Businessman Henry Masekesa has revealed how the Revive dairy beverage became a succesful busines in Zimbabwe.
Masekesa gave a detailed account of how his father started the company recording losses and profits but he did not quit.
He said: “So I remember the day my dad came home, sat the entire family down & said “What would be a cool name for an energy drink?” After some rather poor suggestions he said “Let’s open the Bible & whatever word my finger lands on we will shortlist.” – REVIVE was one of those words. As time passed he came to the conclusion that a dairy beverage was probably best for the market.
I remember him always working at the factory! He would come home after a full day, have dinner with everyone, then just as everyone was off to bed – I would hear him leaving. Sometimes I’d ask him where he was going so late at night – The answer was always the same “To Work” But every morning he would be there to take us to school, without fail! I never understood where he got the energy to go in day after day but he did.
Any time he had a breakthrough, he couldn’t stop talking about it at home!😂 I remember the time he got Jah Prayzah to make a jingle! He played that jingle EVERYWHERE! We could be walking into a restaurant & his theme music would be the jingle playing loudly off his phone 😂😂😂(classic embarrassing dad moments).
When he started bottling water – reverse osmosis was the topic of every conversation😂My mom could have been talking about her day & he would magically work reverse osmosis into a philosophical explanation of her day 😂🤦♂️ But my favorite by far was when he would make cheeky jokes about Dairibord Zimbabwe Private Limited’s cascade.
If it was up to me, some of those jokes would have been billboards in the CBD😂😂 But, I remember the number of trials he went through to get the right product formulation. He had thousands of litres go bad! He was often concerned about not meeting market demand.
He would buy machinery and sometimes have to deal with late arrivals. Worker theft on the assembly line was always an issue. Machinery breakdowns were like clockwork. He would be flying to different countries to meet with suppliers & sometimes come back empty handed! He was always fighting for his vision & he was bullish about it!! All the while, being a full time Dad.
