My recipe, my staying power in business –Suraj BabatundeAkeeb, CEO, Islander Barbeque

Although his parents could not afford to sponsor his university
education, Akeeb, went ahead into the business of roasting
chicken, call it barbeque if you like, and now has secured a big
name for himself, to the extent that he even travels across the
world for the simple business of making barbeque. Interesting
still, he has carved a niche for himself and has a couple of
company buses and even a dispatch rider for prompt delivery
of his barbeque to doorsteps of customers which include
corporate organisations. In his interview with AYO ALONGE,
Suraj Akeeb speaks on his journey so far, the edge he has
over his contemporaries, the challenges, and more. Excerpts:
Who are you?
Well, my name is Suraj Babatunde Akeeb, the CEO of Islander
Barbeque and Asun Limited.
Tell us about your educational background…
I schooled at Albino Primary School, Surulere and went to
Akintan Grammar School, here in Surulere too. That’s all.
You mean you never had university education?
I tried but my parents were bouyant and I tried to make things
work by helping myself. I would have loved to get into the
Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA). I did the exams twice but
there was no follow-up for me. I mean there was no one that
would help me and you know how the Nigerian system is. So,
I started hustling the normal way by myself on the streets.
How did you come up with the name Islander?
I was an ankara dealer while on Lagos Island, as I told you,
and every time I came back from work, some street boys
would hail me “Islander”. Some would call me Zurich, that’s
from my real name Suraj. Others, especially from my old
school, would call me Lelelele. I thought of the best among
the three nicknames and I opted for Islander.
How long have you been in this business?
I have been in this business for 16 years now. For good 16
years, my brother.
So how has it been these past 16 years making barbeque?
Really, I didn’t know people would want to take such business
seriously, but I take it so seriously and I always feel I can
make something out of it. I just have that love for it. Mind
you, I never went to any training school for it. I just decided
one day to go into this barbeque business.
What’s your unique selling point compared to others?
The main thing there is my recipe. From day one, I didn’t just
jump into making barbeque. I was helping my aunty sell
textiles at Balogun in Lagos Island. In the process , I met one
lady called Sherifat who is actually from Porto Novo. She
would come with textiles from there on Mondays and
Thursdays. Most times, she would come with their barbeque
fish and we suddenly became friends and she always gave me
part of the fish every time she brought them. Then, I was
always everywhere in business. I was not just going to sell
ankara for my sister, I was also going to work with one of my
uncles that runs a hotel business. I would resume in the
evening and work till dawn since it was a guest house. I did
all I had to do overnight, and at daybreak, I would still face
Balogun market to go and help my sister at her shop. With all
that, I got some token amount. One day, I just woke up in the
morning and started talking to myself, I was growing older
and I wondered how I’ll make it in life? That was on a Sunday
morning as I can still remember vividly. The ankara business
was not really attractive again except one has huge capital.
So, it was a no-go area for me and I could not just imagine
myself towing such line of business for survival.
I had to think back to the concept I once got from Sherifat. I
thought of it that there was no one in the whole of Surulere
making barbeque except one Mr. John. I thought of not going
close to him because I wouldn’t want to spoil his business for
him. I even thought it won’t be ideal if I went to him and say
I wanted to learn from him.
I left that day and it took me another week to have a second
thought. I met a man close to my house and asked him if we
could pool resources together and start the business since I
had a small amount of money with me and we went to inspect
a possible space at their family house around Ojuelegba.
There was something that came to me that moment that I
would say came like a cool breeze that blew on me. A spirit
within me just told me that I didn’t need any partner to start
the business and that it was better I went alone, and that was
it.
Can you recall your start-up capital?
Very well! I started the business with something close to N5,
000.
So, how did a N5,000 business become what it is now?
God bless you! When I started, I told you I called a guy to
train me to start it. I asked him to give me the idea and he
just gave me some tips. When I made mine for the first time, I
compared the taste with the one I was always getting from
Sherifat and I decided to combine the two concepts and that
was it. I told you I never went to any training school. I only
adopted both ideas. I would go to the market and buy like six
to seven pieces of chicken, and ensure that I got very big ones
just to entice people, you know. Nigerians love big things,
especially when it is very cheap. I thought they would
patronise me also because my recipe alone is just very okay.
Since then, I came to get this space here and started
expanding from there. Meanwhile, my ankara business was
still there for me to always fall back on. I had a friend by the
name Ismail Balogun, who would help me stay here and run
my business when I would have finished preparing it in the
morning because I would still go and fetch something from the
ankara business.
I opened shop on September 19, 1999 and I can recall that
sooner enough, I picked a stand at a carnival in Surulere and
that December, people started noticing my business and
shortly after, I made a hell of money from that carnival.
Can you recall your biggest contract in this business?
The biggest was from the old Econet Telecommunication
Company, and as you know, that was many years ago. They
paid me close to N1.6million. I was so shocked to see such
amount of money. They gave us that contract and that was a
boom for us.
What’s the idea behind having dispatch riders delivering bar­
beque for you?
See, I think and act like an Igbo man. When people even see
me, they think I am Igbo because of the way I have taken my
business. I go the way things are moving in the society. You
have some big companies with their own dispatch riders,
especially those of them into courier services. I looked at
myself and said I should be able to tell people that I can also
serve them better in that regard. I must not limit myself and
say it’s because I am into a small scale business.
Has it been working for you?
Yes! I receive calls from people everywhere and I must say
that it has really been working. I am even going to Lekki right
now.
Do you deal with corporate clients too?
Yes, I deal with them, especially during the festive periods, like
in December when they have end of the year parties. Like in
Zenith Bank, every time they want to do their lighting, I am
always their main barbeque man. I hang rams all over for
them. When Lagos state did its New Year countdown, I was
the main barbeque man too.
What key factor has helped you in business?
What has really made me succeed in this business is my
recipe and consistency in what I am doing. Most people came
into the business after I started mine but they soon faded
away because they lacked the mind, the spirit of consistency.
They would not open again when they saw that they never
made good profit over the last one. They couldn’t understand
how I run my business. They didn’t even know that I had
something else I was falling back on. That’s my ankara
business and the guest house show.
Do you still run these alongside?
No, I have stopped and I now make barbeque fulltime.
What are the challenges you face?
The only problem I face is the problem of electricity
But what do you use that for?
Of course I need electricity to run my deep freezers for my
bars. This is not the only branch I have. I have two others in
this same Surulere.
How do you hope to develop your business and make it
bigger than what you have now?
Well, if the bank can just assist me, I feel like buying a whole
building. A lot of my customers are telling me to get a bigger
place and I hope to still do so because I still have a lot of new
ideas on how to do barbeque. I have an idea like hanging a
full cow and people just come to cut theirs by themselves, pay
and go but space is another challenge I have concerning this.
Don’t you see yourself competing with bigger eateries in Ni­
geria?
I don’t see myself competing with them because for me, I
don’t want to sell rice, amala or so. Mine is strictly barbeque.
If I want to add, I will add cassava grains, which is garri. We
will make a place where people would come and soak garri
and barbeque. That is also a big concept I hope to come up
with soon. There are a lot of people who would go and buy
just rice from eateries and come here to pick my barbeque
chicken.
What do you think you do better than these eateries?
Of course I do my barbeque better than theirs.
Are you sure?
Yes. Most of these eateries have called me to come and train
them on barbeque. I go there and give them another concept
of recipe entirely different from my type because mine is just
so unique to me.
What’s your vision for your business?
It’s going far, even out of the country. I also wish to have
branches in every state in Nigeria.
Can you tell us about your family?
I have three kids – A girl and two boys – and my wife is in
the UK now and would finish what she went for and be back
in two months’ time.
How about you? Have you ever traveled out too?
Well, I thank God. Two of my customers have taken me out of
the country on different occasions to prepare barbeque for
them – A birthday party and a wedding party. They so liked
my fish and even the Oyinbo (Whites) ate my chili. All these
foreigners always complain they don’t eat pepper but when
they taste it and what they have in their mouth is nice, they
will only keep complaining but will never spew it out.
What advice do you have for young ones hoping to do
business someday?
They should be consistent. They should push forward and be
focused. They must not say that they are graduates because
graduates come to us and we train them.
You mean you train graduates too?
It’s not everyone that will carry books or carry this “radio”
like you. People come from big places and I train them. In any
big party today, I must be the only one or among the few
barbeque chefs invited. Islander Barbeque must be there.
There is no place in this country that I don’t travel to.