Raksha Laghari

Raksha Laghari is the dynamic founder and CEO of AML Distributions. After completing her schooling, Raksha went on to complete an undergraduate law degree at the University of Natal. Following university, and after much debate, Raksha decided to relocate to Dublin, Ireland, where she attended various legal institutions until qualifying as a lawyer.

Raksha explained, “Like most young people, when I finished university, I wanted to progress, but I didn’t know how and after much deliberation, I decided to follow a legal career path in Ireland which was the best growth experience for me. My first job was for the most amazing soul called Angela Farrell at Farrell Solicitors, Dublin, which was definitely my formative career experience.”

CHANGING STREAMS
However, the world recession in 2008 meant that Raksha found herself in a situation where she needed to return to South Africa. “I realised that at the age of 30, I was going to have to start all over again, which meant changing streams from lawyer to doing trading.”

A conversation with her father about the cement shortage that South Africa was facing because of the 2010 World Cup allowed Raksha to recognise an opportunity.

“Even though I knew nothing about cement or where it came from, or how to get it, suddenly I had a real business concept and idea with which to work. Shortly afterwards, my husband and I imported our first seven containers of cement into South Africa. When we finally stopped importing cement, we were importing around 500 containers a month between three ports – Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.”

AML Distributions then shifted their focus to local suppliers, specifically the marketing, selling and distribution of Afrisam cement.

When their cement trade was well established, Raksha realised that although they had a large customer base, they were only selling them one item. They then looked at local manufacturers of roofing, bricks, gypsum board and other fast moving hardware materials and helped to find competitive ways to get these products into the retail sector.

A UNIQUE POSITION
At that stage AML found themselves in a unique position where they were a leading distributor of locally produced fast moving hardware products. With this distribution activity, came the necessity to have their own logistics fleet. AML is proud to own and operate a fleet of over fifty long distance trucks, which has lent reliability to the business and helped it grow.

A further opportunity arose when a local cement producer disposed of their aggregate and ready mix operations. AML successfully bid for these two operations, which are based in Newcastle and Ladysmith.

Raksha commented that entering the mining sector is the accomplishment that makes her proudest. “It’s something that I jumped into without any real previous knowledge, but I was fully with the programme. The issues to understand the mining charter, how operations function on a day-to-day level, massive machinery, production operations and the load and haul etc. were all very complicated.” Raksha’s success in this sector speaks to her efforts.

“I am enjoying the growth path that the company is experiencing now that we’ve gotten all the hard work out of the way. My purpose is to keep us on the same trajectory and to see us constantly evolve and realise our full potential.”

Her vision for AML over the next ten years is to move from being a predominantly trading company to one that is more wealth creation driven by venturing into the property and development sector.

FINDING OPPORTUNITIES
Speaking on her company’s growth, Raksha commented, “The best advice that I have ever received, and I’ve repeated it countless times to people that I have come into contact with, because I found it profound, is very simple. It’s that opportunities lie all around us and that you can’t create an opportunity; you need to identify and work with the opportunities that are around you now.”

The biggest challenge that Raksha has faced is achieving a balance between a happy business life, a happy home, and a happy personal life, so that she is in the best place mentally and physically to be able to accomplish what she needs to do every day.

Raksha prides herself on motivating her team by keeping things real and is available to them as much as possible. “We have regular informal meetings with all sectors of our business, and I try to be supportive to everybody. I share more of my challenges with them than they share with me. And the reason I do so is for them to understand that I face the same challenges on a personal level. We’re all in this business together, we’re all in it to survive.”

The person that inspired Raksha the most was her second employer, Neil Sharon, a solicitor in Dublin, who she worked under for six years. He taught her how to work under pressure, how to work on her own and how to grow her skills.

“He taught me to never second guess my decisions. He taught me how to be an amazing employer; how to keep my team inspired. He kept me inspired and motivated to keep improving, and our practice grew. I learned first-hand that if I wanted to grow, I needed to allow everyone around me to grow as well.”

In conclusion, says Raksha, “My motto is one I won’t live by rather than a motto that I will live by. I personally loathe the motto, ‘don’t work hard, work smart’, because I believe that if you are smart, you will know that without hard work you cannot progress. Hard work has got to be your number one priority. In time, hard work makes life easier. Being an entrepreneur is hard work. It will never get easier. It will always remain challenging, but that’s why you’re chosen to do what you do.”