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This South African Entrepreneur’s Reason for Launching the Country’s First Black-Owned Vodka Company Is Astonishing

In a June 5 interview with CCTV Africa, entrepreneur, distiller and chemist Sibusiso Sibisi tells reporters about creating South Africa’s first Black-owned vodka brand, Distinkt Vodka.

In an April profile with SME South Africa, the entrepreneur reveals the brand is close to his heart because it represents his South African township of Kagiso in Johannesburg’s West Rand. That is why the Distinkt brand is spelled with a “k.”

The company started with four of his closest friends in 2012. Now, Distinkt Vodka plans to dominate the South African vodka market.

“We realized that there is a significant market opportunity for a proudly South African high-quality vodka, which is attractively priced, and is also a premium brand,” he tells SME South Africa.

In the current profile, Distinkt Vodka operates out of a laboratory in Durban, South Africa, where they use locally produced materials from farms to distill the vodka.

Sibisi describes his vodka venture as “economic emancipation.”  His goal is to show other South Africans that they too can create something that brings money back into the community.

The entrepreneur said his biggest goal is to invest in education and build schools.

The vodka will hit shelves in South Africa in September.

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