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02 January 2020
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Story Valentino Ndaba
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Photo Anja Aucamp
Refilwe Xaba, the founder and CEO of Glolooks.
Refilwe Xaba, Senior Assistant Officer in Entrepreneurship Development at the UFS Centre for Development Support, is the founder and CEO of Glolooks. This Bloemfontein-based company manufactures and supplies an organic, natural hair product range.
When she first developed the products, they were for personal use. Xaba evolved from an intrapreneur to an entrepreneur. She innovated a personal solution into a booming business idea. It was only in May 2016 that she decided to go into business, following growing interest in the way she maintained her hair. “I officially started in-depth research in October 2015, after years of making concoctions for myself.”
Business and books
Xaba reckons that a research background is beneficial for growing a business such as Glolooks that has a huge technical aspect. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Entrepreneurship with a focus on marketing and is planning to use her business as a case study.
Her undergraduate, honours, and master’s studies, which she completed at Kovsies, contributed to equipping Xaba with skills to grow her business. She believes in balancing education and business. “I have always been commerce-orientated. If there is a problem to be fixed, I fix it. However, people are at the centre of my heart.”
Growing Glolooks
In 2019, Glolooks opened a salon in Westdene, where customers can receive a holistic experience above and beyond merely purchasing the product. Xaba says this is one of the ways her business is being innovative when it comes to creating relationships with customers.
Workshop on common animal breeding problems
2007-05-23
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The University of the Free State (UFS), in conjunction with the University of Stellenbosch (US) and the Institute for Animal Production, recently hosted Dr Arthur Gilmour, well-known biometrician from New South Wales, Australia. Dr Gilmour presented a two-day workshop at the UFS on the application of Arthur's Restricted Maximum Likelihood (ASREML) to common animal breeding problems. ASREML is a software programme suitable for among others the estimation of genetic and environmental variances and co-variances in animal breeding and is the preferred software package for animal breeding experimentation. The workshop was attended by post-graduate students and researchers in animal breeding from different universities. At the workshop were, from the left: Dr Gilmour, Ms Puleng Matebesi (M.Sc. student at the UFS), Prof. Japie van Wyk (Divisional Head of Animal Breeding at the UFS Department of Animal, Wildlife and Grassland Sciences and one of the organisers of the workshop), Prof. Herman van Schalkwyk (Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS) and Prof. Frikkie Neser (Lecturer at the UFS Animal Breeding Division).
Photo: Stephen Collett
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