Osho Chemicals on their 30th anniversary providing landmark agricultural solutions

By Steven Mulanda

Worldwide, the nature of business is ever-changing and new opportunities as well as challenges keep on presenting themselves at every turn. It’s nearly impossible to be prepared for every scenario, but successful business leaders are always quick to adapt. These efficacious entrepreneurs evaluate situations and remain flexible by ensuring their business keeps moving forward, no matter what unexpected changes occur. This is true for business Guru Manoj Shah, an Agro-chemicals entrepreneur who has built Osho Chemicals Industries Limited from scratch to be a lead in Kenya and beyond. He invested Kenya Shillings 2 million from his savings to a venture that now boasts of Ksh 5 billion annual turnover. They are in public health, industrial solutions and biologicals and have variety of products including fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides, pesticides and sprayers.
On their 30th anniversary Hortfresh Journal talked exclusively to Manoj Shah who dubs up as the Chairman of the Company about their journey so far, the building blocks that have seen the Industrial Area based firm spread its wings and stamp authority in the East African region, the growth and what the future holds.
Congratulations on your 30 years anniversary, which is quite a landmark achievement. How has been the journey since you delved into agricultural input business, and what would you consider as the biggest milestone for Osho Chemicals?
I would say quite challenging and at the same time proud that we have made these successful strides.
I grew up in Ol Kalou and I had seen how agriculture was a big industry impacting the lives of many people in terms of employment and food security. It was therefore natural that our new focus would be supplying agrochemicals.
We started in 1993 with 4 employees as a main business supplier of dyestuff and chemicals to the textile industries, and those days there were more textile parastatals units; Kikomi, Rivatex, Mountex, KTL among others. They had their own perennial problems but at least they had a clean system of doing business and prompt payment for startups which ensued we were not borrowing more money for doing business.
The biggest milestone we achieved during that period is that we found a window in the agriculture sector. As you are aware we are regulated by Pest Control Products Board (PCPB) and anything to do with agricultural chemicals had to go through them. In those days, they were not allowing generic or alternative products in the market. We found a window of discussing with them that generics are also good and a good alternative to the branded molecules.
The branded molecules were available from the multinationals and they were invariably in bigger packs of 1 litres, ½ litres and the likes, where a farmer had to invest expensively on the packs since one had to buy a minimum of a litre or ½ litre depending on what was available, blocking farmers’ capital and depriving them. In agriculture you have to alternate chemicals, because depending solely on one chemical leads to resistance. In addition, we also discovered that where farmers spent their night, cooking place and eating place is where they stored their chemicals and this is one area we needed to change.
Our first attempt was to import chemicals in bulk mainly importing from India and China, giving the chemicals to our partners who were repackaging them for us and we started availing them in smaller packs of 30mgs, 50mgs and 100mgs. We ran into headwind with the multinational because they were the owners of the molecules having had them registered so we had to go back to them for pricing.
What would you attribute the success of Osho Chemicals to?
First, being focused; you have to do same thing repeatedly and with this you begin creating opportunities. You have to keep the focus alive, once you get into business, it is easy to have other diverse interests and projects which may take you away from what you had set out to do.
Secondly our workers, we begun with 4 people; myself, driver, secretary and my wife. Currently our workforce portfolio has been able to grow exponentially. In Kenya we have 350-400 workers but in the whole region we employ over 600 people.
Over the years I have learned that when you build people, build their capacity, your business grows better with well-equipped employees. I have also learned that it is important to set up structures.
You have made good strides in Kenya, what informed the choice of venturing into other regions?
After 5 successful years in Kenya, our neighboring countries also being in agriculture we decided to venture in their market, but their expertise was down. Kenya had an upper hand because it was the first country to export flowers and vegetables to Europe and other Asian countries. Currently, we are in Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Malawi while still exploring Sudan and Somali.
How are you finding the cost of doing business in the country?
The cost of production is high; electricity has gone up by 30 to 40 percent and we are regulated by 19 different regulators, this are too many.

What are some of the challenges you have encountered and how have you been able to overcome them?
When we started, imports were regulated by the Ministry of Commerce and we had to acquire a Foreign Exchange Allocation License. Without this, you would have to import through third parties, which was expensive to start up like ours. To overcome this, we joined Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) to add our voice to the advocacy for the liberalization of imports. We also found out that working with government-owned entities attracts bureaucracy which results in delay in the conversion of inventory. We had to diversify to other areas of business while still having a broader focus on chemicals, thus we started supplying chemicals for the pharmaceuticals and tanning industries. Around the same time, the government liberalized the process of importation, and it became easier to import chemicals, repackage them and still make profits.
We ventured into Ethiopia but our business venture didn’t pick up because of the land policy in that country. Land in Ethiopia is more of communal, but with time we are still weighing option of going back.
You have elaborate projects targeting your staff, what has informed this unique focus and what exactly are you doing for your workers?
We strongly believe that our workers are the backbone of our business and therefore deserve to be treated as a family for the prosperity of the firm. We appreciate how hard they work and have always felt that we need to walk with them in their journey as part of the Osho Chemicals fraternity.
For instance, we partnered closely with National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) where we have tailor-made courses for our workers to train all our machine operators who were basically casuals, they have obtained academic certificates, given them job upgrade and increased their pay.
We have a reward and recognition system where every hard work is rewarded. After every 3 months, we have a town hall with the employees where the C.E.O addresses all the workers; those in neighboring countries login online and every employee states their concerns. We also have a kitty depending with the company’s performance during the year which we share with all the employees at the end of the year.
What other activities does Osho Chemicals engage in?
We have invested heavily in biologicals; we have a biological laboratory where we carry out a lot of research. We did a big project with Kenyatta University where we sponsored 13 students for their master’s degree and we gave them topics of research and they gave us their findings. From our own soil research, we were able to generate isolates and we are now commercializing.
We are also moving from Emulsifiable Concentrates (EC) formulations to Suspension Concentrates SC formulations.
As we wind up what will be your closing remarks?
We will definitely hand over the management of this company to our next of generation to continue with its operations. Secondly, for startups who are envisioning themselves to be like Osho Chemicals, spend most of your time pushing your business in the market and be consistent. As for Osho, we will venture back into the Ethiopia market.