In the late 80s, Sophie Nantongo, then in her early 20s set up a cosmetics shop in Makindye, a Kampala suburb. According to a friend, she was coming out of an abusive relationship and wanted to do something that would give her financial independence.
The business took off well and in a short time she was regularly taking the bus to Kenya to source and buy cosmetic products.
By 1993, the business had expanded exponentially and she decided to found African Queen (AQ) Limited.
In the beginning AQ used to distribute cosmetics to dealers in Kikuubo but when she realized that traders encountered difficulties in accessing other goods she incoproparted other fast moving goods.
Today, AQ is the largest fast-moving consumer goods distribution company in Uganda, with seven depots and serving customers across the country.
By 2021, African Queen Limited was the third biggest taxpayer behind Africa Oil Limited and Abacus Drugs Limited, according to figures from Uganda Revenue Authority. In 2021, the firm had a turnover of Shs 86 billion.
The company has more than 250 permanent employees, over 300 vans and trucks and more than 100 tuk-tuks (tri-motorbikes).
It serves more than 1000 wholesalers across the country.
African Queen also owns a number of warehouses in Namanve Industrial Park and other parts of the city.
Quiet
Nantongo, who is reclusive, is said to be in her late 50s. She rarely attends social functions.
She puts up in Kololo, near the residence of Tumusiime Mutebile, the late former governor of Bank of Uganda.
One of her employees said that she is kind and down to earth.
“I remember suring our end of year party in 2019, she was the one serving us sodas. She mingled with us freely,” said the mployee who has worked with her for ten years.
Yet like any other business, Nantongo has also had her ups and down.
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In interviews she has said that during the first three months of the pandemic, African Queen made losses, but Nantongo was committed to finding a way to continue paying her team.
“We could not just say to them ‘you’re fired, go,” she said. “We needed to find ways to sustain the company.”
At the same time, customers were adapting to the conditions by opting to buy from neighbourhood kiosks and convenience stores, rather than larger supermarkets. Her company needed to respond urgently.
She says they changed their sales methods from relying on trucks and vans transporting products to wholesalers, to a direct sales teams serving retailers directly on tuk-tuks.
Second, the company hired commission-based sales agents, each responsible for their own tuk-tuk.
“Every sales representative was given formal online training that included brand knowledge and customer services training, allowing them to operate as almost autonomous businesses within AQ,” she says.
The tuk-tuks brought life into the company, says Nantongo.
Thirdly, the company built AQ Direct, an app that digitises the ordering process across its supply chains, allowing retailers to order online through the new platform.
The app was developed to include data dashboards which deliver critical business intelligence to AQ’s management team and provide sales representatives with data on which new products may be of interest to retailers.
Nantongo’s philosophy in life is simple and to succeed like she has, one has to motivate their team to see the bigger goal.
“I believe in positive thinking, creativity and teamwork. I try and foster the spirit of parallel effort and like the phrase ‘united we stand and divided we fall’,” she says.