Oryx Desert Salt: Taking a South African story to the world
Oryx Desert Salt founder Samantha Skyring turned pure Kalahari salt into a growing South African brand by finding the right customers, embracing sustainability and taking action despite self-doubt.
For most of us, salt is one of the simplest ingredients on the table.
For Samantha Skyring, it became the foundation of Oryx Desert Salt, a South African brand that is increasingly finding its way onto international shelves.
Samantha started Oryx after returning to South Africa from Denmark with her young child.
Convinced there was an opportunity around naturally pure Kalahari Desert salt, she sold her house, bought 34 tonnes of salt and began finding customers.
The first sales were small. Restaurants, delis and farm shops gradually opened their doors, followed by larger retailers and international markets.
Today, Oryx pairs Kalahari Desert salt with refillable glass grinders and ceramic grinding heads.
The brand is sold locally and internationally, including at Whole Foods in the United States.
Its refill business is growing faster than its grinder sales, suggesting that customers are embracing the idea behind the product too: refill, not landfill.
Samantha’s journey has also taught her an important lesson for other business owners: self-doubt is not the enemy; stopping is.
Doubt can encourage careful thinking, but action produces information. Try something, see how the market responds, adjust and keep moving. For Samantha, confidence came through doing rather than waiting for certainty.
Business growth specialist Pavlo Phitidis sees another lesson in the Oryx story.
Not every customer will value what makes your business different.
For some, salt will always be about price. For a premium restaurant, boutique hotel or wine estate where provenance and experience matter, Oryx’s Kalahari origins, reusable grinder and South African story can carry greater value.
The growth opportunity is therefore not to sell to everyone. It is to choose the customers who value your difference.
For Oryx, that means finding the right tables for a distinctly South African product and using them to help carry the brand from the Kalahari to the world.
This Future50 feature was presented by Pavlo Phitidis from Aurik and powered by FNB Business.
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