Port Elizabeth-based Momento’s of Africa is continuing to expand. The business, which started as a curio shop and small weaving operation in Port Elizabeth airport, has opened its latest outlet in Sandton City, Johannesburg. The Sandton City hotel, shopping and conference centre complex is one of the most highly sought-after retail sites in Africa. Mogo in Sandton is Momento’s second Mogo outlet. The first was opened at Port Elizabeth’s Boardwalk Casino and Entertainment World in 2000. The worker-owned group’s retail arm includes the original Momento’s of Africa shop at the Port Elizabeth airport, Moyiso at Durban airport, and Midlands Mohair opened in Howick Natal in early 2002. Manufacturing of a range of mohair accessories, clothing and tapestries is done at a factory in Port Elizabeth. They are sold through the Momento’s shops, and are also being snapped up by fashion shops around the world, according to Momento’s ceo Lin Smith. Momento’s Brands include Baby-Mo (woven products), Shangora (knitted apparel) and imiBoniso (tapestries). Momento’s was started by Smith and two colleagues who were running a tapestry business based at the Port Elizabeth Entrepreneurship Centre (Pencen), which was started as a self-help centre by the technikon in 1988. It specialised in the production of mohair tapestries, which have the combined benefit of being labour intensive and uses locally produced raw material – the Eastern Cape supplies some 60 per cent of the world’s quality mohair. Pencen was forced to close when its funding dried up. Smith and two Pencen colleagues Beauty Simama and Thandi Mgidi formed Momento’s with R4 000 in capital, plenty of determination and a range of mohair tapestries designed by Smith. Today the company has a turnover of millions and employs over sixty people nation-wide. Lin Smith has 30 per cent of the shareholding, the black workers and managers 69 per cent and husband Roger Smith one per cent. “We never planned it to be an empowerment venture. It just happened that way. Last year the workers voted to give me a share of the company because of my contribution to its growth, which has averaged 250 per cent a year. It must be one of the few companies in the country where shareholding has become more white,” he says. The one “bit of luck” which every entrepreneur needs happened soon after Momento’s was founded and the Airports Company of South Africa offered it a shop previously occupied by Volkskas Bank in the Port Elizabeth airport building. “It is important for a factory like ours to have its own outlet so that it can test its products in the market and to provide a gallery for the works,” she says. The store breathed new life into operation and the range grew rapidly from the original tapestries and included an expanding range of mohair products, as well as African curios from a wide range of other producers. It was a winning formula. In 1996, the US Travel Press judged it as the best travel shop in South Africa. In 2001, Momento’s started using the leftover lengths of mohair yarn used to make blankets to knit scarves. “Scarves are much narrower so you can use the shorter leftover bits,” explains Roger Smith. The scarves have become one of the top selling items from the Momento’s outlets, and can be found in fashion shops around the world. “Today we export 60 to 70 per cent of our production right round the world, even though we have never tried to get an export order. People are beating a path to our door after they see what others have bought from our outlets in South Africa,” he says. “Left-overs” from the scarves and blankets are, in turn, being used for cardigans and other clothing items which are knitted at home by pensioners. While the airport shop continues to work well, Momento’s decided to move “more up-market” in 2000 with the opening of the Mogo store at The Boardwalk. It was a brave step to take as The Boardwalk was a brand new complex with an untested mixture of speciality shops, restaurants and a casino. “Mogo gave us a new window on the world and by the end of 2001 we had such big international demand that we had already sold everything we could make for the next year. It was time to expand,” says Smith. Once again the Airports Company came to the rescue. The Momento’s factory had already moved once, from its original disused hanger to another empty building between the airport runway and the Gqebera (Walmer) squatter camp. “We had outgrown the space, but struggled to find the right premises,” he says. One of the main requirements was “up-market” toilet facilities for everyone. “People kept showing us factories where there were wonderful toilets for the managers and either down-market or awful facilities for the workers. We couldn’t get them to understand that at Momento’s it is the workers who are the owners of the company. So, we built our own factory next to our existing building in 2002,” he says. While production at Momento’s relies on centuries-old crafts, the company is at the leading edge of information technology. “We are fully networked and are in the process of installing a web cam so our international distributors can see what we have in stock. Because everything is hand-made, it can take weeks to fill an order. The only way to speed that up is to buy from existing stock,” he says. That stock once again includes tapestries. “We are using the waste from the blankets to make the thread for the tapestries, so we have come a full circle. There is a range of stock tapestry designs, and the company will also make them to order. The largest work produced by the company hangs in Port Elizabeth's Feather Market Hall. It is three metres wide and over five metres high.