One of an occasional series introducing black travelers and their Web sites
SITE: Heritage Link Brands
A young black couple with an entrepreneurial spirit and a love of wines is reaching across the Atlantic to black South African winemakers looking to expand their markets.
The result: A million-dollar business built on a foundation of economic justice — and controlled by black folks at both ends.
Khary Cuffe is 35. If afforded no more than a quick glance at him, you could be forgiven for mistaking him for NFL running back LaDainian Tomlinson of the New York Jets.
But Cuffe is making his moves in the business world.
He and his wife, Selena, 32, are using travel to build a business and make a statement at the same time.
They’ve formed a import company, Heritage Link Brands, LLC. He’s the chief financial officer and she’s the CEO. They’ve hooked up with black South African vintners to bring their wines to market in the United States — and above it.
They’re making these wines available in 39 states in some 900 restaurants and markets across the country, including Sam’s Club, Albertson’s and Shaw’s. They’ve also signed deal with both American and United airlines to serve South African wines on their flights.
And naturally, they’re selling these wines on their Web site.
They started in 2005 with $75,000 of their own savings and credit cards. By 2008, they were distributing eight black-owned South African wines. A year later, they’d made their first million.
“The response,” he said, “has been phenomenal.”
They’ve been featured in newspapers,websites and magazines, including Black Enterprise. And neither of them is within hailing distance of 40 yet.
But their mission is about more than making their fortune, as Khary Cuffe explained to me when I ran into him at the pre-launch dinner at the Red Rooster Harlem restaurant:
“Wine is South Africa is a $3 billion industry, but less than 2 percent of it is controlled by blacks, even though blacks are 84 percent of the population. We want to engage this industry in South Africa, and help make it look more like the country.”
Their wines are produced by a cooperative of black farmers. Labels include One World, M’Hudi and Seven Sisters.
M’Hudi is the first wholly black-owned and operated winery in South Africa. Its owners, Diale and Malmsey Rangaka, left secure city careers to venture into winemaking, neither knowing anything about farming or winemaking. They tell their story in the video above.
According to Cuffe, the Seven Sisters are even more remarkable:
“The family got evicted from their land in apartheid and got split up. The women reunited the family after 20 years, and as a tribute to their family, they started producing wines.”
In addition to making sure that all the South African wines they distribute are produced on black-owned farms and coops, the Cuffes also are following fair trade practices in their dealings with their black South African partners.
And looking ahead, he sees travel becoming part of the mix for black South African vintners, just as it already is for their counterparts in the United States, Europe and elsewhere:
“Wine tourism, that’s the next step. Creating tasting rooms, B&B’s. We want to help them build their farms to self-sufficiency. They’re almost there, they’re close. Having the World Cup there (in South Africa) really helped.”
Having an energetic young black American connection with business skills and a commitment to “doing the right thing” doesn’t hurt too much, either.