Victoria Koning (néé Pitwood) was born in Wijnberg, Cape Town on the 1st of March 1969. She has lived all over South Africa including far away places like Tzaneen, Knysna and Henley-on-Klip. She attended Clarendon High School for Girls in East London from 1982 to 1986.

During her childhood, Victoria’s family moved around a lot and this is probably where her wanderlust stems from. She loves travelling, taking photographs and making short videos for their Tours and Tales website.

Not having tuition fees to go to university, Victoria began her working career in Johannesburg in 1987. Her first job was at Rio Tinto Mining House in Sandton where she worked as a receptionist. With much vervour, she quickly learned about the upcoming trend … computers. To keep her skills and experience honed, Victoria moved from one job to the next, where she finally ended up as the IT Manager at Oracle Corporation.

In 2001 Marcel and Victoria moved to the Netherlands, where they formed their business partnership, Marvic VOF.

While Marcel brought in the bacon by installing flooring, Victoria learned how to speak Dutch and how to run a business in Holland (there are a gazillion rules …) and does the bookkeeping and business administration.

Then using help screens and manuals, she taught herself how to design websites. Marvic.biz was the first website created back in 2003. Victoria learned the hard way about what works and what doesn’t, and believes that this experience has given them their competitive edge.

Victoria is fascinated by online marketing and aside from managing their own websites, like the new CraftRootz gift site, Victoria also helps professionals and small business owners to achieve their business goals with the help of their websites.

Understanding what clients are going through when starting or running a small business comes from the fact that Marcel and Victoria are themselves entrepeneurs. Before trying something new on a client’s website, they test it out on their own websites first and then apply the benefits to clients’ websites, where applicable.

CraftRootz is an amalgamation of our passion for the creative South African hand craft, and the business skills we’ve learned so far in the online world.

With her South African childhood, Victoria is very familiar with the craft art (wire, glass beads and other recycled materials) made by local crafters. She developed a deeper appreciation of its creativity after living in Europe and really enjoys being able to sell unique products that have a positive impact on sustainable job creation in South Africa.