Every company that achieves scale starts somewhere small—often with a humble product born from an existing problem. For Newman Foods Limited, that moment of transformation began with a simple problem: discarded chili peppers.

This is the story of UG Kamulali chili sauce, the product that proved the true power of small beginnings and fundamentally defined our mission: To transform local abundance into Global Excellence.

In the earliest days, our focus was primarily on commodity trade, exporting Uganda’s fantastic produce, including local hot peppers, to external markets. It was a straightforward business model, but it was characterized with a lot of waste.

Despite the quality of the peppers, the long, rough journey by farmers to our warehouse often led to significant spoilage and damage. We were constantly dealing with baskets of “kamulali” that were unfit for export standards. It was a disheartening, costly problem.

This moment defined our first great entrepreneurial test. The choice was simple: continue dealing in commodities and accept the waste, or control the process and create the value ourselves.

The answer came not from further trading, but from a powerful idea: value addition. If the world didn’t want our raw, damaged peppers, we would transform them into a finished, shelf-stable product.

This was the birth of UG Kamulali back in 2014.

Our first value-added product was a declaration of independence from the commodity cycle. It proved that the true potential of Uganda’s produce wasn’t in its raw weight, but in our ability to process and perfect it. UG Kamulali was more than just a chili sauce; it was our first commitment to the relentless pursuit of quality.

The lesson from our first product remains our guiding principle: Never ignore small beginnings. It is often within that frustrating challenge—that single, small idea—that the greatest, most transformative opportunity for a business is hidden.

We are proud to champion “Made in Uganda” excellence many years and products after this pivotal moment, proving that when you apply ingenuity to local abundance, there is no limit to how far your small beginning can take you.