Durban - It began as a tiny stall on a small farm, constructed from off-cuts from a local sawmill. Homegrown vegetables and fresh produce were on sale to passing traffic.
Today, the sprawling complex of 25 retail outlets, built at a cost of about R19 million, bears no resemblance to the original Piggly Wiggly Farm Stall.
And, while customers on the Midlands Meander can still pick and choose their farm goods and home-baked bread, there’s a host of other choices, everything from homemade pyjamas to linen to metalwork, wine, cheese, gifts, furniture – and more. There’s even a vineyard on the property.
Owner-entrepreneur Rudi Kassier said his vision was always to create a destination that would attract locals and city-dwellers: a place where they could forget the stress of urban living and, for a few hours, enjoy country life. He and his family bought the 57ha property 17 years ago.
“There wasn’t much on it, apart from the house and a small hydroponics enterprise. We grew veggies for the first dozen years, but had no experience. Building up markets with supermarket chains was challenging, so we decided to sell the fresh produce to locals,” said Kassier.
“We were carting carrots, spinach and lettuce down to the roadside and putting it on hay bales every morning and home at night. It was exhausting. Eventually, I bought some wood off-cuts from the sawmill and built a more permanent shack,” he said.
“Support for the produce was overwhelming.
After two years I decided to build new, bigger premises to house the farmstall and later a coffee shop. People loved it, and asked if they could open shops here.
“The pyjama shop was the first tenant, and we added on different shops every year until we had five thatched buildings,” Kassier said. After a few years of red tape, they finally received approval to build more shops. Tenants must fulfil strict criteria before signing five-year leases as part of their commitment to being based at Piggly Wiggly. More than 250 000 locals as well as tourists from throughout South Africa and abroad visit Piggly Wiggly annually.
“When choosing tenants, we prefer those with alternative sources of income, as this avoids placing too much strain on their shop at Piggly. This is to cater for the off-peak times,” said Kassier.
Expanding his enterprise further, Kassier planted vines on three hectares. His Lions River Chardonnay was the first chardonnay to be certified in KZN. Now Piggly Wiggly vineyards produce between 3 000 and 4 000 bottles annually, depending on the harvest. He is hoping to grow this to about 10 000 bottles a year.
In the pipeline are plans to turn his family home into a 20-room boutique hotel and extend the Piggly Wiggly experience into one incorporating the vineyards, winery, shopping and accommodation.
Kassier does not foresee more retail outlets opening at the complex in the near future.
“Although we have a healthy demand, we don’t want to lose the ambience.”
And, if you were wondering about the name, Piggly Wiggly was also the name of a small takeaway in Pretoria close to where his wife, Cindy, grew up and which she loved. After investigation, they found it had never been registered in South Africa so they applied to do just that. After two years, Piggly Wiggly was officially a registered trade name.
The Kassiers have three children, twin boys Matthew and Nicholas, currently completing their medical and law degrees in Stellenbosch, and a daughter Cathry n, who is in Grade 12 at St Johns in Pietermaritzburg. - The Mercury