‘Dedication to duty has been my success secret as a Guinness distributor’

I was born in 1966 and grew up in Akure, Ondo state. For my education, I attended St. Michaels Missionary Primary School and then went to St Louis Girls Grammar School, Akure, in the mid-eighties and then proceeded to Ondo State Polytechnic to study Food Science and Technology for my Ordinary National Diploma programme. After the 2-year programme, I spent the next one year in Lagos for my mandatory work attachment where I served at Foremost Dairies in Mushin.  From there I got admitted to the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti for my HND programme and I finished in 1990. Luckily, I served in Lagos again at Guinness Nigeria where I spent one year as a youth corper and worked in the production department. Upon completion of my NYSC, and with the support of my uncle, Chief Alabi and my husband, I moved into the distribution of drinks and other beverages.

Life growing up was filled with ups and downs like every normal family experience. I was so small back then; so when we had any holiday, I would come down to Lagos to spend time with my uncle or brothers, but life in Akure was very pleasant. I had wanted to become a pharmacist because I loved science subjects while I was in school. In fact, my best subjects were physics and biology, even though I found chemistry and further maths very tough. Sadly, I lost my dad when I was eight years old and so it was my mum and my uncle that really took care of us. My mum, who then was a businesswoman, is a very strong disciplinarian who loves us and wanted us to become better than her. I would not have achieved anything without her care and support; she’s really has being a pillar.

During my NYSC at Guinness, I was not very involved with the production process. But then, my love and interest in production would force me to go to the boiler rooms and observe the whole process. Armed with my degree and the work experience, I had wanted to go into the production of wines and fruit juices, but my husband, who was already a businessman working as a car dealer, nudged me to consider going into business.  He felt that working as a businesswoman would provide me with time and opportunity to take good care of the children. We both agreed and sought the help of an uncle of mine, Chief Alabi, and this marked the beginning of my journey into sales and distributorship.

I started this business on the 30^th of August, 1991, which means that I have been doing this for 25 years and counting. I started with little cash, very small quantity of drinks, about 2 palettes and a 504 vehicle. In those days, my husband used to come to my shop, and we would interact with the customers who came to buy drinks. I was so tiny and so, many people thought that it was my mum who owned the business, they would ask questions like, “Funmi, where is mummy”, and I will just say, “mummy is coming”.

From the shop, we moved to a very small warehouse that I rented for the business, and then later, moved to a bigger warehouse in the same area. With God’s help, we were able to purchase our own warehouse around Mafoluku, in Oshodi and when that became too small, we had to move to this current warehouse, which has got more space for our business operations.

In terms of the workforce, I started with a cashier and myself as the only employees of CF Adeniyi Ltd. We worked together as a team and my love for maths helped me make sure that we got our daily stock keeping intact. As the business grew, Guinness Nigeria also grew and provided a lot of support to us. We have managers, accountants, a company secretary and a host of off-loaders, who are part of the casual workforce at Guinness Nigeria ensuring that we continue to deliver value to our customers.

Drinking responsibly is very good, because it is when you drink responsibly you can come back tomorrow relaxed and have another drink. I think it’s only commonsensical that people exhibit self control and take responsible drinking serious. What’s the point in drinking beyond your carrying capacity and disturbing the next person? People need to realise that initiatives like the DrinkIQ programme and the ember month campaign will go a long way to create a more robust responsible drinking culture in Nigeria.

When I started in this business, I had just one 504 pick-up vehicle. I started out small and our operations were lean.  But as we grew in trade, Guinness Nigeria was our biggest cheer leader as they supported us with vans which made distribution much easier. Today, we have expanded and can reach our customers wherever they are. However, the challenges of multiple taxation, arbitrary imposition of levies by local government councils and the bad road network are general issues that threaten business success.

Well, God has been faithful so far and I am very grateful everyday especially when I think about our days of little beginning. We have a succession plan in place for this business. It is our hope that our daughter, who is currently studying in the United States, would take this business to the next level. She has been a part of this business since she was in secondary school having being put in charge of managing the van salesmen account. Subject to God’s will and design, we are confident that she’ll take very good care of this business and reposition it for the next twenty five years.

First advice is that young people must have strong interest in whatever endeavor they want to undertake and they must have done proper research and feasibility studies. When I started out, I didn’t attend parties. Sunday was dedicated to church and family outings. Outside that, the only place you’d find me in those early years was at the office.

Secondly, they must learn to be prudent and frugal in their spending and purchases. Let’s say, you have 100 crates of small stout and you make a profit of 5000 naira. You cannot afford to spend all that money because you’ll need to reinvest part of that profit into the business. That’s the only way to grow. These days, I see young people in trade buying aso-ebi to attend parties. If care is not taken, you’ll dip your hand in the till and end up spending all your money on dresses and fashion accessories.

Thirdly, I believe in the efficacy of prayers and divine intervention. As such, before you employ anybody into your business, give it serious thought by committing it to God in prayers. This for me is a very key business decision that you must make as an entrepreneur. I don’t take people anyhow in my business. Even if you come highly recommended, I’ll take my time to pray and this has worked for me.

Customer relations and providing excellent service is very important, especially in our line of business. Because, we deal with cash, some people will come to you and make requests of loans, grants or dash. It’s good to give but you must be smart and show wisdom – you don’t give what you don’t have. It’s that simple.  I faced this very early on in the business and I suffered headaches concerning this in my business. I would give some people empties only for them to deny receiving it from me or claiming that they have returned it when I wasn’t around.  And so, I stopped giving customers empties. If you have 2 crates to buy, come and buy it.  Also, I don’t normally give customers credit if you have not been buying from me for like 6 months and above.  I have to trust him or her, so I can know the capability and strengths of that person and this has really helped me but I don’t give credit anyhow.

 The best advice I ever got, which was given to me by my husband, is that customers are always right. Irrespective of the age, social status or behaviour of the customer, you must always respect and treat them well. In my experience, they’ll always come back to you even when they are clearly in the wrong.  Like the golden rule, always treat your customers in the same manner that you would want to be treated.