Orajiaka: You Need a lot of Exposure to Break Certain Barriers

Founder/CEO, Auldon Limited (a leading toy company in Nigeria), Mr. Paul Orajiaka, shared his thoughts on how entrepreneurs can break barriers in the nation’s competitive business arena in a Fidelity Bank-sponsored radio programme on SME. It was monitored

Your Company, Auldon Limited, is a toy making company that produces a special brand of girl dolls, and the whole story about how you started in business is something that is truly inspirational. How did you stumble into this idea of toy making as a business?

As a young man just out of secondary school, the whole idea was to travel to the United States of America to pursue the American dream. A couple of my other friends and I, who left Igbinedion secondary school together, went to the United States embassy and every one of them was given an American visa except me. I didn’t want to go back to Warri or back to school; not anywhere that my friends would laugh at me and say “oh, he was just the only unfortunate one.” So I had to stay back in Lagos with the hope that on other attempts I would secure a visa. Over time, it never came to be, up until the third attempt which took about a year. Within this time period, I started going to work with my in-law who was a general merchant in Idumota, Lagos. I got to see a lot of young Igbo brothers who were doing relatively so well. From the American dream, I realised that if I stayed back in Nigeria, I could actually make more money than I would make if I were in the US. It was on that note that I started working with him and getting involved in supplying his products to supermarkets. The first one I did was for Park N Shop, in 1997. The whole idea was for us to buy and supply at a margin and make for myself.

So you started from being denied Visa to working with your in-law, who was doing something that was not toy business. How did the toy idea come to you?

Over time, we were supplying things like rechargeable lamps, frying pans, and other things that my in-law was importing. When you go to these supermarkets, it takes a whole lot of time for your LPO or payment to be ready. There was this shelf for the toys; I didn’t grow up with toys; my father was actually a carver, so we were more into art work rather than the toys and everything. So I was so used to the shelf that while I was waiting for my LPO or payment to be issued, I would go to the shelf and look at the toys. I was drawn to it. After some time, it appeared the toys were fizzling out and the shelf was looking dry. I figured the supplier wasn’t bringing any more toys and then I thought it to be another avenue for me to make something and increase my line. I walked up to the Indian man and told him that I had a sister that could supply toys. I didn’t even have any sister supplying toys; I didn’t even know where they supply toys in Idumota. The whole idea was because I still needed to portray myself as an importer, because for you to actually deal with these big shops, you have to tell them that you’re not buying from someone to supply them. They want to deal with you as an importer. So, he said, he would like to see samples. When I got back to my in-law’s office, I started asking my colleague where I could buy toys in idumota. I went through the market and found one. Then I knew that the things I saw at park and shop would be coming from this shop. I walked up to the shop owner and asked him to give me some of his products that I would pay, but if they don’t order I would bring them back. They agreed, as long as I had paid. I went to Park and Shop the following day to meet with them. I wanted to take my sister along, but she couldn’t make it because she was working and couldn’t get out at the time. Then, I told Deepak that I couldn’t bring my sister because she was so busy, but that she has given me the samples. He ordered for the toys in dozens and while he did, I asked myself where I would get all of the resources to carry out this order? I knew I didn’t have the funds. I went to my in-law and he backed me up and gave me the funds and we supplied the toys. We were paid after 30 days and for us, this was a big leap from what we were doing before. Over time, we faced the toy business because the margins were better; the return rate of the damaged goods wasn’t as much as I suffered with other items. At that point, I decided that toy business was going to be the main thing for me. The beauty of it was them was that, Park and Shop was a company that was actually growing and spreading into other cities, for every new shop, they called me to help with their toy section. For us, it helped grow our business. Over time, we started looking at other shop; Oasis Supermarket and so on. I would walk up to supermarkets and sell them my toys. With that, we were gaining acceptance in different supermarkets and when our business grew, we realised that there wasn’t any need to buy locally anymore.

You started actually by buying locally, right? So how did you transition into the other scale of growth?

Certainly, our capital was rising and the business was booming, and we thought why should we still buy from the local vendors when they buy from Dubai as well. We already knew their source. For us, we decided to start with Dubai, because we had very limited funds and we couldn’t go straight to China. We would go to Dubai to buy these toys and bring them back to Nigeria and supply Park N Shop. Everything was going up in geometric speed. So for us, what we did was to supply Park and shop and other supermarkets and we would have a whole load of toys still left in our hands. Then I started supplying to the people I was buying from in Idumota. I told them to sell the toys for me even at a very cheap rate, because they were so reluctant to buy my products but I didn’t care because, over the other supply end, we had made a sizable number of margin that we didn’t mind supplying to them. The business kept growing and then we knew that the next thing was to get to the main source, which was China. This required a bigger pocket and keeping all the conditions such as the MOQs and other things that would go with it. So as we grew over times, we saw that there was no need to go to Dubai, but rather straight to china.

There are other people who are in the toy business today. What will you say makes your own toy business unique ?

Today, we have a flagship product called Unity Girl Dolls, a 14 inch doll that depicts the Nigerian culture; Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa with the names; Amaka, Ronke, and Aisha. The white coloured dolls are quite profitable, but as a company, you ask yourself what the value you are impacting on the Nigerian child with these white skinned dolls. Do they feel that they have to have white skin for them to be princesses? Do they have to have long hair? There are a whole lot of things we should be proud of. So we decided to depict the African beauty in dolls and sell to the Nigerian child, so that she starts to appreciate herself and where she comes from at a very early age. So we started this range of products, but especially with a social message that the dolls would impact the lives of young Nigerian children, even if they can’t afford it. For those who can afford it, part of the proceeds would go to the business. For us, we use this to drive the social message of unity dolls and over time, we started getting a lot of acceptance from the US and the UK. Currently, we’re working on the Unity Girl Doll Africa. It’s about doing the standardised African girl. A South African chain store requested for the dolls to be sold in every country they operate. The dolls were doing so well in their shop in Nigeria, so they wanted to replicate the success in South Africa and other locations in Africa where they have their stores located. It’s going to be a generic doll that would depict Africa and fit into every tribe.

While you’re working on these, do you still have the time for other toy brands?

Absolutely. While I was doing other things in Park N Shop, the toy idea came on board and we left others. Today, we’re even tilting as a company to a mono-product, because the Unity Doll seems to be taking a lot of our time now. The orders are massive; the acceptance is great and everybody loves it. In the US and the UK, everyone talks positive about the dolls and request for it for their kids. So we’re working on breaking up the channels in the country to get these products available to the Nigerians in these locations and other people in diaspora.

You like to say you attended UI before you went to Unilag. Can you talk about this experience ?

Yeah. I actually went into the university when my mates were graduating. While I was in Idumota, I felt I had actually arrived because I was making money. My friends were all running back home from school for money and I felt like a big boy, but there’s one thing you should understand. I spent four years learning the streets in Idumota and I always pride myself that that is my first university; University of Idumota. I actually learnt a lot of what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Though my uncle was also successful, he said something to me at some point “Do you want to be a quality man or a wealthy man? Every fool can make money, but not every fool can lead a quality life. So choose one.” He wanted me to go back to school, polish myself, and give myself that window to attract bigger opportunities. I had to go back to enroll into the University of Lagos to study Accounting. I was handling my business while studying, which was interesting for me because I was a scholar in secondary school. Immediately after my first degree, I went on to do a Masters still in Management, because I needed more managerial skills to be able to harness and grow my business to what I wanted it to be. I went on to the Lagos Business School to do my AMP, because it is important to continue to evolve and grow one’s self. After the AMP, I saw LBS as a big opportunity for me to advance my managerial skills in terms of acquiring my MBA. I thought that even if I didn’t go to America for my first degree, later in life I would go to America for my Masters. I was looking at the Ivy League schools, but when I looked at what LBS could offer in terms of relevance to the Nigerian sector, it made more sense to have my MBA there.

As an entrepreneur, you consider learning as a continuous development to an entrepreneur, but some people would think about those in Idumota who are making money every day. What do you have to say about it?

You need a lot of exposure in life to break certain barriers. The worst that can happen to you is complex. If you groom yourself well enough and train yourself well enough, certainly nothing will surpass you in terms of handling your business. So I feel in training yourself and evolving, it gives you leverage to actually do more than you even expect.

You started the company with literally an 5,000 right? How far has the company grown today? What is your staff strength like and where are you located?

I would say today that we’re actually a wholesale company and our client base in terms of the supermarkets we’re dealing with has actually grown. There is literally no major departmental store that isn’t working with us in Nigeria as of today. Even for some of the very big ones, we run what we call the toy programme; we give them the range of products for the first to third quarter all the way down to Christmas. Auldon as a company on its own has actually grown. Today we have about 20 direct staff members and so many other indirect people who do all the distribution and work on commission; they take these toys far beyond the areas we wouldn’t even had gone to.

Orajiaka