Business Talk – Sonke CEO Eben de Jongh on how SKUBU is making essentials cheaper for South Africans
In this Business Talk with Michael Avery interview, Eben de Jongh discusses how Sonke and SKUBU are making everyday essentials cheaper through refill retail.
De Jongh is the founder and CEO of Sonke Retail and Sonke Sales Solutions, the company behind the SKUBU platform.
He is a veteran in engineering, management, and logistics with over two decades of experience.
Sonke Retail is a South African start-up founded in 2020 to provide South Africans with an economic incentive to make environmentally friendly choices.
Sonke Sales Solutions was later founded in 2022 to help blue-chip Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies empower South African youth and grow their brands in the informal sector.
Before founding Sonke Retail and later Sales Solutions, de Jongh held a variety of leadership positions, including Operations Director at Maneli Pets.
Along with this, he worked at Unilever for over six years, during which he served in various positions:
- Logistics Manager
- Factory Manager
- Waterfall Project – Packing Lead
- Supply Network Planner – Foods Africa
- Process Engineer
De Jongh holds an MBA from the IE Business School and a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pretoria.
The interview
In this Business Talk interview, de Jongh shares what he saw in conventional FMCG retail that he believed was penalising lower-income consumers.
He outlines how SKUBU works, noting how they solved the constraints that usually impact bulk packaging.
De Jongh explains where they’ve predominantly deployed their shops thus far and what they’ve seen in terms of uptake.
He also touches on the point at which he believes SKUBU will evolve from an interesting pilot, partly funded by development capital, into a business that conventional commercial capital can fund.
De Jongh concludes the interview by unpacking how they leverage data both to determine where to open the next SKUBU, as well as what products and pack-equivalent sizes will be most suitable for the local community.
Watch the interview with Eben de Jongh below.
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