Bella Wines and Juices at 25: From kitchen production to two factories and counting…

By David Rupiny

Bella Wines is 25. Although today Bella Wines is a well-known wine brand, especially in the Ugandan market, it is hard to know that its humble roots go back 25 years, circa 2000.

“This year is Bella’s silver jubilee. I am celebrating 25 years in business, 75 years of life, and 45 years of marriage”, says Prudence Ukkonika, the brain behind K-Roma Limited that churns out the famous Bella wines and juices.

Bella’s story is an intriguing journey of passion, grit, hard work, perseverance, and a firm belief. What started as a flicker of business inspiration has blossomed into two factories churning out a variety of organic wines and juices.

What began as a modest operation in her kitchen has transformed into, first, a national success story, and now an international success story that spans three continents.

How it started

According to Prudence, as she is popularly known, her late son, Godwin Ukkonika, inspired her to start wine-making on account of its market and profitability. The son had briefly worked with his wine-making uncle in Kabale in southwestern Uganda and saw the huge potential. In 2000, they formed a company named “Kucharoma” in the local Lango language, meaning “peace is enough”. Then, a vicious civil war was raging in northern Uganda.

Initially, they sourced locally produced wines from relatives in the northern city of Lira and hawked them in Kampala. As fate would have it, Godwin, sadly, passed away. To etch his memory, she decided to go full-throttle. Armed with basic training in wine processing and a seed capital of just 100,000 Ugandan shillings (equivalent to about 30 dollars today) from her savings, Prudence ventured into wine-making, starting in her humble kitchen.

In 2004, she formalised the business, changing the name from the “unsexy” “Kucharoma” to the catchy “K-Roma”. The rest, as they say, is history.

Gap in the market

When Prudence noticed that there were no pure-natural fruit products on the Ugandan market, that was her light-bulb moment. She seized the opportunity to start producing organic fruit products, specialising in wines and juices (and halaal, for universal consumption).

The name Bella

Prudence is a strong believer in God and in what she does. She says she coined the brand name “Bella” from “Belief Leads to Lasting Achievement”. This has been her guiding light in investment and business, something she encourages younger entrepreneurs to embrace. “Bella” is now a household name, to the extent that it is now her moniker!

Making baby steps

Prudence worked hard to source the raw materials, process, package, market, and sell. With sheer perseverance, she not only kept the business afloat but also, as she puts it, “step-by-step I kept progressing and believing in what I was doing”. Sheer determination.

Soon, the market started responding positively to her wines, and the kitchen became too small for production. She emptied her garage and shifted the winery there. Again, the garage production could not cope with the increasing demand. She got a bigger space in Wandegeya, a bustling university “town” a stone’s throw away from Kampala city centre, where she ramped up daily production to 2,000 litres.

Scaling up

As Bella kept growing, soon the Wandegeya cottage factory production could not cope with increasing demand. She bought land in Mulawa in present-day Kira Municipality, on the eastern border of Kampala City, and set up a relatively bigger winery. From a kitchen, Bella Wines now had an appropriate industrial space for mass wine production, replete with storage, transport, and operational facilities. The Kira production line churns out 5,000 litres of various types of wines daily.

Business formalisation

Prudence is a firm believer in formalizing businesses. At an engagement, the monthly “Tuunda Market”, with young women entrepreneurs organized by the Uganda Investment Authority and the Academy of Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) Uganda Chapter, she advised them to formalize their start-ups early enough, however challenging it can be.

Prudence says, “You can’t go far if you are not business compliant. I had to formalize my business, and it has taken me very far. You need to engage agencies like Uganda Business Registration Services, Uganda Revenue Authority, Kampala Capital City Authority, Uganda National Bureau of Standards, National Social Security Fund, and Uganda Investment Authority early enough. If you comply with business legal and regulatory frameworks, you will be okay”.

She also advised the young entrepreneurs to keep records from the start: “Write everything because it is your business. It is good to start with proper bookkeeping, and that way it makes you keep track of your business and finances”.

Offer of industrial park land

Indeed, just like Prudence stated above, Bella Wines is one domestic investor that embraced getting an investment license from the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), which issues it free of charge and within 48 hours, if one meets all the requirements.

Armed with the investment license, UIA offered K-Roma land in Namanve, its flagship industrial park in Kampala, where Prudence is setting up her second factory for making a variety of Bella juices. When driving through Namanve’s northern section, Bella Juice factory boldly stands out, a testament to how far Prudence has come. Ebenezer!

Like with other domestic investors, UIA is, literally speaking, walking with Prudence in her investment journey.

Branding and marketing

Still at the “Tuunda Market” engagement hosted by UIA and AWE, Prudence said that along the way, she realized that in the product business, “image is everything”. In 2013, thirteen years after starting, she had to invest in sharp branding of her products and aggressive marketing, including online. Prudence went as far as Kenya, China, and Turkey to source branding materials. She says that it has paid off and her products now have instant brand recognition.

Capacity building

From the outset, Prudence knew that capacity building was key in her craft. She proactively sought technical and professional support, like getting tips on quality wine-making from the National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU), the umbrella organization for organic agricultural stakeholders in Uganda.

Prudence and her son also enrolled for business administration and accounting courses, respectively, at Makerere Business School (MUBS). She was the chief executive, while her son took care of the accounts. One of her daughters studied food science and technology and, at the master’s level, specialized in wine-making, adding another professional layer to the workforce.

“I’m studying not to impress anyone. I invest in knowledge and skills on my own terms”, she says, adding that she is now pursuing a master’s in business management.

Sourcing business capital

According to Prudence, a business with a higher chance of survival is one started with one’s own money. She says that is what she did in the early years of the startup and also relied on supplier credit, emphasizing that “trust is the best business capital”.

Prudence says that while banks used to shun her loan applications as she scaled up, now banks flock to her office, offering loans with generous terms. She says that is the same with many other suppliers, like trucks and machinery; all because they now see her progress and have gained her trust.

Her advice to start-ups: “Don’t focus so much on borrowing money, but rather focus on the materials you use. If you want to be a progressive business person, use your brain to grow. You don’t need to go to the bank all the time. Get materials from your suppliers. There are business people getting money from lenders all the time, but they are not growing”.

Value addition

Bella Wines is a typical example of a domestic investor who is actively involved in value addition to locally sourced raw materials like passion fruits, pineapples, hibiscus, and mangoes. Raw materials

Job creation

Currently, K-Roma employs over 50 permanent staff. The company also works with a network of farmers, primarily women, who grow fruits for the wine and juice products. In addition, Bella Wines also utilizes hundreds of seasonal workers.

Product differentiation

From just one type of wine made from passion fruits at the beginning, Bella now makes a variety of products: altar wine, grape wine, pineapple wine, red wine (from hibiscus), Bella special, and passion wine. She has also pivoted to Bella juices and Bella tea. While for long Bella was known for wines, the portfolio now includes juices and tea, and who knows what’s next in the product pipeline!

Expanding market

Bella grew its market share doggedly. Now Bella products are found on counters in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Prudence actively markets her products in various forums near and far. She says, although she first boarded a plane at the age of 45, now she is a frequent flyer who leaves no opportunity for pushing her products globally.

Challenges

According to Prudence, some of the challenges she has faced include accessing affordable capital, especially in the scale-up phase, sourcing raw materials during off-seasons, gaining market access and share, disruptions by the Covid pandemic, and other wine makers who do not care about quality.

“Some so-called wine makers are just spoilers”, she says. “People don’t know what real wine is in terms of quality”.

Business succession plan

Being a family-run business, Prudence is acutely aware of the continuity stakes involved. She has now taken on a more matriarchal role, leaving her food scientist daughter to run the business. One son is an accountant, and the other is a logistics manager. There is no iota of doubt that generational and managerial transition at K-Roma has been well underway for some time, a lesson worth taking by other domestic investors and businesses.

Awards

Bella Wines has been inundated with accolades. Here are just a few:

Uganda Manufacturers’ Association Best Small-scale Industries Award (2015)
Best Wine – People’s Choice Quality Awards (2015)
Best Wine – People’s Choice Quality Awards (2018)
Outstanding Female Entrepreneur of the Year – East Africa Responsible Business Awards (2015)
Mediterraneo Wine, Food & Travel Expo Napoli (2024)
Kacita Quality Awards “Buy Uganda, Build Uganda” Champion(2023)
Malaysian Award for Best Organic Hibiscus Juice
Best Still Table Wine PCA (2023)
Best Wine – People’s Choice Awards (2023)
Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Mbire Awards – Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association Limited
Best Product: Consumer Award for Wine Manufacturing – East Africa Responsible Business Awards (2015)
Woman Entrepreneur of the Year – Pilot International (2010)