BBOXX through to final of Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award

BBOXX is delighted to announce that it has made into the final eight competitors for the Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2010.

Shell LiveWIRE News Item

The BBOXX team will be travelling to London on the 12th and 13th October to present to the likes of renowned entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne and others in pursuit of the £10,000 top prize. Wish us luck!

UK team departs Rwanda

The UK based team said goodbye to Rwanda on Thursday after nearly 6 months of combined man-hours in the country. Mansoor, Chris and Laurent have achieved nearly all their aims of sorting out the business paperwork, setting up the local production facility, employing the local management and production team, testing the market potential of the product and opening a facility in which to grow the business (as well as other achievements too numerous to mention).

We are glad to be leaving the day-to day running of the business in the safe and competent hands of the local management team: Justus Mucyo, Olivier Udahemuka and Hubert Rutage Ruzibiza; the team have a diverse set of skills that complements each other well and with the constant support they can expect from the UK based partners, we are confident they will suceed in the growing and developing the Rwandan branch of the business.

UPDATE: In recognition of the hard work the team have put into setting up the company and its potential for the future, the "Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year" has shortlisted the company for the final of the 2010 awards.

BBOXX Shop Opens for Business

The BBOXX team welcomed about 40 people to the opening  of their shop in Kigali on Wednesday night. The short gathering was to celebrate the enormous amount of work that the BBOXX team have achieved over the past two months in Rwanda, as well as to look forward to the exciting times ahead of us as we officially open our Rwandan operations.

The shop will also be used to assemble and produce the BB5 products and is an ideal collection point for larger distributors in the East African Community. BBOXX aims to keep you updated on the progress of our Rwandan operations over the coming months.

Director of Production Justus Mucyo speaking with a guest at the opening of the BBOXX Rwanda office

BBOXX saleswoman Kellen getting to grips with the office computer

BBOXX Shop Gets Ready for Business

Time for an update: BBOXX has been hard at work over the past two weeks, getting everything ready to produce, market and sell our first batch of 1000 units of the BB5. We've now received pre-orders for over 400 battery boxes at the Rwandan Expo, have generated extensive interest from distributors within Rwanda and around the East African region and have the team and facilities set-up to assemble and distribute the boxes over the coming months.

BBOXX's founding partners in their new shop and production facility

BBOXX's shop will be opening tomorrow (Wednesday 8th September) at our location on Avenue de la Justice in Muhima, Kigali. The shop will also comprise the assembly/production and storage area for the BB5 products, whilst giving distributors a convenient location to collect our products for sale around the country. Keep following the blog over the coming days to see how the shop opening went.

With the opening of the shop our initial business trip will be coming to an end, as BBOXX's UK based partners will be leaving the country on Thursday, returning to the UK to plan the future of the business and investigate potential new markets and products. We plan to return regularly over the coming months to ensure the business is progressing as we've planned.

The hard work doesn't stop here though; BBOXX's Rwandan team are now fully up to speed with all the aspects of the business and as of this Thursday, they will be the main contact point for BBOXX in Rwanda. They'll be working on finishing the production of the boxes (a 20ft shipping container is arriving on Monday with the remaining products), selling the boxes to distributors and individuals and most importantly, getting feedback on the reaction to this exciting new product.

In summary, these are exciting times for the business - the initial response to our product has been great and over the coming months we'll be keeping you updated on the blog with our progress and exciting plans for the future; stay tuned!