Companies

Vimal sets his sights on 400pc growth plan for Bidco

vimal

Bidco chief executive officer Vimal Shah during the interview in his Thika Plant office last week. Photo/Diana Ngila

As far as personal recognition in corporate Kenya goes, Vimal Shah stands among the most celebrated.

Most Kenyans know him as the steely but soft-spoken business leader whose road to fame has been defined by Bidco Oil Refineries – the family business he has helped to grow to become a major player in eastern Africa’s consumer goods market

Bidco has a big growth strategy, which includes investing in capacity to increase production and to widen its footprint beyond the current 14 countries where it has a presence.

“This is the year of happening, we want to achieve 400 per cent growth by 2018,” said Mr Shah in an interview at the company’s plant in Thika.

Bidco has a vision to become the market leader in Africa by 2030, and management is working at realising this.

Vimal, and his younger brother, Tarun, have grown Bidco from the small enterprise it was 30 years ago to the corporate giant it is currently.

Bidco, built from the ashes of their father’s clothing business, derives its name from the patriarch’s name Bhinji Depar Shah.

Vimal has largely been credited with steering Bidco’s soap and oil manufacturing business lines to success over the past 29 years, culminating to his winning the Kenya Institute of Management’s (KIM) chief executive of the year award in 2008.

Mr Shah has even been declared Kenya’s richest man by two international wealth survey organisations — a title he does not care much about. He has previously told this newspaper the title is “nonsense”.

In November 2013, Forbes Africa ranked him as the 18th richest man on the continent with Sh138 billion ($1.6 billion) to his name. Three months later a New Wealth Report ranked him as Kenya’s richest man with a net worth of about Sh144 billion ($1.7 billion).

READ: Vimal ranked top of 25 super-rich in wealth report

“It is false,” he said, adding Forbes had reached the conclusion by comparing Unilever Nigeria’s turnover of $340 million and Bidco’s $500 million (Sh43 billion).

For Mr Shah, wealth is not defined by money, but the role one plays in other people’s lives and being a socially responsible citizen who empowers others.

“Most important to me is not the money. It’s not the material that matters, it’s the space I have in people’s hearts — that’s more important to me,” he said.

There is nothing flashy about Mr Shah — no convoy of vehicles following him or opulence around him as we sit in his new modern office, which boasts wide glass window panels. No personal assistant or secretary around either.

“My secretary is here, my phone. I fix my meeting appointments here and on my computer,” he says waving his BlackBerry. His 85-year-old father, who is conducting a meeting when we pass by his office, does much of the administrative work on his computer as well.

Mr Shah prides himself on running a company that is more focused on building strong teams, with team leaders who empower others to seamlessly take the baton.
He believes big titles or designations help build egos and entitlement that do not necessarily build an organisation or empower others.

Mr Shah joined the family business in the 1980s and along with other family members has grown it to over 30 brands, controlling over 60 per cent of the cooking fat and 54 per cent of the cooking oil market in Kenya, according to Consumer Insight.

Aside from growing organically the firm has made major acquisitions that have helped propel it in the last 15 years.

In 1998, Bidco acquired Elianto from Unga Ltd and four years later took over the edible oil business from international conglomerate Unilever.

“The move to Uganda ‘against all odds’ was a major defining moment for the company’s foray into the region, as many questions were raised about having a plantation in the country and putting up a factory with banks refusing to fund the expansion,” said Mr Shah.

Today, it is a profitable business with a large footprint that is expanding. Tanzania has not been an easy market for Bidco, having faced with challenges Mr Shah is not willing to dwell on.

“Tanzania has been challenging. The market there is not good. We are not satisfied with it, but we are still investing there,” said Mr Shah.

Despite being the face of Bidco, Mr Shah spends less than half his time at the company.

“I’m not cut out for everyday management, or routine. I want different things. My brother looks after today and I look after tomorrow. Our father is the inspiration,” he says. “Sixty per cent of my time is not spent here.”

He spends the rest of the time engaging different people and organisations as part of building an enabling business environment, attracting potential investors to Kenya and empowering people.

As the chairman of Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa), Mr Shah is driving the organisation’s new strategy, which includes improving Kenya’s ranking in the World Bank’s Doing Business Indicator Report where the country was ranked 129th, as of June 2013.

“That’s a shame for us; we should be at better levels. We want to be number 50,” he said.

Kepsa presented the strategy to President Uhuru Kenyatta at a round table at State House in February.

Mr Shah said the President bought into the plan and that he believes measures will be put in place to create an enabling environment for business in Kenya, including looking at the tax regime and security.

In addition to his role at Kepsa, he is the chairman of the East Africa Business Council (EABC), a board member of the United States International University (USIU), his alma mater, and sits on the Management University of Africa council.

He recently joined the Tony Ellumelu Foundation board, based in Nigeria, and sits on the International Advisory Board of Mauritius.

“It’s all about time management, but now I’m saying no to some of the engagements. You cannot give your best if in too many things,” he said.

For him after all is said and done, and the money has been made what is important are the interactions he has had with people, those he has inspired and those who have inspired him.