Life & Work

Son who blew freshness into a father’s dream

ceo

Pride Inn Group CEO Hasnain Noorani during the interview at his Westlands office on March 17, 2014. Photo/DIANA NGILA

“Glory, Glory, Glory! Glory Driving School.” Less than decade ago, that was a popular line in an advert on radio and TV across the country.

The driving school was a part of the small family business which included Glory Driving School, Car Hire and Guest House.

Just after his Masters graduation and having a very promising career in engineering, Hasnain Noorani packed his bags and returned to Kenya from the UK.

Starting by managing the car hire section of the business, he grew the number of vehicles from 25 to over 140 in just two years.

Eventually taking over the company business at 28, Hasnain has managed to grow a small family business that was familiar to most people into what is now the Pride Group.

Engineering

Under the Pride Group umbrella are the Prideinn Hotels and Conferencing, Glory Tours and Safaris, Glory Driving School, Glory Rent a Car, Juice Factory, Cake City, Pride Exhibitions, Royal Kitchen and Pride Centre.

After working for a year in the engineering field, the young graduate discovered that his interests lay elsewhere.

“I worked at IMI Scott Limited in the UK for a year manufacturing cables, after that, I realised engineering and talking to machines was not the field I was looking for. It was going to get boring because I liked talking to people and interacting with them, I liked new challenges so I decided to come back to Kenya,” he explains.

Challenges

The journey, he says, has been fun but full of challenges. Returning to the country in 2005, he was not sure what path he wanted to follow in terms of career.

After pondering over the matter for a while, he decided to join his father’s business the following year, as he sought out his direction in life. The company at the time had taken its fair share of hits and was not performing very well.

His joining the car hire business came at an opportune time when companies were leasing vehicles rather than purchasing their own.

Taking advantage of the need that had presented itself; he approached the various clients and built a portfolio that required them to expand to the 140 vehicles.

“This was a very big leap for the business. At this time, the cash was coming in, the finances were looking up and the banks were beginning to gain trust in our business,” explains Hasnain.

My way

The tallest order for the young man in the beginning was convincing his father to let him take over as well as change the way the business had been managed since its inception in the 80s.

“I have always been good at convincing people. Initially, he did not want to give me the freedom to do things my way, but we sat down and talked about it and I managed to convince him to give me the go ahead which meant he had to step back,” says Hasnain.

With this, he began approaching banks for the additional finance he needed to get more vehicles and the cash flow to get things running.

“Initially, my father was very sceptical about getting financing from banks, because he had run the company all that time without any outside help financially. He was from that old school that feared loans,” he says.

But with a watchful eye, his father let him take over the management of the business.

Hasnain’s father Shabbir Kassam, the chairman of Pride Group, is still active in the business sitting on the board, on legal issues as well as an advisory role - given his vast experience in the industry.

The Pride Group was officially born in 2011 when the Pride Inn Hotels opened their doors to the public.

Construction of Pride Inn Westlands began in 2008, while the Glory Hotels along Raphta Road and in Nyali were renovated and refurbished to meet the three-star standard of the Pride Inn Hotels.

“We are currently refurbishing the Diani property, and working on a beach property which will be our largest hotel yet. We are also working on a property in Kisumu. This year, we plan on growing our hotel portfolio to seven hotels,” says Hasnain.

Rebranding

In addition to this, the 32-year- old who is married with three children and among the youngest CEOs in the country, plans on having two additional cake shops, one in Nairobi’s South C and the other in Industrial Area, which are under their Cake City brand.

This will bring the one-and-a-half year-old brand to five branches. Glory Rent a Car is currently undergoing a rebranding to Pride Drive.

In December 2013, the group added Pride Exhibitions to its portfolio as well as a Juice Factory in February of this year.

“The vision for 2014 is to provide excellence for our clients,” he adds.

His dissatisfaction with the products available locally has been the main inspiration for the different companies.

“I could not get the variety of cake and juice I wanted. Kenya is still growing in the juice and smoothie assortment. If I go somewhere and I am not satisfied as a consumer with whatever they offer, then that’s it, I start my new company to do the same thing better,” he says, explaining the concept behind Cake City and Juice Factory.

Driven by the mantra that excellence does not peak, Hasnain keeps innovating and building upon the existing brands. According to him, you only have to provide excellence and success will run after you. It is as simple as that.