Wilson’s Juice Co. produces natural, locally sourced, not-from-concentrate lemonades and tea-lemonade blends.
CEO and cofounder, Seyi Abolaji, made his first cups of freshly squeezed lemonade on a whim, selling them to students at Covenant University in Nigeria. Today, Wilson’s annually supplies 600,000 liters of not-from-concentrate, real fruit-based lemonades and lemonade/tea blends to over 1,200 locations in Lagos, as well as to customers in 27 other Nigerian states. The company locally sources all its ingredients, helping support a network of hundreds of smallholder farmers, while its production facility employs a Nigerian workforce of over 50, more than 60 percent of them women.
Plans call for the company to add ready-to-drink teas and flavored water to their product line, and to introduce their products into movie theaters and airlines. Abolaji’s goal is to position Wilson’s Juice Co. as the premier natural beverage company in Africa over the next decade. “The Seed experience led us to make a conscious decision to build an institution that travels far — not just fast,” Abolaji says. “Though we struggle with this at times, we’ve made a commitment to ourselves and our team to build an organization that outlives all of us.”
Leadership
Seyi Abolaji is the CEO and cofounder — along with his brother, Seun — of Wilson’s Juice Co., which produces natural, locally sourced, not-from-concentrate lemonades and tea-lemonade blends.
Born in Nigeria and educated in the U.S., Abolaji earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford University, and was a professional soccer player before working as a systems analyst with McMaster-Carr. After returning to Nigeria, he grew teams and businesses in the country’s agribusiness sector before launching Wilson’s Juice. The brothers were named 2016 Young Business Leaders of the Year for West Africa by the All Africa Business Leaders Association. Seyi participated in the Seed Transformation Program in West Africa in 2014.