From Indwedwe to 41 shops, Phumla Hlophe is putting her peanut butter brand Toombeza on the map.
It has long been coming to see your normal everyday people creating products we never thought would come from eKasi, among us, by us, for us. This is one of the best parts of being on the receiving end of the stories we tell every day as a publication, discovering that things are happening, people are creating, and dreams are being chased and reached. In this article, we hear from Phumla Hlophe and how she started her brand.
So, who is Phumla Hlophe? Phumla is proudly from the deep rural parts of KwaZulu-Natal, Indwedwe, specifically Emangangeni. Her story is one of determination, but also of wanting to challenge the limitations that women in her community have often been expected to live within.
“I grew up in an area where women are looked down upon,” Phumla shares. “I wanted to prove to all the men in our community that we are capable.”
And she certainly did not limit that ambition to one field. Her drive has taken her into different ventures, from business to other interests that challenged what people might traditionally expect from a woman from a rural community.
But where does peanut butter come into the story? Phumla has always been a huge fan of peanut butter. Over time, however, she began noticing something that bothered her about many of the products sitting on supermarket shelves. The peanut butter she knew and loved seemed to be changing, with sugar, palm oil and preservatives becoming common additions.
She began asking herself a simple question: Where has the original taste gone? That question eventually became a business opportunity. “I wanted to introduce a product that is clean and honest and tastes like home,” she says.
And that is how TOOMBEZA Peanut Butter came into the picture. The philosophy behind it is refreshingly straightforward - 100% peanuts, no shortcuts. But Phumla is also very particular about the experience of eating it. She describes Toombeza as a soft, creamy spread that does not tear the bread and, with a laugh, says it “doesn't choke you.”
It is a small detail, but it tells you something about the personality behind the brand. Toombeza is not trying to make peanut butter complicated. It is trying to bring people back to something familiar.
So, is peanut butter the only thing Phumla is building? Not at all. The wider TOOMBEZA Group also includes a sound-hire business catering for weddings, private events and funerals, as well as Lamoola Skincare Company and 80 Degree Dry Gin. But at this point in the journey, the focus is firmly on growing the peanut butter business.
From Indwedwe to 41 shops, Phumla Hlophe is putting her peanut butter brand Toombeza on the map.
And there are already signs that the brand is moving in the right direction. One of the moments that stands out for Phumla is receiving an invitation to the SU20 G20 Summit, including both the conference and gala dinner. For a brand coming from a rural part of KwaZulu-Natal, moments like these carry meaning far beyond simply attending an event.
They demonstrate what can happen when a local product is given an opportunity to enter spaces where it may not traditionally have been expected. But what does it actually take to manufacture a food product in South Africa?
According to Phumla, it is not easy. One of the biggest challenges has been capital and equipment. Getting the appropriate roasting and grinding machinery required to produce the peanut butter at the right standard comes with significant upfront costs. For small businesses, accessing finance for food manufacturing can be particularly difficult.
Then there is the bigger reality of running a business in South Africa - the relationship between entrepreneurship and community. For Phumla, those two cannot be separated.
Unemployment remains a major challenge, while many small businesses are themselves fighting to survive. That makes the growth of TOOMBEZA about more than simply selling jars of peanut butter. The ambition is to create opportunities through production and packing, source peanuts from local farmers, and work with other South African businesses for jars, labels and distribution. In other words, if Toombeza grows, Phumla wants that growth to move beyond the company itself.
So, what has made her most proud so far? It is being able to supply 41 shops across different provinces in South Africa and, perhaps even more significantly, securing shelf space in the Sandton area at Kelvin Village Shopping Centre, through The Total Supermarket.
For a founder whose journey began in rural KwaZulu-Natal, seeing her own product sitting on a shelf in one of Johannesburg's well-known commercial areas must carry a special kind of satisfaction.
But Phumla is not stopping at 41 shops.
Where does she see Toombeza in the years ahead? The vision is ambitious but clear: she wants TOOMBEZA Peanut Butter to become a household name in South Africa, before taking the story beyond the country's borders.
Locally, she wants to see Toombeza available across major retailers, spaza shops and homes, with the product offered in 250g, 500g and 1L sizes.
But there is something even bigger behind that ambition. Phumla wants people to remember Toombeza as the brand that helped bring back real, honest peanut butter made in South Africa by South Africans.
And perhaps that is what makes this story worth telling. Because sometimes innovation does not arrive dressed in technology or backed by a large boardroom. Sometimes it starts in a rural community, with a woman who simply looks at something familiar and says, we can do this differently.
Phumla did not wait for someone else to create the product she wanted to see. She made it herself, and now she wants South Africa to taste it.
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