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 oper ations, 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 com mented, “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.