YOU + US = WE is the ethos behind the launch of the YOU Cookie Company brand in South Africa. Impact driven social entrepreneur and owner, Adri Williams, known for her company’s popular Khayelitsha Cookies, is looking to take her incredibly successful cookie baking business model and social impact to the next level.

At YOU Cookie Company, Adri and her incredible team hand bake and hand pack cookies in their factory which employs previously unemployed women from a rural community called Khayelitsha in Cape Town, South Africa. In a country where 64% of children die before the age of 5 years due to underlying causes of malnutrition, every woman the company employs enables them to take care of between 5-7 dependents, reducing these statistics. Most of the women employed cannot read / write or speak english, preventing them from finding employment. With over 30% of South Africans unemployed, every woman who is employed at YOU Cookie Company also radically reduces these statistics. What takes the company 40 days to bake takes a machine just 1 day. Cookie baking takes place in an international food safety accredited factory, which has an export licence, and is FDA certified. YOU Cookie Company specializes in hand baked, hand packed cookies, gift sets, corporate own branded cookies, cheese straws, brownies and biscotti.

Speaking about the new launch, owner Adri Williams, says:

“You the consumers who buy these cookies are enabling us here in South Africa to make a difference, leading to women’s economic empowerment in South Africa. Every 1000 cookies we bake and sell per day provides employment for 1 woman permanently in our business, empowering her to take care of between 5-7 dependents at home and in her community. Help us to radically reduce unemployment, and give women the opportunity to earn an income to take care of their dependents.”

Adri and her team at YOU Cookie Company are also raising funds to purchase a farm to grow their own healthy delicious vegetables which will be used to bake these mind-blowing, exceptionally yummy cookies that are made with love.

What makes the new YOU Cookie Company products different from anything else in the marketplace is that each cookie is lovingly hand baked and hand packed, and that means impact at a practical employment creation level. For every 1000 cookies sold, your purchase allows the company to employ 1 woman, empowering her to take care of 5-7 dependents. That is real impact happening on a daily basis. The company’s structure is also an example of empowerment in action - it is a 100% women owned and managed business, and a 51% black women owned and managed company.

Adri and the team at YOU Cookie Company are launching a new fundraiser initiative to help them to buy their much needed farm, to produce high quality raw ingredients and, importantly, to create more jobs. She adds:

“If you support our fund raiser for just $2 you can help us purchase the farm in no time at all and help us to employ at least another 20 women. We will teach them to grow their own vegetables in planter boxes off the ground, and create the first black women-owned and managed farm in South Africa, farming with hydroponics / aquaponics combined systems.”

The new company and brand was recently launched at the American Food and Beverage show in Miami in the USA. To celebrate the launch, the company is offering a special impact driven sales incentive campaign - customers who purchase 200 gift bags or more, will appreciate that the impact extends further than just the company employees. The gift bags are sewn by the residents of an old age home who need funding to put meals on their tables - each gift bag is filled with a lovely packet of Khayelitsha Cookies. So for all those who want to buy Christmas gifts that will make a bigger impact in society, Adri and her team at YOU Cookie Company invite you to please purchase a gift that has heart, one gift assisting 2 women organisations. The gift sets cost $4 excluding shipping costs.

Talking about her aspirations for this new impact driven initiative, Adri Williams says:

“YOU, the customers, are our secret ingredient, just like our vegetables are our secret ingredients in these amazing packets of cookies. You are the success factor in our story. Please support our project, by purchasing and donating. Help us to help women to empower themselves. By YOU purchasing these cookies YOU are enabling us to empower women in South Africa and put food on their tables.”

Customers can buy these fabulous, impact driven, delicious cookies and gift bags by contacting the YOU Cookie Company team via email sales@kcco.co.za or by phoning
+27 21 510 2300.

To take a look at the digital brochure, click here.

Find out more

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | EMAIL adri@kcco.co.za