Tropical Heat is a household name in its native Kenya, yet the roots of this snack and spice brand are considerably more humble. Deepa Industries was founded in 1973 with just three people, who worked from a house producing ethnic snacks.

Today, the firm employs more than 140 people within a sophisticated 4,200-square-metre facility in the heart of Nairobi’s industrial area – and director Sawan Shah has dreams of taking its moreish offerings worldwide.

“We manufacture spices, seasonings and a wide range of snacks – and as a company, we want to be innovative and deliver new products,” he says.

“In order to do that, we need to be in environments that stimulate new ideas and stay abreast of developments that have yet to reach our market. When we first heard about Gulfood Manufacturing and thought about whether to attend, we looked at the type of companies that would be there and it was a no-brainer. There’s a lot of new machinery and packaging out there, so the chance to have this all in one central point made it a good proposition.”

Shah believes the breadth of the event made for a pleasant surprise. “Gulfood Manufacturing offers opportunities for both buying and selling, meaning you can meet customers as well as suppliers,” he says.

“It’s also good for networking – rather than visiting different countries to meet clients, we can catch up with them all under one roof – there’s no excuse not to! That’s a major plus point. Also, it attracts a huge number of suppliers, many of which don’t operate in East Africa and that we’d never otherwise get to hear of. “I was approached by the representative of a new market we hadn’t dealt with before, as well as by distributors and customers – a bonus I hadn’t expected. In all, we’re working with 15 new suppliers since last year, all contacts we made at Gulfood Manufacturing. You get to meet people from across the whole supply chain, and from all over the world.”

One encounter at the show has proven particularly fruitful. Based in Australia, TNA is a global supplier of integrated food packaging and processing solutions, with systems installed in more than 120 countries.

“While we were there, we bought packaging machinery from TNA, which has revolutionised the way we package some of our key snacks,” says Shah.

“Since then, the firm has installed the equipment for us and it’s fully operational. The machine helps us to bag potato crisps, taking them from a conveyor belt and then filling and sealing the foil packets.

“Until recently this part of the process was done by hand, and later on it was performed by machines that only sealed the bags. Now the process is becoming more and more automated – our old machine was a lot slower.”

He adds: “We already export to 14 countries worldwide, and now the Tropical Heat brand has grown to a point where it’s ready to expand once more. We’ve ordered two more units from TNA to help us do just that.”