Job Role

This is a premium cotton t-shirt brand, a textile import and export house with offices in the UK, India, Kenya and China. We design and source high-quality crew-neck tees made from long-staple Indian cotton.

Before we sell a single t-shirt, we want to understand the market properly. We are looking for a sharp, curious, Nairobi-based researcher and business developer to be our eyes and ears on the ground — first to map how t-shirts actually move through Kenya, and then to turn that knowledge into a pipeline of real potential buyers and partners. You will work directly with the founders and help shape how an established international textile house launches its own premium brand in Kenya.

The role at a glance

This is a two-part engagement.

 Part 1 is research: understand the distribution and wholesale network for t-shirts in Kenya — who imports, who sells, who buys, and from where.

 Part 2 is business development: use that market picture to build a verified list of potential buyers and partners, mapped by category. You'll move from “how does this market work?” to “here are the people worth talking to.”

Part 1 — Understand the market

Map how t-shirts flow through Kenya, from origin to end-buyer, and give us an evidence-based read on the best way to enter. You will investigate:

• The distribution network — how t-shirts reach the market: importers, wholesalers, distributors, and the traders and hubs (e.g. Nairobi's wholesale districts) that move volume.
• Where product comes from — which countries supply Kenya's t-shirts (China, India, Turkey, Bangladesh, second-hand “mitumba”, local manufacture), at what quality tiers and rough price points.
• Who buys and who sells — the players at each step of the chain, how they buy, in what quantities, and how often.
• Route-to-market comparison — weigh the options for a premium brand like ours: selling through the existing wholesale/distributor network versus going retail-direct. Tell us, with reasons, which looks stronger and why.
• Buyer categories — break the demand side into segments (for example hospitality, corporate and promotional/branding, retail store owners, institutions, and online sellers) and size up which are the most realistic and valuable targets for us.
• The competitive picture — what's already on the shelves, at what quality and price, so we understand where a premium cotton tee fits.

Part 2 — Build the pipeline

Turn the research into a practical, verified list of people worth contacting. You will:

• Build a target list of potential buyers and partners across every realistic buyer category identified in Part 1.
• Identify and verify named contacts — real, currently-employed decision-makers — with accurate contact details, not guesses or scraped data.
• Capture how each type buys: volumes, buying frequency, and what they look for in a supplier.
• Keep a clean, well-organized record of your findings and sources in a shared workbook we provide.
• Share what you're learning with the founders on regular check-in calls, so we can steer the work as it develops.

Qualification

• Based in Nairobi and able to do both online (desk) research and in-person fieldwork across the city.
• 3–5 years' experience in market research, B2B sales/business development, distribution, or the textile/apparel trade.
• Strong local knowledge of Nairobi — comfortable navigating both the textile/production zones on the outskirts (e.g. the EPZ) and the downtown wholesale and retail districts where t-shirts are traded.
• A genuine researcher's instinct — resourceful, curious, and able to find answers by talking to real people, not just Googling.
• Fluent English and conversational Kiswahili, so you can hold useful conversations across the trade.
• Organised and evidence-led — you record what you find clearly and can back it up. We value verified, first-hand information over volume, and do not accept AI-generated or scraped data.
• Self-directed, comfortable owning a scope of work and reporting progress without close supervision.