Bimbo Alase-Arawole can easily be rated one of the top female entrepreneurs in Nigeria, without fear of contradiction. She is the mastermind behind Leatherworld, the highly acclaimed luxury furniture company and is estimated to be worth about $750 million. Alase also sits on the board of several companies, and she is mentor to a number of aspiring and established entrepreneurs.
Her story is not the typical one of a person who grows from old money. Alase had to create her story herself, making her way from the rough early days of owning a small mini-store to the point she became a mega business owner.
Education
Bimbo Alase did most of her schooling outside Nigeria. From the Pittman College, London to the Regent Academy of Designs and Fine Arts, London. She also bagged a Post Graduate degree in Interior Designing from the London Design School. Clearly, she had always had a thing for creativity and arts, and it reflected in her education choices.
Spotting the Gap
Upon returning to Nigeria, Alase did not immediately have an opportunity to put this love for creativity to use in paid employment. So she set up a mini-gift shop and a beauty shop – Glamour – in Apapa.
Having and running Glamour opened Bimbo to the entrepreneurship space and as she progressed, she became more sensitive to identifying gaps around her. Soon enough, she took note of the scarcity of high-quality furniture, especially those made in Nigeria. Most people who needed high-quality furniture at the time had to import them at ludicrous prices, and for some of them, going for the local alternatives meant compromising on their preferred quality. This was the gap that formed the basis for the launch of Leatherworld.
Building Leatherworld
Leatherworld was born in 1994, a business that would come into the furniture space to redefine luxury and class. In addition, this business created an opportunity for Alase to explore her love for creativity. The vision was very straightforward – to make high-quality furniture available to everyone. Alase started from a small retail outlet in Ribadu road, Ikoyi, groomed and grew the business until it was large enough to warrant a second outlet.
After a few years, during which the company made significant progress, Bimbo Alase relocated from the office on Ribadu road to a more spacious workspace on Raymond Njoku street, still in Ikoyi, where the company established what would become one of Nigeria’s largest furniture showroom.
After four years of successful operations, Leatherworld opened a new showroom in FCT, Abuja to open up a new market and cater to prospective clients in the region. This was in 1999. After a couple more years, the permanent site was opened in Lekki Phase 1, called The Concourse Place. The year 2009 brought with it, a new branch in Ikeja GRA.
In all of these, Leatherworld retained the integrity of only serving the best quality of luxury furniture. In partnership with NIERI, Leatherworld in 2005 had commissioned The Concourse Industry – an assembling and manufacturing plant in the Calabar Free Trade Zone – in a bid to concretize the standard it had already set for luxury furniture in Nigeria. The plant was commissioned by the former First Lady, the late Chief (Mrs.) Stella Obasanjo in February 2005, and was the first truly Nigerian furniture manufacturing company with a continental franchise to serve the local market, as well as export finished items to other West African countries.
The company sources its materials both locally and internationally, only targeting the best. The work is also mostly done by Nigerians in line with the set standard. In this way, Leatherworld is servicing a value chain in the local economy, and concurrently raising a well-trained, well-equipped Nigerian team of furniture makers with skill and finesse that rival their foreign counterparts.
NIERI, a furniture-making company founded in Italy in 1929, also had the reputation of being behind several exclusive home designs in wood and full-flowered leather. In this way, Alase was very deliberate in her choice of a partner to ensure it did not become a marriage of strange bedfellows. Since the partnership, the duo has produced some of the best furniture in Africa.
Till date, the brand holds to its reputation of only dealing with the highest grade of quality furniture, furnishings and allied products, locally and internationally. It also has a track record of zero-reject, emphasizing that its standard in the industry standard remains uncompromised. Leatherworld continues in its move to spread to other African countries.
In conclusion…
While entrepreneurship has different stages and phases, the decision to leap from one stage to another entirely lies in the hand of the individual. Moving from a mini store to owning a luxurious furniture brand was a huge step, and then going ahead to partner with an older international brand was an even bigger leap. Alase-Arawole took these bold steps, and they practically transformed her entrepreneurship story and journey.
Remaining with her small gift store in Apapa may not have been a bad idea, but she must have thought, “why play small if you can take it to the next level?” And this risk-taking really summarises what entrepreneurship is about.
