South African-born Edward Stevenson grew up loving to fly planes. At 23, he had already gone way ahead to achieve that dream. He had acquired a licence to fly small planes, and was at the verge of going for further studies to become a commercial airline pilot, when he recalled his other talents. Young Stevenson comes from a family of traders. His father was a retail trader, and he recalls selling oranges right in front of his father’s shop in South Africa at the age of six. So, faced with a decision of an eventual career, Edward Stevenson chose to study retail management. Now the General Manager of Tejuoso Property Development Company Ltd, Lagos, he is saddled with the task of putting in place the new ultra-modern Tejuoso Shopping Centre in the heart of Yaba, Lagos. He told PAUL IKPABIO how his early life in South Africa prepared him for this job, and how he hopes to transform the once fragmented Tejuoso market stalls to the ambitious biggest shopping centre in the country.
How long have you been in Nigeria?
I have been in the country for more than a decade. I come and go. But here at Tejuoso, I have been around for two years. When I came to Tejuoso, the place was filled up with small market people. If you look around Nigeria and other places in the world, you will notice that the market environment is changing. The market stalls are changing into proper retail shops. That was my mandate when I came here. So when I got here, I had to create a shopping centre instead of an open market. I had to create larger shops that appeal to the people on the street and at the same time appeal to the guy up there in the corporate world. So we had to turn things around, merge shops, make it attractive and enable shoppers’ easy movement.
We are thinking about convenience, relaxation and entertainment even within the shopping environment. So we have brought in domestic food court, 450 shops, entertainment section, and we are bringing in cinemas. We even have in-house radio. So we are going to make this place as interesting as possible for the shopper who normally goes to a SPAR or Shoprite environment. We are here for everyone.
Tell us about your background
I come from a retail background. From the age of six, I was selling oranges outside my father’s shop in South Africa. So I understand how a shopping environment should be like. I have worked at The Palms Shopping Complex, and some of the people working with me here have also worked at The Palms. We have gathered expertise with my team.
What have been the challenges so far?
The last two years have been tasking for almost everyone in the country. I think now that SPAR is opening here, it is going to give our customers and tenants a lot more of confidence about this whole idea, and they will come here to open their shops. In the last year, we have struggled to get people into the shops. Money has been tight in the country and a lot of people who were eager to get in had to wait for money to get to them.
Now we have quite a number of people inside our shops. For instance, we have about 200 traders in the shops on the second floor. There are four floors here. So from this week, the ground floor will also start to be busy. Now we have about an average of 4,000 people coming here on a daily basis. When SPAR starts operation here, it will be about four times that number of people coming in and going out of this place. And we are looking forward to that because a lot of people who used to go as far as the Lekki or Ikeja to shop at SPAR will now have to come here, which is closer.
How about security?
We have the MOPOL (mobile policemen) and other security operatives. We will soon have a Police Station at the shopping centre. Also, we will have a fire service station so that we do not have issues. We have a bank, and the ATM they have here is among the top ten in the country. I know that because they give me feedback. We are also looking at having Stanbic, UBA and some other banks here.
How easy is it to manage a huge complex like this?
I have been here two years. The first floor is 9,000 square metres, and we have four floors. The basement for the car park is 14,000 square metres. It is huge, probably the biggest shopping centre around the country right now. By the time we open all the shops, it will definitely be the most visited shopping centre across the country. We are creating proper directions to guide people on how they move around the shops and floors.
Of course, we have sections. For instance, we have the hair fashion people in a section, the electronics in a section. When you are hungry, you know the food court is on the third floor. When you want to use the bank, you go to the banking section, and the cinemas are in their section. So we have demarcations and everything in its proper places. That makes the administration of the place easy for us despite the fact that the entire complex is huge.
For chaotic traffic situations. How do you intend to manage that?
We have an underground car park that can hold 350 cars. So, to get to the complex, you go to the top of Tejuoso and come in through the underground where we have the car park. We are talking to a management company that will manage the car park for the entire complex. When we are fully open, the first month will be free parking. But afterwards, we will charge a fee. That is because we do not want a situation where people come from all over the place to park or abandon their cars here. The entire car park space has to be for customers coming to shop here.
I can see that the shopping centre is already busy, but you are here taking about an opening date. What does that mean?
(Laughs) The truth is that we are not fully open yet. We are only partially open. The shops have been opened for a year now. What I can say is that we are opening in sections because people have been through a difficult time in the last two years. Many who booked for the shops have not begun operations yet. But with the latest opening of SPAR here, that will jumpstart other things. So I guarantee that there is going to be amazing foot traffic in all the stores in this shopping centre.
Do you see its location in Yaba, which seems like the city’s centre, as an advantage?
I think it definitely will be of a pretty advantage. There is definitely no competition around us. But even if there were to be competition, we have a huge advantage in the sense that the area itself had for long been popular as a shopping place. So, all we have done is to create a conducive environment where more and more people get to shop in comfort. The place is already popular, so as we keep opening the sections, more and more people will come in.
Yaba is the centre between Ikeja and Victoria Island. So, the people here, instead of going to those extreme places, they will come here, once they know they can get car space and they can also see what to buy and even take food bites from the food courts around. What we want is that when people think of bubble gum, for instance, what readily should come to their mind is that they can get it here at Tejuoso. And when they think of where to get the biggest television, they think of the electronics section here at Tejuoso Shopping Centre. It is open to all persons. Anyone is welcome here. It is a shopping centre that caters for everyone. When you come in here, you will find something that is appealing and affordable.
Now that you have an ultra-modern market here, what became of the small traders who used to hang around here?
What we did was to accommodate them through an arrangement whereby they could pay for new retail shops in the new Tejuoso Shopping Centre. And this negotiation went down well with them and most of them have been able to come in here and get a better lift for their product visibility. At the moment, if they were still on the street in the open, they would have been paying more there than they are paying here. So we have a section for small and medium-sized businesses. We also have a section for large-sized businesses on the ground floor. And on the third floor, we have the entertainment section.
Ninety nine per cent of the people that are here already are happy with what is on ground. But we want to be more than what we are presently. They will be happier when we would have opened up all the sections and accommodated all that we intend to put in place. I was speaking to the Iya Oloja (market leader) in the trading area on the second floor, and I was explaining to her the other facilities that we would be bringing in soonest, and she was amazed and excited. She says she can’t wait for it all to be in full operation. She loves the movies and she wants the cinemas to become operation soonest.
I notice that you are passionate about your work. Where does the passion come from?
Whenever I take up a challenge, you have to believe in that challenge. This is not a normal shopping centre; it is not Palms or Ikeja Shopping Mall; it is more than those. It is a shopping centre with a combined mix catering for everyone. Myself and my team love challenges. Some of them have been with me for over ten years in other businesses in Nigeria. I see the potential of this enormous project. I see where we are going to. I know that this is going to be focal point where the government and people of this state will come around and be proud of, and even want to have something like this around different parts of the country. I have the confidence in that, and so does my team.
What is your source of inspiration?
I see the potential in this country. I see the entrepreneurial spirit. It is amazing. People here are hardworking. I see them wanting to get ahead. No one sits idle. They want to move forward. They want to get ahead. If I am out of Lagos for more than two weeks, I develop the urge to get back here quickly. I have developed that sense of urgency that most Lagosians have.
If you have lived and worked here all these years like you said you have, which Nigerian foods are you familiar with?
I have tasted almost all your foods.
You definitely do not work for 24 hours in a day. How do you relax?
I try out some exercises. I have a son in a boarding school right now in South Africa. Four times in a year, I go to South Africa to see him. I also have a group of friends here in Lagos who I bond with too. They are Nigerians, Indians, Lebanese, English and so on. We go out to restaurants and cinemas to catch fun.
Apart from SPAR, which other international retailers are you expecting?
We are expecting quite a number of them; Sportsworld and some others that I do not readily want to disclose right now.
Any special reason why you decided to be in retail marketing business?
Yes. When I was 23, I had to make a major decision in my life. I had at that time gone into training to become a pilot. I had my licence to fly small planes, and it was time to take the decision of whether to continue with my commercial pilot education and become a commercial airline pilot or to continue with my retail career. In the end, I made the decision to face a retail career. So I went back to study retail education in South Africa before coming to Nigeria.
What readily gives you pleasure?
The shopping centre here will cater for the individual and families. Next to the cinema, there will be a section that can cater for minors, a creche, lounge where you can spend your evenings with your wife or girlfriend and restaurants with international cuisines. So, it is soon going to be a place where everyone fits in and as you can see, it is already taking shape. We now have a new and better Tejuoso for everyone.
