- Reveals The Story Of The PLACE @ 10
Kola Adewale is an Entrepreneur, Accountant, Auditor, management/ business consultant and strategist all rolled into one. He is a chartered accountant and a qualified member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. He gathered 16 years hand-on audit, accounting, management consulting experience from the international renowned accounting and consulting firm- KPMG (operating as KPMG Professional Services in Nigeria).
His experience cuts across virtually all the sectors in Nigeria including government, oil and gas, banking and other financial institutions, telecommunications, manufacturing and general consumer market industries. He has a rounded accounting, audit and consulting experience covering internal controls review/ internal audit, corporate statutory audit, outsourced accounting services, and general management consulting which includes human resources/ organizational consulting, information technology consulting, operations/ process review and consulting, and strategy consulting.
His work and business experience is backed up with sound academic qualification. He attended Maryland Private Primary School and Maryland Secondary School both in Lagos. He did his advanced level/ higher secondary school education at Federal Government College, Ijanikin, Lagos (FGCL). He was the overall best A-Level student at FGCL in his 1986 graduating year. He has a degree in Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife. He was the best student in his 1990 graduating class and the only student that graduated with a First Class Honours.
He is an accomplished fellow. But he never shows it. He is cool, calm and easy going. That best describes Kola Adewale, the founder of The Place, a chain of restaurants and nigh clubs he set up all over Lagos. The journey started 10 years ago from his Isaac John street location at GRA Ikeja, Lagos. Between then and now, Kola Adewale, an Engineer and Accountant has opened other outlets on Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1, the new circle Mall also in Lekki, the new Maryland Mall, and another one opposite the main gate of Ikeja City Mall. 2 more outlets are ready for opening at the new Oniru Mall and at Akowonjo.
He has built up a unique business model of starting small and growing big. He has also perfected the art of building complimentary businesses like night clubs, lounges, even boutique and hotels to go with it. The first, The Place, opened for business 10 years ago in Ikeja, originally as an eatery, selling sumptous meals. There was also a night club attached to that outlet. That was the same thing at the Lekki branch which has a night club and a hotel to go with it.
Last week, this soft-spoken, unassuming young businessman who is witty, told City People Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE the story of The Place which is 10 years old today. It is a very inspiring one. Till today, this gentleman, who is quite urbane, and in his mid Forties doesn’t cut the picture of a restauranteur-cum-club owner or hotelier. On a good day you’ll find Adewale in a simple shirt and trouser doing all the brain work at his Lekki office, which looks equally as simple as the owner.
What has helped him? Is it the accounting and business knowledge he gained from his 16 years with KPMG, an accounting firm that used to be Arthur Anderson in Nigeria? Many people also don’t know he is an Agricultural Engineer. Kola’s story is an inspiring one!
What made you set up The Place 10 years ago?
It is opportunity base. Yes. We started about 10 years ago with a club business and a year after kicked off with a proper fast food restaurant and business. We have been able to make a success of it when you compare us to the competitors we found in the market then and the new ones. We have competed fairly.
Well the feedback has been good. The successes recorded at the first 3 outlets has made us know we can do more and this explains the expansion we have witnessed in the opening of other outlets and having a presence that is closer to more people.
The population of the state is huge. The population of the country is also enormous. The nature of our business is the retail type, so the location, proximity to the consumers is key. You can’t stay in one location and expect that people will travel down to that single location to patronise us, moreso with the perishable nature of our food. It is really opportunity based. We expect and we think that for every new outlet that we open, as long as it is not radically close to the existing one, it is just a growth that will help the business.
Your take off was at Isaac John, Ikeja GRA?
Oh yes and then Lekki. From Victoria Island we went to Circle Mall, which is by Jakande roundabout, off the Lekki-Epe Expressway (by the 6th roundabout), then at Alausa right by the entrance of the Ikeja Mall (Shoprite), then Maryland Mall. We are also opening soon at a Shopping Complex right opposite The Palms at Oniru. Our shop is already there. It might just be the next outlet to open. We have locked down a property on Ijaiye road, Ogba and also another one along Akowonjo road at Akowonjo. And also Ikoyi, Kingsway road. Those are the next 4, we are looking at.
Many years ago, when you set up what was the attraction fast food business had for you?
Money. Its not like I have any personal passion or interest in food. I hardly cook. But because of my background as an Accountant, Management Consultant though I studied Engineering in school I practiced for just a year during my service year then I joined an Accountant Consulting Firm, Arthur Anderson where I worked for 16 years.
Those years prepared me. I was able to gain a lot of business management experience and it gave me a lot of confidence. I was able to offer my advice in the running of many businesses, and how to run their business successfully.
At a point I started feeling it was the natural thing to be able to do one’s own business and do it successfully well with the skill and knowledge. I tried to start out with a lot of small businesses but capital was an issue. It was clear that they were not going to be sustainable and it was not going to be worth my while to leave my well paid job for these little businesses and carry it on a long term basis. As I grew and matured in paid employment, I then took a step backward and I said to myself, you can’t continue to make excuses. Look for something and stop making excuses about not having capital, or money, look for something that you can start small with your savings, make a success of it and go on. So, I began to evaluate all the industries. I really feel I had the ability to handle any kind of business with the skill I had but the main challenge I had was the capital. I than zeroed in on the food business. So I looked around, the existing fast foods brands like Tantalisers, Mr. Biggs, Sweet Sensation. So it was almost a no brainer to go for that.
Even at that, to muster the funds was not easy. When I did the calculation it ran into tens of thousands and millions to get it done.
It was a struggle that one had to scale to get the right class, to do it well. One had to chase all the finance houses, banks venture capital establishments to get funding.
None was forthcoming so at the end of the day, one had to recourse to personal funding, placement of personal assets, to enable one take off.
So, Arthur Anderson prepared you for the knowledge you needed for a take off?
Oh yes. I can say the bulk of my work experience was at Arthur Anderson which later became KPMG. My work there cut across quite a bit of professional services. I started as an audit staff, it was mandatory for you to become a Chartered Accountant, because of the audit work so I did the ICAN professional exam. In addition to that, I did quite a bit of management consulting. After 6 years I veered off Audit/Accounting to focus on Business/Management Consulting: covering different areas, different kind of industries. Helping companies with their strategy, their finances, their accounting it was a varied mix of experience and I did that for 16 years. 10 years ago I decided to resign and come and focus on my own business of running a restaurant/bar and night club.
Going by your nature, you are the most unlikely person to be running a night clubbing business. How did you decide this was the business for you?
I have had a long aspiration to be an entrepreneur coupled with the experience I had at KPMG. I felt I had all the skills to run any kind of business. I felt it is the ultimate in life to start your own brand and grow it. So it was a question of which industry is the most appropriate. I discovered that most banks don’t really touch start ups. Finance is difficult so I thought of something I can start small then grow big; when you create a formidable brand then you can expand.
Having looked at all the industries in Nigeria; I narrowed on bar/restaurant because I believe it is lucrative and profitable. I have seen the Mr. Biggs and Tastee’s, they started with next to nothing and have grown to where they are today. I did not need to have all the billions to start.
Did you have any reservation about running a night club?
I saw it as a business. I doubt if there is any business that does not have its reservations. There will be people issues; there will be the customer angle. Every single business will come with its won frustrations so it’s then being able to recruit the right set of people, structure and the right processes to deal with them. My being able to run it now is not because I am there all the time or I am the only person driving it. I have put things in place and I have people run the show even when I am not around.
What were the problems you had when you started?
Initially the patronage was very poor. Also, I must confess that I got it very wrong about the standard that we set. Being a novice, I thought I knew business, they had thought me all the theory in business, I did not get certain things right. One of it was compromising on the infrastructure, compromising on the finish, the interior, on the facade of the outside. So because of that patronage was weak. Competitions came on board in the area, put up something more formidable. It was a very tough time. We had to be very aggressive in our marketing and advertising so that people will patronize us with what we had on ground. Also we needed to up the standard by ploughing back the money we were making constantly and upgrading the facilities.
So what will you call the strategy you adopted for Growth and Success?
The primary target was the Restaurant. The Club and the Bar were an after thought. We were just trying to be creative. We just felt somebody that patronises the restaurant can also patronise bars and clubs creatively that was where the concept came from. We were looking at getting buildings with multi floors and having a restaurant, bar, night club in the same building.
That was what led to the introduction of the Lounge and the club. Over the years we have seen that one clearly has an edge over the other. For the simple reason that everybody eats, not everybody consumes alcohol. Food is more of a necessity and clubbing, buying expensive foreign drinks is more of a luxury than a necessity. Whilst you can open a chain of 2 to 3 restaurants in a space of about 3 or 5 kilometres, in a prime location and they will do well, you can’t do that with a night club. Over time too, when we looked at the overall margins too in terms of its contributions to the bottom line it has been the restaurant that has brought in the money.
The post Why The PLACE Has Been Opening New Outlets Founder, KOLA ADEWALE Explains His Strategy appeared first on CityPeople Magazine Nigeria | Nigerian Celerbrities | Entertainment | Stars.