Walkie-talkies in a can scores three-year Shoprite deal

A Limpopo-based canning company, Tin Stuff, which launched Walkie-talkies (chicken feet) and necks in 400-gram cans in 2020- has scored a three-year deal to supply the Shoprite Group exclusively.

Walkie-Talkies is not only a South African delicacy but, it’s long been an affordable source of protein for low-income households.

Chicken feet, necks and giblets are typically discarded parts of the chicken, but in South African townships, these parts are used to produce affordable and delicious street cuisine.

Walkie-talkies in a can are the brainchild of Eiren Drake and his late grandfather Spencer Drake.

The two began constructing a canning plant in Tzaneen in 2017 and launched it amid the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

Tin Stuff started producing the flagship product line – 400g can of chicken feet and necks, that same year. 

Co-founder Eiren Drake said the idea of canning chicken feet and necks stems from his upbringing in rural Limpopo. 

“As a young boy, I spent a significant amount of time with my late grandfather’s employees, whose children were my friends.

It was then that I was first introduced to the widely loved and consumed dish of chicken feet, which very quickly became one of my favourite meals – and it still is today,” said Drake. 

Drake says that while learning about the dominant food and the cultures he grew up around – he became acutely aware of how many struggled to access good quality protein. 

The company’s solution to that problem was to can chicken necks and feet.

Tin Stuff currently employs 35 people per production shift, and they have room to increase this to as many as 60 full-time employees should demand for the product increase.  

Among the employees integral to Tin Stuf’s mission are several friends who introduced him to the dish as a young child.

“Today, they are the very people behind our innovation to develop a new product concept and our inspiration to follow through and attempt to launch it,” he said. 

Last month retail giant Shoprite Group approached Drake to exclusively supply it for a three year period.

“As a small business owner and my very first engagement with formal retail in the corporate space, it has been an absolute honour and great privilege to work under the guidance of the Shoprite team,” said Drake.

“They haven’t just had a significant impact on the future of our small business, but rather, Shoprite has become the future on which the existence of our business is now based.” 

But the Shoprite deal is a bittersweet moment. Tin Stuff co-founder and Drake’s grandfather – Spencer died in November 2020 a few months after launching the flagship product.

“The unexpected passing of my business partner, investor, life coach, mentor, and beloved grandfather was, and has since been, by far the most difficult challenge that I’ve had to mitigate,” said Drake. 

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