Meet our Top 50 Thriving Female Founder for 2019 Edition

BlackOlive House started in August 2013 in a small apartment situated in Gordon’s Bay where Nonhlanhla, who is the founder, catered for a private aviation company. Nonhlanhla at the time was also working for the private aviation company, as a Flight Administrator, in which she saw a gap. There was a need for better catering services and that resulted in her doing executive lunch boxes for the aircraft owners and their families, as well as some of the chattered clients of the company. In 2014, Makhosazana Masombuka, moved to Cape Town to further expanded the company, taking in larger volumes of clients and further finding ways to grow the business. At the end of 2014, Nonhlanhla moved to Johannesburg to take a job at Airtec as a Training Coordinator, while Makhosazana remained in Cape Town to focus on her studies. 

Nohlanhla penetrated the Johannesburg food market sphere for a better part of the remainder of 2014 to 2016. At the end of September 2016, Nonhlanhla resigned from her fulltime job to focus on the business. This resulted in the opening of the company’s cooking studio in Maboneng, Johannesburg. Makhosazana rejoined the company after the completion of her studies at Stellenbosch University in 2017. With over 155 clients to date, we have grown faster than anticipated and we have formulated a team that continues to take the brand to new heights. BlackOlive House has blossomed into an exclusive, professional and bespoke brand that caters to the niche market which continues to deliver quality products and services to its clientele. It is a company committed to growing and ensuring that it helps pioneer the food culture and industry in the country, through collaboration and opening conversations about the art of fresh, quality and healthy food.