Founder of Hearty Delight Foods, producers of Accra’s loved yoghurt brand called Hearty Yoghurt.  She shares with us a bit of her family life, educational background, and how she and her husband were able to build Ghana’s fast-growing known drinking probiotic yoghurt.

 Who is the woman behind Hearty Yoghurt?  

Beyond my stay home mum life, I am enthusiastic about entrepreneurship. I have two lovely kids. I also have a handsome husband who has been my partner for the past years in raising our children and building the business.

I am a good cook and a voracious reader. I love learning and spending time with friends and family especially the young and ambitious who are creative and hard-working. 

How did your background prepare you for your role as Founder of Hearty Delight Foods? 

I am a publishing professional by training but my quest to sell started at an early stage in life when I used to help my Auntie run her pharmacy. After my formal education in the university, I found myself in the sales industry and I worked for 6 years as a salesperson. Back at school, fresh yogurt was my energy booster whenever I wasn’t feeling well. I remember after school I introduced it to my family and a close member who was diabetic saw a drastic change in his health after taking it for a while.

Tell us a bit more about your educational background till now  

I attended Dormass L/A primary school to JSS. I had my high school education at Sunyani Secondary School (SUSEC) and completed in 2004. In 2006 I went to KNUST for a bachelor’s degree in publishing studies. After completing in 2010 and completing my national service, I worked with Vodafone Ghana on contract for a year as a Customer Service Executive and proceeded to be an office manager for one of its distributing partners. Moving on in 2012 I joined PZ Cussons – one of the leading and old multinational companies in Ghana first as a graduate trainee and later got promoted to Assistant Manager after 2years. In 2018 I left PZ Cussons to become a stay-at-home –mom to take care of the kids. Being a stay home mom was a bit boring especially when the kids went to school so the idea of starting a business became very crucial. After planning and thinking through with my husband and family and the fact that fresh yoghurt was a stable food in my family made it easier for me to build a business around that niche. I went to learn the skills of producing, branding and marketing and in 2021 I launched Hearty Delight Foods with our first product called “Hearty Yogurt” as a startup company and it’s been amazing. 

How would you describe Hearty Yoghurt of Hearty Delight Foods? 

Hearty Delight Foods is a nutrition and Health Brand under Papakye Ventures. We started with healthy food services and evolved into a yoghurt manufacturing company as a result of the high demand for the freshly prepared yoghurt category of our products. Our philosophy and fundamental purpose is to make the future better and worth living by building a first-class organization that caters for our people, our customers and the world through quality health and nutrition.

What has been your most substantial accomplishment in the Ghanaian Food and Nutrition Industry? 

We are currently in Greater Accra Region. We are now extending into the Ashanti Region of Ghana. We celebrate the fact that we have stayed focused on what we promised to deliver to Ghanaians; high-quality food that provides great choice, great taste and great excitement to consumers. We are also fortunate to have Hearty Yoghurt known to be Accra’s fast-rising and known drinking probiotic yoghurt and have tried to be a consistent and reliable brand in the supply chain. We have had challenges along the way but stayed resilient to those challenges.

Apart from the Popular Hearty yoghurt, what other products does Hearty Delight Foods produce? 

We currently make Yoghurts – dairy and non-diary Yoghurts. We have categories and these are plain dairy yoghurt (Hearty Yoghurt brand). All these come in different flavourings like Strawberry, vanilla, pineapple etc. These are nicely packaged for convenience in both 330mls and 2liters and can be ordered online. These yoghurts provide the fibre that promotes efficient digestion that normalizes bowel movements; helps maintain bowel health, lowers cholesterol levels and controls blood sugar levels. It also aids in achieving a healthy weight.

All our products contain probiotics. Probiotics are friendly bacteria that help prevent and treat some illnesses promoting a healthy gut and immune system. Per Order, we can also make non-diary products formulated to help vegans and vegetarians.

What makes Hearty Delight Foods products the best choice on the market? At Hearty Delight Foods, one of our core values is quality. We believe in making products of the finest standard. Our products are nourishing and provide consumers with great satisfaction. We have consistently tried to maintain that trust with our consumers and that’s why they are loyal to us. We are always the first to innovate because we constantly seek opportunities to improve on the current. 

As you expand into the Regions of Ghana, do you have any plans for the concerns of malnutrition in those areas? 

Certainly yes!  Our company is built on the philosophy of building a first-class organization that caters for the world through quality health and nutrition. We have plans to develop quality dairy and non-products at lower price points to meet the needs of the malnourished in Ghana. This we believe will be more feasible as we develop a new market in Ghana.

Are Hearty Delight Foods products available for the international market? 

We are currently not in the international market. There are more opportunities to exploit locally and we want to ensure that we meet local demands before going international. We don’t want to run faster than our strength and disappoint internal partners but we are walking diligently to get there. We are sure to speed up when we develop the muscle to get there soon. We are not in haste because we believe we are doing the right thing and have the support of the almighty. 

Where do you see Hearty Yoghurts in the next 5 years? 

We want Hearty Delight Foods to build one of the best-in-class manufacturing facilities in Ghana. We also want to excel in business excellence and built a profitable company that is not only interested in making money but creating value for all stakeholders, especially for the communities we work with. We also want to see ourselves as a company doing business beyond the borders of Ghana and the West African Sub-region.  As a Founder, I have to create modules that work, find the resources and create motivation and incentive packages that will build our aspirations. This implies sourcing talents that will create a winning team and make vital strategic decisions that can be implemented by all within our teams.