Fadahunsi: Technology Will Enhance Local Rug Manufacturing

CEO, Ellarose Interiors and Custom Rugs, Kehinde Fadahunsi, speaks about the importance of creativity and technology innovation in local manufacturing and the need for government support through sustainable policies, reports Agnes Ekebuike. Excerpts:

Technology is evolving and fast driving business growth across all sectors of the economy. How are you leveraging technology to drive your business?

We are leveraging the power of technology to boost our business. We understand the power of social media platforms in driving sales and access and we are using the various social media platforms to enhance the business.

Another area of technology that will help to further drive our kind of business is technology automation. We are looking at how we can use robotics technology to produce rugs and reduce human interface, which will cut down on our cost of production, even though we are not planning to cut down on our staff strength.

It’s all about business upgrade and cost cutting.

Now if we go into the machine-made rugs that everybody can afford, those machine-made rugs will replicate designs that will not be tailored to a particular customer. 

What is your view about patronage of made-in-Nigeria products like your products, and what should government do to encourage patronage?

As entrepreneur that produces locally for internal consumption and for export, we need government policies that will encourage local patronage. Our quality is good and Nigerians should be able to patronise made-in-Nigeria goods instead of foreign goods. So government, at all levels, need to create more awareness about support for locally manufactured products, to encourage competition.
In as much as we need fair competition, there will be no need for any government policy to restrict importation of certain products.

Once customers understand that we have quality products in Nigeria, they will always find us.

Given the impact you have made in the interior design sector of the Nigerian economy, how can you describe your journey in the sector so far and what actually inspired you into interior design business?

Yes, I have contributed a lot to the growth of interior design in Nigeria and I was inspired into the business by my innate ability and love for aesthetics.

At a point in time when I was finding my purpose in life, I started talking to a lot of people on what I could do best to support myself and the Nigerian economy. At that time, I had plans to quit the paid job I was into because I was heavily pregnant with a baby and I knew I wasn’t going back to the job after my maternity leave, so I needed to find exactly what I wanted to do before my maternity leave was over.
Speaking to a couple of people that knew me very well, some advised me to think about what keeps me busy and happy, and that was how the thought of interior design flashed back in my memory, and I am someone that likes interior designs a lot. But because I did not have all the monies to begin the interior design business in a big way, I was advised by my friends to start with the little capital I had, since I do not need to have all the monies in the world before I could begin the business. So that was how I was inspired to begin the interior design business some years ago. 

I was in America for the delivery of my baby and after delivery, I started going to stores to see things that were unique that I could add to the interior design business plan that I had in mind, and I was deliberately looking for products that Nigerians will like, which were not sold in Nigeria. So I started posting unique products on my social media platforms and people liked them and started commenting on them and that was how interior designers in Nigeria and around the world started searching for me online and started doing business with me online.

I returned to Nigeria and continued with the online business. Later I ventured into the rug making business and people liked it. Then I started digging into the different materials of rugs in terms of quality and six months down the line, I got my first bulk order of rugs. After that, we were able to open our showroom and clients started finding us. That was how I started my business as a material designer and rug maker.

What were the initial challenges that you faced when starting your custom rug business?

Because custom rug is a niche market, there are lots of challenges, and one of the major challenges is about hiring the right artisans and training them. When we started hiring artisans, all of them didn’t know what they were coming to do as rug makers. They didn’t have the knowledge, experience, or background. It was so challenging training them. We didn’t only train them on skills, we also had to train their mindsets to look out for the details. Another challenge we faced was in the area of sourcing raw materials. Our rugs are made from wool yarn, acrylic yarn, and all the other kinds of yarns that you can imagine, and we work with hundreds of colours, but in Nigeria, we don’t have the luxury of colours. As a matter of fact, I’ve gone to a factory that produces yarn. They’ve been in Nigeria for 30 years, but they only have 30 colours and we need hundreds of colours to get the best of rugs.

How has the social media platforms helped in promoting your kind of business?

Social media is a very effective tool to promote any kind of business, and my business has received tremendous support from social media platforms in the last eight years. All my clients were able to find and reach me through the social media platforms and I am happy about how technology is driving businesses on the social media platforms.

Apart from sponsored ads on social media, I believe that the young generation of people or business owners should leverage the power of social media. If businesses display their works out there on social media platform, more, people will find them from all over the world. The day I posted that I went to the factory that produces yarn, I was so surprised at the amount of people that started following me just from that simple information. Apparently, a lot of people have been looking for this kind of information.

What are some of the trends or prospects in your kind of business and how are you positioning your brand to meet these demands?

Recently, we see interior designers and homeowners now wanting a personalised space. We already know that the hotels and the schools come with the idea of being an international standard company. The homeowners are now exposed, and they now know the beauty of owning a personalised space. It’s now trending that everybody wants to hire an expert to design their homes in a tailored way, and in bespoke way.

Those trends are good for us, because they enable us to position our business to meet the ever increasing demands. Today we are building relationships with the people that understand our market, because we know that the market is not for everybody.
We are talking to the likes of real estate agents and interior designers that have been our core partners from time. We are also talking to hotels, and most of them have been importing their rugs. The plan is just direct marketing.

How has technology innovation and creativity helped in promoting your business?

Innovation and creativity are key aspects of business as an interior designer. One aspect of innovation and creativity is about project management, which is studied in school. The one that is not so learned in school is what I described as the designer’s eye. Two clients’ tastes can never be the same because of the level of innovation and creativity that we put in our work. If you see an interior designer or an interior space that looks the same, it shows is not design, but just a replicate of copy and paste.
For me, one of the top things that I owe dearly is the fact that I have an eye for innovation and creativity that are unique. I used to tell all my staff to always look out for something unique and different from others, when designing for a client.

Given the challenges you face in your business, what should government do in terms of policy formulation to cushion the effect on entrepreneurs like you?

Custom rugs by Ellarose are not only about selling products, but we are also on a mission to ensure that we pass a message across to the nation so that they can know that our rugs can rival international markets. We want to maintain standards, become competitive and remain in business for a long time. So we need policies that will help reduce our burdens as entrepreneurs.

We need policy implementation that will help address the issue of electricity because we need constant electricity supply to grow and sustain our business. Short supply of electricity is killing businesses in Nigeria.

Looking ahead, what’s next for you as a brand in terms of collaboration and partnerships?

So we’re going to be eight years in business this year, and for me, I’m on a mission to build something really massive that is related to something around arts and crafts for the whole nation. Before we clock 10 years, we want to establish a place where people would want to come even from outside of the country, just come and experience our creativity in Nigeria. So we are thinking big and global in that direction and we need collaboration and partnerships to achieve it.

What percentage of local content do you have in your rug manufacturing and what are your plans for expansion and export?

Our rug products are blended with local content and currently we have up to 20 per cent local content in our rug manufacturing.

We’re not importing the finished-made rugs to Nigeria, but we import some of the materials which we blend with the locally sourced materials. We have a factory
in Ajah, Lagos, where we produce the custom made rugs. Just like I said earlier, the yarn factory here in Nigeria only has 30 colors or maybe slightly more, and we need several colours in our rug production.  So when our clients choose rainbow colour for instance, and we don’t have it in Nigeria, we have to source it through importation because we can’t say no to our customers. For the expansion plan, we have a plan to expand our local production and begin to export most of our creativity and design.