In September 2021, company directors Julie Coetzee and Briony Sparg found themselves without fixed income on the same day. One word – Covid. With a huge deficit of income to make up, they leaned on the resources they had… an organic veggie garden and a flock of ducks and chickens laying eggs, daily.

Quickly organic pesto was being sold on WhatsApp chains, and meringues were being whipped up and out of the kitchen faster than they could handle. One lead led to another, a deli to a butchery and quickly to larger orders from retail outlets kept coming.

At this stage they had to make the call to pick a speciality and meringues seemed to hit the sweet spot, so pesto was shelved temporarily.

The sales were expanding while they worked around constructing their industrial kitchen and getting all the food safety checks in place.

Briony obtained her kitchen management qualifications, as well as adding new skills and qualifications through the kitchen team. Julie was given a crash course in FMCG and receivings best practices in record time.

Sweet Thing is now a well-known brand in the Eastern Cape, and the team have recently expanded to include the Western Cape, Garden Route and Buffalo City Metropolitan.