The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on businesses across all sectors. The hospitality industry, in particular, was among the hardest hit due to restrictions on people’s movements and activities to contain the virus.
Mary-Ann Musangi Kirubi, the daughter of the late billionaire businessman Chris Kirubi, found this out the hard way when she had to close down her restaurant business due to the pandemic.
Mary-Ann Kirubi had left her job as marketing director for KCB Bank Group to pursue her passion for the hospitality industry. She opened her first restaurant, Secret Garden, in 2011 on Riverside Drive in Nairobi.
The business was successful, and she later opened another outlet at the Dusit complex in Nairobi. However, the restaurant was among those affected by the terrorist attack in 2019.
In 2017, Mary-Ann established Olpul, an upscale steakhouse at the Two Rivers Mall. She also ran a catering business. However, the Covid-19 pandemic forced her to shut down two of her restaurants and sell all her assets within the restaurant business.
The government ban on people’s movements and activities to contain the virus put many restaurateurs in a fix.
“I had to let go of my members of staff and sell all my assets within the restaurant business because it was difficult financially to navigate through the Covid-19 season,” she said in a past interview.
Mary-Ann had to concentrate on managing Haco Industries, as well as overseeing the other businesses within the Kirubi estate. Having sat on the boards of all her father’s companies, she was a natural pick to manage the vast business empire.
The hospitality industry is highly competitive, and managing a restaurant business requires good control measures and people management skills to avoid leakage, theft, and navigate the industry.
Mary-Ann says that people management is the most challenging part of running a business. In the restaurant business, you work with a lot of people, and you have to be patient and understand the people you are working with to achieve your vision.
“You only achieve through your people. I am only as good as my people, my team. I truly believe that 110 percent. In the restaurant business, we are working with a lot of people. That’s another big area that can be quite challenging if you don’t know how to work with people.”
Mary-Ann had previously worked for British multinational pharmaceutical GlaxoSmithKline and advertising, marketing, and public relations agency Ogilvy & Mather, where she honed her skills and experience in the corporate world for over 25 years.
With a lack of hospitality experience, she says running restaurants was different compared to the rest.
“Yes, it was very different. …I had gone to business school. I had only worked in the business arena of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and marketing, so running a restaurant was very different. I like taking on new challenges, different things and pushing myself to the next level. So I did. I went out and learned, I got a consultant to work with me, and I set up the first restaurant in 14 Riverside.”
Mary-Ann has no plans to reopen any food outlets, even as economies continue to reel from the impact of the pandemic, such as spiralled inflation. She says that the restaurant business was the hardest business she ever ran.
The restaurant business looks like it is very simple, but it is actually very difficult and technical. If you do not have the proper preparation for it, you can end up losing a lot of money.
“I sold them at a loss. When you are in business, you have to be ready. You win some, you lose some. You are not going to be successful in everything,” she says.