Joyce Gikunda — transcript

Lintons Beauty

This transcript is generated automatically by YouTube and has not been checked by a person. It misspells names and mishears words, particularly around Kenyan English and company names, so read it as a guide to the conversation rather than a quotable record. Each timestamp opens the video at that moment.

0:01 [Music] yeah good morning once again L ladies and gentlemen welcome uh to African do podcast episode 6 today we are very very privileged to have with us an icon I would say an icon in Kenya's Beauty and Fashion space who has a fabulous story to share with us and uh Dr Joyce Gunda of linton's beauty welcome to African do podcast thank you thank you I feel honored honored to be here today yes to really be one of the Pioneers in your podcast thank you yeah because I know there are lot of stories to be captured excellent and thank you very much for accepting our invitation um I've known Dr Gunda for most of my life because I was I was I was a classmate of her her first son in in primary school and then became friends with the rest and and so I've watched the story of lintons from the sidelines and your brother also was yes my brother was with come and also good

1:09 friends in primary school so that was that was great and we became family friends exactly yes so um let me take you back first of all I was pleasantly surprised I I knew you're a pharmacist by training but I guess I did not know um how far back because when I met you you were already running your own Pharmacy but let's go back to the beginning mhm and speak a bit about uh um your early days you know you're the the beginning of your career yeah uh take you a bit back in time and uh I was pleasantly surprised to read in the profile I was reading about lintons yes that you are actually the first female provincial pharmacist for Nairobi oh yes so you are an employee of the county yes I I I think of uh Le when when I think about the beginnings yes it makes me feel so old yeah no you should it makes me feel so old because um I was among the second group of pharmacist to qualify from Nairobi

2:21 University okay I landed into this profession by let me say by accident okay my choice of career was agriculture mhm or Veterinary yes Sciences why because and grown up up country okay watching and observing um agricultural officers yes come to visit the Farms those were the days when agriculture was shining and the extension officers extension officers would come wearing green green uniforms being driven by drivers in green Land Rovers so as a child that is what Stu stuck in my mind and I wanted to be that officer not the driver I wanted to be that officer that is driven in a green uniform Yes actually I should have worn green today in remembrance of that yeah so so G I did my education my form four my form five and six I did well thank God and I applied for my set course MH but as it would be naob university did not take me they misplaced my papers no as they were to confess later MH so they

3:44 took me for BC mhm in M University okay at that time I was already married okay can you imagine yeah some Secrets come out I was married so I couldn't yes go to because of that I couldn't go there yeah so they could see I couldn't go there yes and it was by God's grace things worked out that way because the group that went there was the last one actually to be taken there okay because the things happened after first year they were sent back there was chaos of course there they were sent back in fact I remember even one lady died yes and I said Lord you saved me from that thank you uh so fast forward that's when now I as they was trying to see which cause to give me yes they didn't have what had applied for they had taken enough people so they hoped and somebody said by the way we have this new course mm called Pharmacy yeah and pharmacy we take we they are

5:01 together with Medics yes a lot of my colleagues had gone to Medicine yes but for me I feared those waking up hours being woken up to go to on call and what uh my husband would not be amused so I hted now I was told they told me good things about Pharmacy okay I never knew about it there was no Google to read about it no magazin to read about pharmac but by faith I said yes that's the course I take okay and that shaped has shaped my journey up to now so you join you join University of Nairobi um and you take the pharmacy course yes I take and upon graduation you said you're the second class because like you rightly said it was a new course yes it was a new course and we were very few of us so I got posted to the Ministry of Health okay and I worked for the Ministry of Health nearly 10 years okay uh my last posting was n house mhm where

6:06 we started the the provincial office okay it was we were the Pioneers actually mhm so it was exciting because there it involved dealing with hospitals even private hospitals you go inspect their pharmacies check whether they have the right personal working there yeah whether they the medicines stored properly um and so forth and so forth so it was it was good but in the meanwhile in meantime I had this nudge or the as a family we started thinking with my husband we need something we need to Moonlight mhm something of your own something of our own we were entrepreneur my husband was an entrepreneur he he did he did bom yes he was a marketer by profession was working for a big farm days so he encouraged I mean we looked at both of us who was the one who could go out who's the likely one who was the likely one to start this family business now you look at the salary I

7:17 was earning so little yes but I was so content and happy with my little pay for me it is the job that really satisfied me and made me happy so so even to to to get out there and start the pharmacy because I felt if we have gotten our own pharmacy at the CBD there were very few phes owned by Africans that that time yeah so it was a privilege as well but you so your first Pharmacy was in Nairobi CBD or no our first Pharmacy actually was when I was Moonlighting working with the government was in isand okay buruburu in Buu in we were the first in those places to open a pharmacy open a pharmacy there yeah and it was called tropical tropical phacus okay and it did very well many people my friends still remember it up to date okay and um so that's where we practiced and uh lady pharmacist colleague who was working for us so in the evenings I would rep and so you're

8:25 at work you're in you're in your government job 8 to5 you have employed someone to to work at Tropical and then after work you pass by there my husband also comes we put in a shift we close at about 8 mhm and head back home okay so we practice there a bit and several years a friend of ours called for a pharmacy that was on sale yes and that happened to be linton's Pharmacy yes on at CBD transnational Plaza yes to be specific and that was a turning point so this is where we sat and said now it has to be full time one of us has to be there because youve now got H you you first of all You' you've um how do I put this you you you've now become entrepreneurs you run your own Pharmacy you know the the ins and outs of what it means to do that we enjoying it we we we are confident enough we can offer the service we can get s sour the medicines we we have made

9:33 connections okay per say and I mean there was no there was no doubt that that's where we wanted to be okay yes so you get this Pharmacy and it's it's a in in town that's translational is a what's this street mang street manget street so mang it and then you you you you acquire it we acquire it this is all the way 198 88 someone is leaving or someone is just moving on to other things um someone is leaving actually for for UK okay it was an Asian gentleman yes the family was living for UK yes and they were either looking for somebody to give a job yes or to sell okay so we managed to convince him to to sell to us and and there you become the Proprietors of of Linton Linton yes and we felt here it requires attention personalized attention for it to succeed so you you you step down from your Ro you resigned from your role in the government yes and you now come into the pharmacy came to

10:42 the pharmacy on day-to-day basis at least this one we were not working up to very late although we continued still with the tropical for for a while okay with somebody there yes but I was basically based now on mama Gina one okay yeah at the lintons and entering that let me tell you about the first day when I entered there it was a rundown Pharmacy yes it's not what you know of Linton nowadays it was run down with just a messenger there I think because they wanted to close and they wanted to leave they had no stock okay but they kept the doors open because I think they were thinking of attracting a buyer true so what would happen is this owner elderly guy he would sit there customer comes gives a prescription and the messenger runs through the back goes to another Pharmacy gets a prescription field yeah then comes quickly come quickly and and delivers yeah that is the state we found

11:48 this Pharmacy uncamp no stock so and I'm happy about that because we love me and my husband we love these sort of challenges because now we we are able to turn it around to be what we want it to look like we had to redo it completely yes the the counters the the restructuring the redesigning and all this we not doing through designers architect we it is ourselves yourselves our what we the two of us what we and you have your fies yes and we have our fies we supervis them and thank God he had worked out of the country for about one year yes so those days it was very hard to bring back now foreign currency MH so what he did do he bought some cars okay from Germany and sent them over okay he came and sold them yes that's how we are able to get our Capital to to for the business for the business in his corporate job he's he's found himself a year out of the country out of he was in

12:56 Australia actually and then in in that year he has bought some some cars some cars so he com sells them and we get C okay and we we we now get out to the networks that and made W in the the government some manufacturers local manufacturers Distributors and all that so I'm bringing out that because I know in business connections networks yes matter so much mhm they actually make you who you are very true so we were able to approach them so that we could organize credit facilities we could because when you get like 90 days yes 60 days yes because they know you it's on the basis it's not that we have any other security yes it's that they know you they know that you're a person of Integrity you promise to pay you pay that's how we started after buying the place of course we didn't have much more money to to play so on credit we started getting those things so you now have you're in Linton

14:09 Pharmacy a transnational but Linton later moved H it moved location because for the longest time I remember you at the corner of Hilton that was that was really sad yes s news because 10 years we stayed there for 10 years at transational we made the place look habitable made the place really be a business to be sought after we made a lot of client in the process let me mention that we had already made a profound change in in in Pharmacy phac yes we found that pharmacies those days used to keep human and Veterinary medicines so here we come and I feel no no no we need to get out the the vet especially because of the difference in C mhm number two I didn't feel that they were compatible true so for us we got out of the veterinary side yeah and now we have empty space MH what do you do with what do we do with thish and that's where the idea was born of Cosmetics mhm starting to treat because

15:26 they have the the clients also guide you yes they come with conditions that you feel that your knowledge your education can has equipped you well enough yes to handle to break the norm yes and handle so you're telling me yes Dr that um your segue into um the beauty side of the business was as a result of H you deciding that you're not going to sell vet and and human medicines at the same place so clear out the vet side of the business and that open space and that's how the beauty and it was an n off okay and my lecturers felt that I was diluting the profession yes you're going into this is these are not medicines these are not medicines we've tra you to be executive we have trained you to be that professional to be a pharmacist why are you bringing nonsense here I don't Pounders I don't know what it it's yeah so so you called a sellout a sellout but

16:32 I don't know something was in me I loved that area because my friend came with her daughter with Ain with Rush with what and I treated her using the knowledge of Pharmacy yes and using the knowledge of the products they trained me mhm uh I felt then they recover they they were they were looking good I used to feel so good about it nice so that's how the be business started growing within the pharmacy okay and so the beauty business is working side by side side by side one side you have that the pharmacy business yes side by side and it did well my colleagues started now picking up and actually changing their signages oh it's human and cosmetics okay no longer human and andary yes yeah right now that is what makes me proud because the whole region the whole East Africa you fight now the combination is cosmetics and and yes and that is where Cosmetics belong yes in the pharmacy

17:37 because a pharmacist has got the knowhow on the skin structure they have the knowhow on on the on the ingredients that I I used to make the Cosmetics okay so I felt that that's a big achievement that we had made yeah now you are asking me about the movement the movement came 10 years down the line mhm we did so well but when you're in when you're tenant somewhere yeah you're in ret TR now you I know it's one it's one of the challenges we faced that challenge after 10 years yeah the landlord comes up and says oh we are not your your we need our place we need our space we want it back those were the days of foreign foreign foreign bules I mean foreign currency Forex bules so the landlord wanted to open his own Forex so we were thrown out oh no un ceremoniously and you don't have a problem paying rent you you you have been a good tenant you're running a

18:42 thriving business and someone comes and says thank you very much we couldn't do anything we couldn't go anywhere we had to go I'm telling you I even sought to go for prayers oh no I was so attached to this place of course it was doing well I come to love it and um so I remember going for I think you should hear this I went for I was told there's a Nigerian person you know those days yes a Nigerian pastor a A staff colleague a staff of mine who used to go for T winers church or something oh you know mama I can see you depressed yes let's go and take you for prayer we have people from Nigeria who are coming to pray so we go yes and I it's a big home there there are several pastors all over the place yes so I you pick one you go just to so I explain my problem there this the landlord who is so difficult yes and pray for me so that at least he can change his mind to see us he can

19:48 have a change of heart change of heart and this guy looks at me and says who tells you you have to tell me what to tell God not here to take instructions from take instructions and he he he he refers me he tells me what you do is you pray mhm leave the rest to God if God says you have to move you move yeah he has a plan for you and it's a plan for God yes I want you to hear this Leonard God has a plan for each one of us because looking back that was actually the beginning of better things okay the movement mhm because just next door the the land the GM for Hilton Hotel yes was our client yes and he had been wanting us actually to open something yes next at the Hilton at the Hilton because you you would leave thees at the Hilton yes but come to ours because our was more looking better well better than so what you were so scared of yes in the when the landlord decides

21:02 to kick you out at the beginning your your mindset was this is a disaster I've built this place over 10 years yeah and uh then it ends up being a blessing in because you move to what was really one of Nairobi at the time iconic buildings and you had a corner location if I recall right Linton was right at the corner so you ended up getting that location we ended up getting very no Goodwill nothing I'm telling you things worked out so well and all because the GM was your your customer at the pharmacy I loved our service and so he quickly said come but the only condition yes you have to use our architect to now the design okay and this this was aung architect very expensive yes so we had to work by all means try and get money yes we now for the first time we went to the bank to to us for a loan yes and this loan the interest was very high those days

22:13 where are we now from a timeline perspective where in the this was uh 1996 around 1996 966 interest rates were interest over over 30 something in the 30s in the 30s in the 30s but we were determined to take this place mhm and he designed a fantastic Place state of the earth yes even today there's a lift there's a lift that was taking medicin from up because the dispensary was upstairs and bring it down I mean it was something that you as the owner or even the client is mesmerized so we do that place and then now because of the knowledge we have of cosmetics that we really want to pursue this we now design even a consultation space okay for for person who comes to in the new space and we have a we have now designed for the Cosmetics side nicely so it was a nice fit out uh so we stayed there up to about 27 and this time now we are getting wiser by reading magazine MH mhm still

23:30 we we are on facts yes we are not on emails we are not on was like I mean when you look back it's like the old the old the old AG the stone the St the Stone Age would write letters to suppliers overseas yes suppliers like the SL you see nowadays MH strong group of companies uh Neutrogena suppliers and so so forth and so forth and we write to ask them to supply us directly yeah but we would get for almost 10 years we are getting a no a decline oh we are not yet ready to come to Africa when we start we'll start in South Africa and then we'll see how it goes yeah we persevered until they came to South Africa and you kept writing and we kept writing we didn't give up until 207 one day they came they came to visit Kenya yes they went around and they landed at our Pharmacy they looked at it and somehow they were impressed they said of all the places we

24:38 have gone we've realized that you really you are struggling you you have something about Cosmetics yes but you're not yet there mhm but we can we can partner we train you we'll show you how it is done but the condition is you have to open a standalone beauty Beauty St you cannot be in a our concept of Pharmacy yes our concept is not to be in Pharmacy okay and we were willing to do that so side by side by coincidence or by I don't know God's grace West Gate Mall was just opening that year yeah we booked a space and these people are kind enough to make counters in in South Africa and shape them all the way so that they show us how those counters should like the standards they want yeah that's our first beauty shop Standalone beauty shop okay yes um so we rent the pharmacy side by side with the with the beauty shop okay now now linton's Beauty as a standard and yes but 20

25:59 2012 we now started making comparisons and we decid wow it's much easier it's more exciting to run the beauty Beauty to run the to run the pharmacy and since we are growing older and we want to retire maybe this a business we can retire to okay and the rest is history so we sold off our Pharmacy that was doing very well yes in 2012 mhm and focused more on the beauty Beauty side wow yes and um as we went on Leonard 20 now uh this is 2012 we have sold the pharmacy yes 2013 the West fateful West Gate Bomb Blast yes happened yes how many years after that's two years about two years two years after you've opened no we opened 207 okay two so youve been investigate for a while investigate for a while for a while and we've also moved on and opened another one at the junction okay so they so we are running now the two of us yeah and we sit there we we are feeling so

27:16 happy we feeling that hey like the rich F you have arrived we have arrived we've reach we have arrived so did we know yes God's ways are not our ways yes 2013 the bom Blas comes true and west gate is flattened out yes uh so we are left with one store was that your flagship store the west gate W gate War yeah so we just left now with the junction MH at this state we are a bit devastated yes so we call our sons mhm and we say now we about to retire mhm are you interested in this business or we sell it the way we sold the yes the way we sold the pharmacy yeah and because they was we we always include them in our businesses by the way we have always involved them from the word go yes so we called a board meeting MH and we asking them this and they laughed they said what M and Dad are you crazy M you sent us out there to study yes we did well mhm now you want

28:30 us to come back and run us one shop wow a shop I think for them they were looking at it and seeing it it's like a corner shop somewhere too small shops and sell milk and milk you sent me to get the best education money can buy now you want me to come and run one come we run this bus all of us with you one shop one shop yeah and actually it started said it don't on us actually it's one yeah and we asking all of them to come and it what are we going to do so so he said oh so what do you want us to do and that's the first time now we learned something new as well he said you know what the way it is like right now is like you're a dying horse mhm can you start can you have some life yes get some energy in you scale up okay so the first time I heard the word scale up yes and we started asking what is scup so because of course they were educated they started now telling us

29:44 what tearing up is interesting yeah you have to be to spread you have to grow the the business yes and it was like it was prophetic yes because from there um M started mushrooming in Nairobi yes and because our store was very well designed yes a lot of landrons would reach out to us and say we would like a store like this in our Mall M we over time we started becoming like a sub Anor tenant okay up to date up to date that's what we are now you are considered we are and we are happy because we are challenged I am saying this because I love challenges when you find a challenge when You Face a challenge in business always get to know that it's a stepping stone it's a door opening yeah look look carefully because there's a Better Door or an exra door opening for you to step in you can easily miss it if you sit there m yeah yes so you you've brought up some very interesting topics

30:58 and I'd like to leave the business the linton's business aside and just maybe unpack this topic yeah yes yes that I think many Africans if I dare say so myself have struggled with yeah and the first one is transitions yeah MH uh um I think now I can say you are uh you you seeded the Helm of the business to one of those sons who was telling you scale scale up yeah one of the scale up candidates came of Age and and and now on a day-to-day basis runs the business as as the as the CEO yeah but it's not common so maybe maybe you can just walk us through your thinking you and your husband because we do see that in an African context quite a bit where you have um parents who give uh their their their children m yeahh a brilliant education but after they get that education will not give them the chance to contribute to the growth and development of their wealth or Capital

32:11 like you have done so maybe just tell us a bit about your thinking oh to me I I take this as a blessing yes I don't take it for granted MH it took several years actually trying to to to talk some sense into the young man yeah trying to convince him yes and most of the time it's oh you can't afford me yes and did we could I'm a big boy indeed indeed he was a highflying he was a highflying executive elsewhere but the most fortunate thing is that like I mentioned before we had involved all of them in the bu in the business from the beginning even when they were in school yes during the school holidays they would come and help me the bus yes in the pharmacy and in the other so they were exposed it was nothing new to them and they they they liked it they liked the business they could see that it is this business that has actually taken them to school yes brought them this far M uh secondly they started

33:23 seeing that actually it's genuine these people need to have some rest mhm M they have worked so hard mhm so by grace of God with a lot of prayer yes God touched one of them yes and he finally said yes I'm coming I'm coming and this happened in first of all he took a sabatical leave I think 2017 around 2017 yeah he came in because he um is a te take take takech background him and said the systems for us yes then he left back to to his job yes yes um then 2019 that's when he was touched yes and he came and joined us excellent God was Paving the way mhm for actually for another challenge because he joined us around September mhm 2019 yes and you remember 2020 yes Co breaks of course covid comes and if you above 60 you go up country you go away you get out of the city out of this get out of the city so we were able to get out of the city for like eight months yes and this young

34:41 man was actually swimming in the deep end yes of this business by himself yes which I feel that it was God designed M for him now to set up the system as his own mhm not what we are telling him yes but the way it ought to be according to him according to his generation and all that and that's where we are we excited that he is part of us and even his brothers give him a lot of support yes yeah no that that's that's very interesting and and and like I said I know your sons and I think you have I I think I can say that you have fostered a very entrepreneurial mindset in them yeah by virtue of what you've done because we are now benefiting from your story on the podcast but they've lived it you know they have and I know that your other son is also an entrepreneur in his own right and and and doing his own thing yes and and so do you feel that um the influence and confidence that parents show um in their

35:55 children in their children uh dve what because Africa is at a very interesting place you know before we started recording the podcast we were speaking about other brands that we have H interacted with that in in the retra Forum and you can see Kenya lots of emerging Brands H local Brands built to an international standard make yours do you think uh we should see more of that in the local landscape oh yes I believe when I when you make me actually quite sentimental because when I look at Kenyans Kenyans we are so privileged yes we so we have so much talent yes and all we need is just a little encouragement yeah and we'll get mushrooming I mean all those mushrooming there we we can create be more creative than we are and as you mentioned my sons let me give credit to my husband because M I think I as a man is been very intentional yes in encouraging his sons to be entrepreneurs

37:05 yes he's been very intentional in involving them yes in the business at another stage because sometimes a lot of us parents wait until the last minute until you can't move yes that's when you leaving a shell that's when you're leaving something that your son or daughter cannot even figure out M but for us we feel good because they know what's going on mhm and the key thing is not really to hold on so much to what you have thinking it's yours it is not mine yes this business is not just the families yes remember we have employees there so many so many of them yes that's where they feed their families from that's where they educate their children from so I call it our business yes it's our business and I pray that many Kenyans can come up and start businesses like that look an example of Nas now exactly yeah yeah so backtracking now to um just there there's another theme that I want to

38:11 explore further uh you said that uh when you moved from the transnational building to the Hilton yeah you were forced to uh take on not by choice but you told have to probably if it was by Choice it was not the architect that you would have chosen yeah but by picking that architect who the GM of the Hilton insisted you have to work with yeah you then uplifted your standards yeah of your brand and when you looked at the final product of what you're like oh okay I've paid a fair penny for this yes but it does look really nice yeah yes and so um am I correct in saying yes that that experience of using using that architect to design that space changed your mindset because like you said at the beginning you were you were with your fundies and it was you and your husband but now you have gone to H upscale design yes um in this country that has a

39:14 lot of talent and you're like whoa okay so absolutely leard I've come to trust I've come to really feel that everybody has a part to pray yes they respect other professionals nowadays it's not like when we started yes we we have to to get the right if it's accounts you know before my husband used to struggle doing the account everything you know when you you set oh my God you're doing everything yeah nowadays I know there is a place for the finance person yes there's a place for the marketer yes there's a place for the architect yes the designer the merchandiser yeah the it's a body it's a body that needs to be yes I think I I think one of the best things I had with regard to that is someone who once told me he says listen always remember that as good and as passionate as you are yes at what you do there's someone where if who's as passionate about his line and

40:20 your job is to find them exact exactly yes and Things become better you get a better product yes when when you involve others so now you you you have let's come back now to linton's beauty linton's Beauty you have had your meeting with your family you've decided you're going to embark on this uh scale up journey and uh you start malls are opening uh but fast forward to today you know uh you are uh how many stores are you I think linton's Beauty you have two Brands if I understand you correctly you have a linton's beauty that has phenomenal Partnerships with global Beauty Brands yeah LX LX we deal with linton's uh focuses on Lux Brands yeah luxury Brands yeah yes we bring things like di chel clinic and this is the direct relationship Rel once we broke broke away with two of them yes the others for suit M so it was not the struggle that

41:31 we had for 10 years yes letters of writing letters now it is for them actually approaching us to date okay we have numerous requests that we can't fulfill okay that would you keep my our brand would you we we feel flattered by that yes now as we continued maybe one one thing I would like to bring out it is I keep on talking about the challenges in business yeah yes I'm excited by challenges yes so the challenge now we started facing as we grew to over 30 stores yes is that the staff how ought to be well trained yes and it's not a one day or two day training this is you for somebody to be a consultant of the level you want yes it is takes over a year yes to be honest and uh um we started what we did is these brands are very very powerful with training yes they they would send a trainer they send trainers to us every quarter a trainer is here from France or

42:42 from South Africa or from us to train on their brand yes and then they will come and train just a few stuff that man their counters and we are learning we are seeing all this we are seeing the importance of it how the girls are being transformed through these trainings yes and then is okay then F fast fast forward came to 20 I think 2017 yes whereby we now got our first real competitor yes in the market mhm this real competitor comes and his setting shop yes at the West at West Gate where we are where we have a St and he pches your people four not just one four from the same store yes so you are opening January and you have no stuff to open the store and you hear how long they they take to train to train yes so so so we are devastated mhm as and our H they don't we don't know what now starting all over so we could have sat there and the moon and all that

43:58 but it Dawn on us yes it's yet another challenge it's another challenge and it is proving to us that we are so good in trainings yes that is why they could not get stuff from anywhere else but from our store we smiled he said this is this is is challenging us now to train even more yes to train for them and to train more for ourselves and to train even exors to be out there for anyone to be absorbed by the market and that is where the idea of linton's Beauty Academy was born okay now we have a fully French Academy at the kendle towers in wands and what did you train there we train we started with training on skin care because we are big on skin care most of our products address skin Pro issues okay to to to issues and to make maintain a healthy skin yes radiant looking and all that then we also emphasize on makeup okay covering up you know as ladies when you

45:08 have a brish you don't want it to go a scar you don't want to go expose it so so makeup and makeup Artistry we realize that they big it's a big profession out there very true so we started training because most of our makeup artists have been self-trained mostly on you go to Google you go to YouTube you go where yes when did you ever start training San yes on YouTube true I'm telling you to get good effect you need proper training so when we realize that and we realize that we are at an advantage place yes whereby these International Brands could give a help yes with the trainers yeah we then sat and said we are opening a school okay so we train on skin care makeup Artistry and later I want to invite you to come and see our campus I'm so proud of it I will I will uh we on third floor come and see the state of the art school yes how many students loo has partnered

46:18 with us when they came l' yes they came and saw we have done with the skin and and um makeup yes they said we we are big in hair industry and we want to partner with you we want to give you grants to get them under privilege yeah to get the underprivileged uh lead women from K from M from wherever yes get them we want you to get them so they sponsoring 30 students in class they already in class we started in SE in September this year they will take their course will take like 7 months and it's we are excited we can't wait because we want to change the terrain want to change the industry want to upgrade it to upscale the industry with that knowledge that they are giving us from out there want to to equal what they do in France what they do in us and all that I'm smiling because I mean it's such a you you story um has so many layers to it now you but

47:32 and and there's a pioneering aspect to each lay that that's kind of unique you know you started out H first H separating uh human and vet yeah human and vet gave birth to uh um cosmetics and beauty and then cosmetics and Beauty evolved into okay if you to go down this have a stand loone and then you go through a 10 year journey of writing letters and getting to full cycle where you come and now H the the the brands are cting you because of the footprint yes but I I think it doesn't just stop I think your Linton story does doesn't just stop with International brand because when I was reading your profile um you had um you created a second brand which is a Beauty Box and Beauty Box I understand deals more with local Beauty Brands maybe you can tell us a bit about Beauty Box and the thinking behind that now as I mentioned to you we were privileged to have our son join the

48:40 business yes now he came in with fresh ideas as well yeah he looked at this outfit and realized we are focusing too much on the blacks on the top end of the market on the top end of the market yes where are our genes where are the other local Brands and meanwhile we have up upcoming and mushrooming local manufacturers of Beauty in the space in the beauty space who are tending to feel that lintons is being selfish being for them yes they they were not able to understand that actually now we partnered with Brands and it's like we are tired because these Brands come in and say I want this space if I have to be with you I have to have 3 m space okay and I can't be next to yeah I can't be next to a local product okay I can't be the brand standards the Brad standards are set and we have to ader to them so explaining these mushrooming sisters and brothers of ours was becoming hard yes so Dennis

49:56 felt that it's good to encourage other entrepreneurs in the same field so why not start something that can K up for them that can they can come and show off what their dream is nice uh so we Beauty Box was born out of that it's a brainchild of Dennis Dennis kunda yes and it's beautiful yeah I don't know whether you have seen the lat the latest the mon Market I I saw the one on I've been to the one on Quang Street yes at at the ktda yes I've been to I've been to You' been to that one oh they they beautiful and I believe this they dream day and night with the wife yes with his wife yes they just they just come up with brilliant ideas excited supporting local manufacturing so you play in both ends of the market quite yeah wow we have products like uncover yes um Tony something we we we we what we do is if you're confident about the quality of your product M come we'll

51:12 give you a counter will give you maybe 6 months to one year prove yourself yes because you the one to prove your dream yes what is driving you yeah I won't be able to capture what you have in your mind to tell client so here we are the place is set for you so call your clients train our B yes the way you want them to handle your product MH so it's it's a success story I must ad and and Beauty Bo also it's growing a footprint so you're growing both Brands parallel and I know you've now gone to you have now transitioned uh from the family business where your husband was doing the accounts you're now a a fully fledged local corporate entity with with a relevant corporate governance structures yes what a fabulous fabulous story um no I think I'm I'm I'm I'm sitting down and I'm a bit in awe of uh one how you have gone about it but maybe we can speak as we come to the tail end

52:20 of the interview we can speak about the brand you know there are many people who trade you know but there are not many people who build Brands and I think one of the things that I'll take home from your interview is the power of the brand um they when at the time when you are writing your letters to the international trying to seek those Partnerships yes you are probably viewed as a Trader because you had a single store and you're selling you have a successful business you're selling but you then transitioned uh fast from the design of the store second to the look and feel and the brand identity and the other elements that makeon beauty and Beauty Box what yeah yeah and you have now built a brand and that brand comes once it's built and has achieved a certain uh scale you now you now talk a different story because you're sought after yeah yeah there's love for it that is

53:24 independent you know people say um I I I like to ask people where do you Fuel and and they say I'm a this person you know I go to this fuel brand oh I always Fuel and you looking out for the brand and there's a certain maybe you can tell us a bit about how that journey of building the linton's beauty brand and the Beauty Box brand has been uh the journey has been exciting yes and we have come to learn and we would love to tell our young people like you yes that quality matters consistency yes you have to be consistent with what you are offering yes don't give up easily okay things don't don't follow money you have to be resilient you have to be resilient yes you have I always believe that success follows you when you are doing the right thing on daytoday basis uh take your dreams believe and trust that God is with you yes and whatever little dream you have is going to multiply it is

54:36 going to actually magnify it yes to be to be that great because he given creat as creativity each one of us so use it use it use it and always him at being a person of Integrity Integrity is part of building a brand that can be trusted that will last uh trust other people networks you have to work with banks yes you have to work with staff yes you have to work with more senior people than you yes learn to respect their disciplines yes even the that food who is putting a nail somewhere yes respect them yes respect what they are doing yeah and the rest is like when you're making a cake yes you need each and every of those ingredients that's what I've learned in building a brand and what be ready to listen yes to others we have learned a lot from those global Brands yeah at the beginning you might feel to think that ah they dictating on me they're being fussy for

55:49 nothing why can't I mix this and that why can't I put um I mean on this counter and this all cleansers on this counter dising whether they are from clarines from EST or from whatever yes but at the end of the day when you listen to them yes it works out yes they have practiced this for many years so why reinvent the wheel when you can just quickly learn from them and Implement things the way they are okay yes Dr Gunda wow a lot to digest I think that has been a fabulous conversation first of all um I I'm just in awe of uh what you have built and uh what H you speak to what is becoming a theme of this podcast uh which is Africans uh building International standard brand with very strong local context and you're a great example of that and because you're a retail I think yeah I think you're a first retail uh customer in the sense that uh as the sixth uh episode of this podcast we are yet to

57:02 have a r and it's a great privilege to have you as the first one and uh ladies and gentlemen thank you very much for joining us on this episode six uh of our podcast I'll give H Dr Gunda a chance to give us a parting shot and just share some words on wisdom I think the website is www. lons beauty.com and it's lintons which is l i n t o NS lintons beauty.com and beautybox uh is the secondary brand and as you have been told there's linton's academy uh which does a beauty and cosmetic courses so go check them out at kreil towers and Westlands nirobi third floor Dr gundo you're parting short thank you so much it's been a privilege yes having a discussion with you I would like to say one thing that is in my heart that I'm at a stage in life whereby my interest and my focus is to Mentor young Talent particularly Beauty Talent nice and to

58:18 tell mothers aunties my friends out there we are here to share what we have learned over 40 years plus what we have gotten out there we want actually to share and when we train your girls your boys we we want them to get out there not just in Kenya to work in Kenya apparently I me I forgot to mention that we have some some people who have gone to work who have been interviewed past interview they are working in Dubai oh wow from our Academy nice we have somebody going to USA excellent we are we are so thrilled because we are offering quality Beauty education beauty is a profession like any other profession as you can see I change from Pharmacy to Beauty because I admire the profession I know what it means once you learn the trick of beauty and how to help others in the beauty industry because you really really transform and equip somebody and make them confident forever

59:27 and they can excel in any field that they get into so bring them out there bring them for us to to mentor and train thank you excellent so thank you very much ladies and gentlemen and we look forward to seeing you next time when we record episode 7 thank you very much [Music]