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Reinventing perceptions of Africa through wine
Selena Cuffe (MBA 2003) and her company, Heritage Link Brands, import wine made by black South African vintners. In so doing, Cuffe is helping to reverse the effects of apartheid: the vintners gain access to more capital, can own their land, and ultimately help reinvent the global perception of their country.
After visiting a wine festival in Soweto, South Africa, in 2005, Cuffe and her husband, Khary Cuffe (MBA 2007), realized that by establishing Heritage Link Brands and distributing these quality wines, they could show that luxury goods are produced in Africa.
One of their suppliers, the winery Seven Sisters, produced the first South African wine served on American Airlines. The South African government helped to negotiate a land purchase for Seven Sisters, which, until that point, owned no vineyards and had to contract farmers and a winery to grow grapes. Now Walmart has Seven Sisters in 1,500 stores between the United States and South Africa, and is eventually expanding into other countries.
“Founding the company wasn’t about wine; it was about striving to transform the way the world perceived Africa, through the medium of wine,” says Cuffe.
(Published April 2014)
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