Sénar Les délices de Lysa, a family business founded in 1977 by Lydie Sagbo and specialized in the processing of peanuts and cashew nuts, then it was taken over in 2015 by her daughter Sylvie. Thus, she tells us the story of this growing SME;
Sylvie Sagbo-Gommard has always lived among peanuts. As a child, she helped her mother, Lydie, to process the peanuts and to bag the finished products and then sold them in front of the family home. Their secret? A refractory stone oven heated over a wood fire, so that the food is dry-grilled and retains all its flavor and crunch. Very quickly, the success gained momentum and Lydie decided to expand her production with cashew nuts and popcorn. In 1982, she obtained a FRA number (which authorizes the manufacture, processing, packaging and sale of all products intended for human or animal consumption in Senegal) and began to sell in the supermarkets of the time. .
As the years go by, Lydie thinks of stepping down to retire. But she wants Sénar to stay in the family. Sylvie, the third of her five children, decides to take over the established business. She, who studied in Dakar and then in France (she obtained a master's degree in finance and market management from the Paris School of Management) and who then worked for 18 years in France in market finance, decided to take over. "I wanted to go home," she says.
Life in the Paris region, with two young children, was becoming complicated. We had launched an African cuisine restaurant with my husband and we already knew the life of entrepreneurs. I really wanted to do business in Senegal where I felt things were moving. And today, I like all the aspects of this new challenge: sales, marketing, innovation in order to always be ahead of the competition...". Indeed, the competition is very present but does not discourage Sylvie, quite the contrary, it is what makes her progress: “The key to success is innovation. We are always inventing new products to stand out. It is important, especially in Senegal where we are quickly copied,” she explains.
Production in Dakar (which had previously been in the family home) was relocated near Rufisque on April 1, 2019 to more spacious premises to accommodate the staff, which has tripled (around thirty people today, mostly women). Since her arrival in 2015, Sylvie has made major changes in several areas: creation of a new visual identity, launch of new products, development of social networks, implementation, with the help of her husband, of more efficient management allowing better monitoring of accounting, deliveries, etc.…
“The first year, I mainly reorganized the company to make it more efficient,” analyzes Sylvie. And the turnover increases significantly! “The biggest challenges are related to human resource management and funding,” she continues. Training is put in place for staff, who are, on the whole, very loyal to the company. In addition, in 2017, the investment fund Teranga Capital invested in the company and is supporting it in its growth.
