Entrepreneur turns 960 naira (less than $1) into national food business

Interview with Debby Lawson
FOUNDER, FASTIZERS FOOD AND CONFECTIONERY

Lives in: Nigeria

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Fastizers Food and Confectionery, a Nigerian snack food company best known for its cookies, was founded in 2010 by Debby Lawson. She started the business with just 960 naira – about 60 US cents at today’s exchange rate.

How we made it in Africa editor-in-chief Jaco Maritz spoke to Lawson about growing the company from a home kitchen to a national brand, and the challenges of operating in Nigeria’s tough economic environment.

Topics discussed during the interview include:

• Starting the business with 960 naira
• Cracking the informal market
• Tactics for staying afloat in a volatile economy
• Why Fastizers expanded into bread
• What she would do differently if starting over

Watch the full interview below: (only available on howwemadeitinafrica.com)

Interview summary

Lawson studied electronics and computer engineering at Lagos State University. Her original plan was to land a job in the banking or oil sectors.

While waiting for responses to job applications, she took a temporary position at a bakery in Lagos. Lawson had loved cooking since childhood, and the job gave her hands-on experience not just in baking, but also in marketing, managing staff, and running day-to-day operations.

One night, while working on a large cookie order, she thought about baking her own cookies to sell. Her sister was already selling snacks at her office and could help distribute them.

A few weeks later, her sister told her that someone had brought poor-quality cookies to the office. She mentioned that Debby baked better ones, and colleagues asked to try them.

Debby went to the market with 1,000 naira (62 US cents at the current exchange rate) to buy ingredients. “I returned home with only 40 naira left, so I always say Fastizers started with 960 naira,” she reminisces.

First sales and early growth

Using the bakery’s ovens, she baked her first batch and packed the cookies in plain paper. Her sister took 20 packs to the office. They sold out by noon. The next day, she gave her sister 30 packs. Those sold out too.

Debby decided to give the shortbread-style snack a brand name. Today, Fun Cookies remains Fastizers’ flagship product.

She expanded to nearby shops, many of which she already knew from delivering for the bakery. Orders began to grow.

Balancing her bakery job with her cookie business became too demanding. She eventually quit and moved production to her sister’s kitchen in a three-room apartment.

She baked late into the night after family dinners. “Sometimes I’d be in the kitchen at 2am baking cookies,” she says. “But when you’re doing something you love, it really doesn’t feel like stress.”

Tapping into the informal market

Most Nigerians shop through informal retail – roadside stalls, street vendors, and open-air markets. Tapping into this network is essential for reaching mass-market consumers.

Debby’s then-fiancé, Gbola Lawson, came up with a way to introduce the cookies to informal vendors. One Saturday, he took a few packs to a busy bus terminal in Lagos and gave them to a seller free of charge, promising to buy back any unsold stock by Monday.

When Debby followed up with the vendors, they all asked for more stock. “I was excited; I was jumping,” she says.

Fastizers began supplying more cookies to these sellers, eventually delivering three dozen packets per vendor every day. They replicated this approach at other busy terminals across Lagos.

Scaling up operations

By 2011, demand had outgrown her sister’s kitchen. Gbola, who was then working at a bank, secured a personal loan to fund a modest production space in Oshodi, Lagos. Fastizers hired staff to help with baking and deliveries.

But supplying directly to informal shopkeepers became increasingly difficult. Each evening, Debby and her team had to visit vendors to collect payments for stock that had been given on credit. It was also risky to move around with cash at night, and many vendors regularly changed locations, making it hard to track them down.

To solve this, Debby decided to stop selling directly to the vendors and instead supply her products through distributors of consumer goods. These distributors, located at major bus terminals, supply a wide range of goods to nearby informal retailers.

Distributors are easier to manage. Many already had close ties with vendors and helped introduce Fastizers’ products into new areas.

Expanding beyond Lagos

As Fun Cookies gained popularity, more distributors wanted to stock them. Sales spread naturally to other parts of the country.

One distributor from Aba, Abia State, discovered Fun Cookies during a trip to Lagos. He started placing bulk orders for the eastern region.

Aba is a commercial hub serving cities like Calabar, Enugu, and Owerri. Distributors from these areas soon reached out to Fastizers directly.

Today, the company operates in over two dozen states. In the larger ones, it works with multiple distributors and has appointed sales managers to oversee relationships.

In 2013, Fastizers had reached annual turnover of 200 million naira (about $125,000 at the current exchange rate). It bought land and, with financing from the Bank of Industry, built its own factory.

Fastizers has expanded its product range over the years, launching several new items. These include Nibit, a bite-sized cookie snack introduced in 2019; Sweet Stix, a chin chin product; and, most recently, a biscuit called Rave. Lawson says diversification is essential for success in the fast-moving consumer goods industry.

The company promotes new products with marketing activations – live dancers, music, and free samples in market areas. “[It’s] cost effective and it really works for us,” says Debby.

Securing investment

In 2023, Fastizers secured a $2 million investment from Aruwa Capital Management. The funds were used to complete a second factory.

The new facility features automated production lines. Previously, Fastizers relied on semi-automated systems that required more manual labour.

The automation lowers costs and allows greater product variety. Fun Cookies, however, remains the company’s best-selling product.

Fastizers now employs more than 200 staff.

Weathering macroeconomic headwinds

Operating in Nigeria has become more difficult. Inflation rose above 30% in 2024, and the naira has depreciated significantly over the past two years.

“It’s a really tough terrain now. It’s very, very tough,” says Debby.

With input and logistics costs rising, Fastizers has had to find ways to absorb the pressure. Increasing prices is not an option as its customers’ disposable incomes are already under pressure. One strategy has been shrinking pack sizes. A product that once weighed 50 grams now weighs 15 grams. “But it gets to a limit where you cannot shrink anymore,” she says.

Some premium-priced items have also struggled to gain traction. Fastizers is now leaning heavily into lower-cost products.

The company recently entered the bread market with a product called Fun Bread. “Bread is very filling,” Debby explains.

She says the current environment calls for constant flexibility. “Things are changing each day. So your five-year plan – by the time you get there, everything has changed,” she says. “The economy is very volatile now.”

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