Whether it is a deliberate act or something that makes up his being, the first striking thing about Ewaen Sorae is his soft speech.
A few words into a chat with him reveals a level of calmness that could charm anyone into experiencing that feeling of comfort and relaxation that describes the ambience in his Ikoyi office.
Sorae was a former development manager with Providence Financial Group in the United Kingdom, where he played a significant role in the credit arm of the business and was responsible for advancing credit facilities of over one million pounds to qualifying individuals.
He delved into the hospitality sector 11 years ago when he gave up everything in the UK to establish E’Sorae Luxury, which he runs as senior principal designer and CEO.
E’Sorae Luxury is an online store that provides high-quality luxury towels, bathrobes, bedding and other home essentials in Nigeria. The luxury brand also has a manufacturing arm located in Lekki and is trusted by over 350 hotels and luxury-serviced apartments across the country.
As it could happen with businesses in their infant stages, when he started, the initial three years were very problematic, especially with taking short-term loans for mid-and long-term projects.
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Sorae, however, negotiated through those hurdles and the business has grown with a natural progression from just two products evidence to over 80.
“We’ve migrated and improved our product dimensions to over 80 SKUs (stock keeping Unit) at the moment,” he said.
E’sorae Luxury maintained success at that plateau until 2020 when coronavirus dried up revenue all through the period of lockdown.
Critical parts of the business were seriously hit especially catering for hotels, forcing the management to evolve and think of other opportunities across the entire chain other than concentrating on the hospitality market alone.
Essentially, Covid-19 was an opportunity for the brand to create more opportunities across its textile business. This led them to hospitality uniforms; from aprons to home textiles like table linens, hot plate carriers, and others.
According to Sorae, in the retail space, the more range you have, the better opportunities for customers to increase the size of their shopping basket.
“Covid has actually also made us look inwards as against just being an import-dependent company, our local production has increased, thanks to Covid,” he said.
The new products (hot plate carriers, aprons, uniforms) are produced locally, taking local production of the home textile segment of the business to about 63 percent.
Sorae, however, complained about how challenging Nigeria’s textile industry is at the moment. Nigeria lacks quality of fabrics that his customers want, he lamented.
He noted there are not many local garment production companies that really produce the required high-quality products, because of cost of production, power, and other issues.
These issues, according him, are preventing more investment in Nigeria’s textile sector. He said when investors who are interested in the sector consider the cost of production and setting up the factories, they cringe.
“It’s not a very easy thing for medium size businesses like ours to jump into,” he adds.
Sorae is a proactive leader and planner with expertise in marketing. He obtained a degree in Accounting from the University of Benin and a master’s degree in Marketing Management from the University of Bedfordshire in the United Kingdom.
He has a passion for developing entrepreneurs and has, over time, exhibited core strength in turning identified opportunities into profitable ventures.
He believes that it takes more than what is taught in business schools to have a thriving business in Nigeria. In fact, he describes Nigeria as the University of Life in business due to its tough business environment.
Business in Nigeria needs more than just hard work, perseverance, consistency, he argues, adding that relationship is critical to thriving in business in Nigeria.
“Relationship in Nigeria is what makes things easier for us and I think in everything we do, relationship is very key,” he said.
Although the business environment is tough, Nigeria is an emerging market with a lot of opportunities, he said, and the challenges are where the opportunities come from.
He advised emerging entrepreneurs to identify a problem somewhere and then think about creating solutions. According to him, the ability to commercialize the solution and communicate that solution to people gives birth to a business.
Being a CEO sure comes with great perks and he embodies it. The best part of it is changing lives, creating job opportunities, making people smile at work. But there is also a craving that nine-to-fivers will not understand.
“I want to spend more time with my family,” he said.
