Nature’s Touch manufacturing company improves their  production systems and processes through the upscaling program. 

Nature’s Touch  is a Kenyan-based manufacturing company that produces and distributes skin care products under the Brand name Hawi. Its overall goal is to produce skin care products that are authentic and 100% natural that will offer skin care solutions. According to the co-founder Diana, the company’s product line was shea based but they have recently launched non-shea-based products like face serum to increase their product line. "We focus on functionality and scent, meaning that every product we produce we ensure that it is providing skin wellness to every user” She added. 

Skin care plays a vital role in the overall health and appearance of human beings, making it a priority for many. Like other small and medium enterprises in manufacturing that focus on skin care products, Nature’s Touch faced a major challenge in product development. “When you are in skin care you have to continuously improve your product to stay ahead of the game.” According to Diana, for their business to grow they needed to be able to identify their strengths and weaknesses.  

To get solutions for this problem, Diana and Carol her co-founder, joined Invest in Africa’s initiative on upscaling manufacturing SMEs in natural products to grow her company through quality products. According to her, one of the lessons that stood out was about new product development. “After the training, my team and I were able to understand what we are good at and what we need help with. This outline has ensured that if we introduce a new product, we need formulation and when we need to improve our current product, we need an expert to review our current product." Diana added. 

Through the new product development Module, Nature’s touch understood the importance of record keeping and incorporated proper tools that have improved their systems and processes. Through transparency and traceability, Nature’s Touch has been able to record data of their raw materials and supply chain and are able to refer back for information. This has helped them to make better decisions. 

Nature’s Touch is one of the 40 MSMEs from Kenya and Uganda that have been engaged under this Initiative that IIA is implementing in partnership with GIZ’s Business Scouts for Development. The program involved technical support within five modules: Access to finance, access to the market, new product development, good manufacturing practices, and transparency and traceability.