Stephen Grootes speaks to Norman Motsepe, founder of Essence Hair Care, about building a successful family-owned haircare brand, the sacrifices he made to grow the business, and how persistence helped secure a major retail partnership with Shoprite.
Listen to the interview in the audio player below.Building a successful consumer brand is rarely a straight path, and for Norman and Agobokwe Motsepe, the journey behind Essence Hair Care has been defined by persistence, calculated risk and a long-term growth strategy.
Norman Motsepe spent decades building his reputation as one of South Africa’s leading hairstylists, working with major brands, running salons and representing the country on international stages. After stepping away from the industry, he returned with a new ambition: creating a proudly South African haircare brand.
That ambition evolved into Essence Hair Care, officially launched in 2019. To finance the business during its early growth phase, the family made the difficult decision to sell their home and reinvest the proceeds into expanding the company after the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a significant capital commitment that allowed the business to continue operating when access to traditional funding proved difficult.
The father-and-son team adopted a hands-on approach, building the business product by product and customer by customer. Their product range has since grown from 10 to 22 items, while distribution has expanded from a handful of outlets to around 300 cosmetic stores across South Africa.
A major milestone came in 2024 when Essence Hair Care secured a supplier agreement with the Shoprite Holdings. After nearly two years of engagement, the company earned shelf space in around 20 Shoprite supermarkets across Gauteng, giving the brand access to one of Africa’s largest retail networks.
Speaking to Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, Norman Motsepe, founder of Essence Hair Care says like many entrepreneurial stories, Essence Hair Care also has humble beginnings. “Essence started in a humble beginning story. We started in a garage in fact, right in our house where we used to label and then my son would come in, in the morning finish the labeling or shrinking the product and then distributing in the morning, and then request the producer to give us more stock.”
– Norman Motsepe, founder – Essence Hair Care”We went in the backyard, in the garage and started to manufacture. It was very difficult…”
– Norman Motsepe, founder – Essence Hair Care”When we started there were some batches that we lost, where you find that the clients are complaining that there is a bacteria in your product and all that…it was tough. We had to go and buy back that product and you can’t do any other way. You can’t protect that. We had to throw it away and start again. But fortunately because relationships that we developed with other manufacturers and chemistry people, we managed.”
– Norman Motsepe, founder – Essence Hair CareScroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview,



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