of the steady stream of customers at the new Die Bloubakkie shop in Second Street seem concerned about the “damage” this little guy is causing. No, they tell you while you’re photographing away, if the snail is happy to eat the spinach, we know it’s healthy and poison-free, so we can happily eat it too. Fresh from the farm, as it should be.
It’s with good reason that Die Bloubakkie’s motto is “We bring the farm to the sea”.
It’s an ordinary late-spring Friday morning, long before thousands of sunseekers and holidaymakers from the interior will descend on this coastal town to take a break, and the stream of customers doesn’t diminish.
To one side stands a lithe man with crow’s feet at the corners of his eye – “They’re from the sun, mind you, not from a lot of laughter!” In his >
arms lies his timid Maltese, Soekie. He greets every person who comes into the shop. “Good morning, my customer, how are you today?” He glances down to see what their basket contains. “Are you sure you have enough of everything? Why is it looking so empty?” He gives the woman a hug.
His solution for another customer struggling to make a decision is simple: “It’s easy: take one of each!”
JOHAN OLIVIER is not in the shop every day, even though he’s crazy about his customers. Since starting this business in the mid-Nineties, he’s spent a lot of time on the road searching for the freshest produce at the best prices. Fresh vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, farm butter and yoghurt, cheese, frozen blueberries, rusks, jam, preserves, milk tarts, koeksisters and pies, farm chickens, sosaties, olives and olive oil, free-range eggs, fudge, honey… The quality is what you’ll find at top organic delis in the city and even at a chic European market; the prices make you think back to the era of pounds, pennies and shillings in a small South African town.
It’s a shop with humble beginnings. Back when he drove a yellow Datsun bakkie, Johan would sell watermelon, spanspek and peaches outside Pick n Pay in Worcester, his actual home town. This was after he’d completed his B Com Honours degree.
“After Stellenbosch and a few unsuccessful job applications, you start to doubt your capabilities and will take any work that comes your way – both for a living and for a purpose.” So a series of temporary jobs followed: gate official at the agricultural show, assistant sexton and clerk at an NG church – and he had his own advertising paper, Business Ads.
And then, in 1996, he was well and truly bitten by the sales bug. “I started on Church Square in Worcester with my blue Toyota bakkie, and the business was soon bursting at the seams. It offered everything I needed at the time: a good income and the freedom to do my own thing, to discover new places and to have contact with farmers. The entire Worcester community was there on a Saturday afternoon to support us.”
When his blue bakkie was stolen, Johan bought himself a white Toyota… which his customers started calling “the white blue bakkie”!
So how did the business end up in Kleinmond?
“Every year since 1974, my family has holidayed in Kleinmond from 20 December until the schools reopen in January. But the neighbours wouldn’t wish me a merry Christmas or happy New Year before I’d arrived with a load of watermelon, spanspek or mielies!”
Hard work in wind, rain and sun left its mark. And there were huge losses. “Our whole family’s time was sucked up. The business became increasingly difficult to handle out on the street. I faced the choice between moving to premises, with all the associated risks and costs, or doing a computer course that would possibly offer a more stable income.” The course won.
Afterwards, between 2003 and 2006, Johan taught computer studies at Drostdy Technical High School in his home town. “It was a privilege to be part of young people’s lives, and I found many new opportunities and hobbies (such as photography). But you soon realise what your shortcomings are: between all the administration, meetings and especially paperwork, I lost myself. The repetitiveness stole my freedom of spirit. Kleinmond was calling me, even if only to clear my head…
“I had to start from the beginning, with all the risks and uncertainty, but my parents helped me and gave me the freedom to do my own thing. I started selling again on weekends when I wasn’t involved with sport – this time in Kleinmond. My parents and I would stand outside the butchery with naartjies and sweet potatoes… And the rest is history!”
JOHAN’S PARENTS OFFERED MORE than just support: his father, Kobus, who passed away in 2016, helped >