Omoefe Abimbola is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Summer’s Cuisine, a catering company that specialises in food and healthy eating/lifestyle.
An international relations expert by training, she is also a certified nutritionist who makes use of her in-depth knowledge of natural and organic herbs and spices to do catering with a difference. An advocate for healthy eating, she conducts a lot of research on replacement of inorganic processed spices with organic herbs and spices.
“This is information that is out there and available to everybody, but the awareness is not as much as it should be. I am very particular about the kind of ingredient I use in cooking,” she says.
Right from childhood, cooking has been her passion and she used to watch her mom, who is also caterer, cook, which influenced her decision to become a caterer.
“I wanted to make impact on people’s lives through their eating habits and create awareness about healthy eating,” Abimbola says.
She started Summer’s Cuisine in 2014 from her brother’s kitchen with her savings on a part-time basis, juggling it with her 9-5 job.
Despite having a budding career in the corporate world as well as earning a good salary, she resigned in July 2018 and took up catering as a fulltime job.
She grew it overtime with profits generated and ploughed back, setting up a mini industrial kitchen and buying bulk foodstuffs, plates, cups, glasses, and other necessary items. The entrepreneur says she was sceptical about taking loans while starting.
Though she started as a normal caterer, an incident prompted a change in her cooking technique. In 2014, she lost her father after he battled with a protracted illness which piqued her curiosity.
“We did everything right in terms of medication, regular doctor’s visit and every other necessary thing but I kept pondering what we missed along the way.”
This prompted her to conduct extensive research, which led to her realisation that they did not pay close attention to the meals and diet.
She says it is not only about eating salads and fruits but about the kind of ingredients used in preparing the food.
Her findings further drove her into making more research on healthy eating, nutrition, use of natural herbs and spices. She found lots of useful information which was the drive behind her company.
In 2017, she rebranded Summer’s Cuisine and became a catering company whose goals align strictly with healthy eating.
Evaluating her business over the years, she agrees that it is booming, growing its profit, clientele and publicity. The business owner also states that the business is developing in line with global best practises, adding that in a bid to keep it growing, all the profits made from the business are ploughed back as investment.
She adds that her clientele has been growing at an amazing rate, especially as she leverage Instagram, a social media platform, as a tool for publicity.
She says 70 percent of her customers were got through online platforms. She attributes her clientele growth to the type of service she provides as well as the kind of quality and affordable meals she offers.
Speaking on the various challenges she encounters as a caterer, she says, “Catering requires a large amount of patience and is very expensive to run as you have to get exquisite utensils and cutleries. Furthermore, the inconsistency in food prices affects earlier planned budget and I do not have enough helping hands.”
Currently, she has staff strength of five, with two permanent staff members and three contract staff. She is looking to grow her staff strength to 10 by the end of the year. She buys food stuffs in bulk from major Lagos markets like Mushin, Ijora, Mile 12, among others. She secures cutleries from Lagos Island market but intends to start buying them directly from manufacturers in China as it seems more cost-effective.
As part of her business expansion plan, Abimbola intends to collaborate with event planners to provide a wider reach to clients and extend her catering to larger amounts of people. As a nutritionist, she is also involved in public speaking especially children nutrition and intends to give health talk internationally, not just locally.
As a development strategy for herself and her business, she engages in various trainings and networking opportunities both online and beyond the web. She also volunteers for the Lagos Food Bank NGO, a platform which she uses to promote healthy eating even among those who are less privileged.
Juggling the role of a business owner, wife and mother, she has received support from family members, especially her husband who she describes as the force behind her excellence. Her life values are peace and integrity and she is inspired by God.
Advising entrepreneurs, she says, “Embrace the process; do not rush your growth process; love your business like a marriage, as there will be the bad days.”
Gbemi Faminu
