Building a women's business from a teenage need

After struggling to find sanitary products that could cater for her needs as a teenager, Dimakatso Kanyane decided to start her own hygiene product company making affordable and organic sanitary towels.

The Mpumalanga-based entrepreneur started her company, Dillets, in 2022 after seeing there was a gap in the market for products that were both affordable and designed for people who experienced heavy flow during their periods.

“I suffered from severe pains, leakages and heavy flow because there wasn't a sanitary towel that catered for my specific needs. So it was this that eventually led me to the development of Dillets sanitary towels,” Kanyane said.

She said Dillets pads are ultra-thin, super-soft and breathable sanitary pads with dry finishing technology. They have eight layers that prevent leakage and can absorb fluids in seconds. Retailing for R15 a pack, Dillets is one of the cheapest pads on the market.

With degrees in civil engineering and business management, Kanyane had no experience in the making or selling of sanitary products. However, she said the Covid pandemic provided the perfect opportunity for her to do the research that was needed.

“I was at home during the pandemic and I decided to conduct a survey that I sent to more than 100 women to share their input. And that's when I had the information necessary to figure out how to design this product that we now have,” she said.

Kanyane said that while there was not a lot of access into the pad manufacturing industry in South Africa, she received insight from other entrepreneurs who were already operating in the space. She said this gave her the confidence she needed to move forward.

In 2022, she used all her savings to start the business. Initially she imported the final product from China but a few months later realised the importance of producing the pads locally.

“I have a supplier in China who came to South Africa to teach my team how to produce these sanitary pads,” she said. “It was more than just about ensuring that the product was local, but also to learn skills that we could transfer to other people as we grow our team.”

I have a supplier in China who came to South Africa to teach my team how to produce these sanitary pads. It was more than just about ensuring that the product was local, but also to learn skills that we could transfer to other people as we grow our team

—  Dimakatso Kanyane

Reflecting on the challenges faced by the company, Kanyane said that almost three years after she first started operating, funding remains one of the biggest issues preventing the business from expanding. “We still want to scale the business to eventually be able to do in-house packaging, because the automated sanitary machine can only produce sanitary towels and we must outsource our packaging. So lack of funding would be like the big elephant in the room.”

Access to the marketplace was another issue Kanyane highlighted as a stumbling block. While she has managed to get her product onto the shelves at local Spar stores and filling stations in Mpumalanga, she said entering the retail market was proving to be difficult.

“The process of penetrating the commercial market is still a big challenge because the processes are quite lengthy, but it's something I will eventually get into. That is our long-term goal, to get into retail outlets nationwide.”

Today the company, which operates from a rented space in Siyabuswa, Mpumalanga, employs six people on a full-time basis and plans to hire two more this year. Using a machine with the capacity to produce 400 pads a minute, Kanyane said they sell a minimum of 20,000 pads monthly.

Dillets was named the best start-up business of the year in Mpumalanga by the National Presidential MSME Awards in December, adding a R200,000 cash injection into the business. 

The company has also become one of the suppliers of sanitary pads to local schools, which have collaborated with large corporations to help mitigate challenges presented by a lack of access to hygiene products. Through this programme, Dillets supplies 20 schools in Mpumalanga with pads. They also collaborate with mining companies in the area to provide pads for their female employees.

Kanyane plans to add more products, including tampons and panty liners, and facilitate training programmes to teach people how to mass produce sanitary towels so they can start their own businesses.