At Section 58 on the outskirts of Nakuru CBD, the name “Juice ya Willy” is a popular phrase you will frequently come across.

William Anase, popularly known as Willy Juice is a businessman in Nakuru, who is the owner of Willy’s Juice Parlour.

He started his juice business in 1997, when he introduced fresh juice from fruits like mango, avocado, passion and beetroot.

After losing his job as an engineer, Anase mentions that he began his business by introducing avocado juice to residents in Nakuru, which initially, was quite native.

Customers came to the business man’s parlour and tasted his new invention for the first time and over the years, Anase says his customers grew in large numbers as it was their first experience to taste fresh fruit juice.

“My customers have bought juice for their events, from weddings to birthday parties. What’s more, I have been selling juice on a large scale to firms and organizations in Nakuru,” reveals Anase to Mtaa Wangu.

Kwa Willy juice parlour in Section 58.

Photo credit: MERCY PROTAS/MTAA WANGU

Mr. Anase gives his background history on starting his business in the 1990’s, after realizing the Subukia sub-county abundance of passion fruits.

“In the process of my research, Nakuru proved to be a county rich in fruits. From there I started doing value addition on fruits to make fruit juice,” reveals Anase.

To his luck, Anase tells Mtaa Wangu that he got an opportunity to be trained on value addition by the Ministry of Agriculture on fruits and later, got the idea of selling fruit juice in section 58.

One challenge Mr. Anase has experienced is climate change.

Positively, he mentions that he became knowledgeable on the change in seasons for different fruits, ensuring that his diverse flavours of juice were available.

“As a businessman in the agricultural field, you ought to be familiar with the different seasons,” says Mr. Anase.

He mentions that for a thriving business, one has to be persistent in the industry and not be give up when faced with a challenge.

protasmercy01@gmail.com

From an engineer to a fruit juice vendor

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Mercy Protas