It is quite amazing and interesting to read stories and hear tales of successes and achievements. It is even more awe-inspiring to hear of ground-breaking feats, innovative exploits and remarkable accomplishments achieved by ordinary people, particularly Africans. Of course we all know that the journey to success isn’t an easy one, neither is the road to success paved with gold. This is, perhaps, why some would rather prefer to arrive at the destination of success without the trouble of going through the arduous journey of hard work. For some however, ‘the journey’ is seen as an all-important process required to achieving not only great success, but also lasting fulfilment. Among those who are practical examples of this philosophy, is the famous Kenyan entrepreneur, Martin Dunford, Co-owner and Chairman of Tamarind Group.

Early Life…

Martin Dunford was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1952. He attended Keaton College, Nairobi then Fettes College, Edinburgh, Scotland. While in school, he was a reasonably good student, although his teachers kept writing ‘could do better’ in his school reports. He was however, excellent at sport activities like; basketball, rugby, swimming and squash. Realising early his special interest in the hospitality industry, Martins proceeded to Surrey University in England to study Hospitality Management, where he bagged his Bachelors of Science Degree.

The Journey…

Upon graduation from Surrey University, England, Martin was offered employment at Hilton Hotels. In 1975, he joined Chris Seex, the Founder of Tamarind Restaurant established in Mombasa to work as the restaurant manager. With gritty determination and sheer hard work, Martins rose quickly through the ranks to become a shareholder in the Tamarind Group, a General Manager, a Managing Director and by 1990, he became the Executive Chairman of the group.

Blessed with ingenuity and creativity, Martins and Chris worked together to build the Tamarind Group by establishing various ventures. In 1977, the Tamarind restaurant was opened in Haile Selassie Avenue, Nairobi. In 1980, the Carnivore was established; The Tamarind Dhow was opened in 1985, followed by the innovative concept of Tamarind Village established in Mombasa in 1991.

The group expanded its services to South Africa with the establishment of The Carnivore in Johannesburg in 1993 and The Golden Key Casino in 1996. The Tamambo brand was created in 2001 in Westlands; Tamambo Village Market was founded in 2005 and Tamambo Karen was established in 2010.

* The Tamarind Carnivore

The establishment of all these subsidiary ventures was not an easy feat. There were some bumps on the road that led to the closure of some established subsidiaries. The group’s business ventures like; Tamarind Trout Farms, Tamfeeds, Thriftec, The Carnivore Cairo and Dormans Coffee shops were all experiments in business which was started but regrettably, ran at a loss. The Group also experienced a setback when one of its branches was blown up in Nairobi’s 1998 US Embassy bombing.

Achievements…

In spite of the few failures encountered by the Tamarind Group, the Company rose through those challenges to become a multi- million dollar business famed for its up-scale restaurants and leisure establishments in Kenya and South Africa.

The Tamarind Group, which has a management team of about 30 personnel, with 800 employees in total, has a turnover of 1.5 billion shillings (US$17 million). The Carnivore (Nairobi) feeds about 150,000 people a year and it has been in operation for 30 years, that’s about feeding four million people in 3 decades. Martin founded The Woodlands Trust, served as the Chairman of The Trust among other associations like; The Chaine des Rotisseurs, The Nairobi Swimming Association, and Kenton College Board of Governors.

Not only is Martin Dunford a shrewd business man and an accomplished entrepreneur, he is also a proud and fulfilled family man as he is the father of three talented sons, two of whom are world class Olympic swimmers. Jason and David Dunford represented Kenya at two Olympics and won medals at The Commonwealth and All Africa Games. Martin’s third son, Robert captained his university at rugby and recently swam from Zanzibar to Tanzania, a distance of 31.8 kilometres.

Future Plans…

The success story is yet to end as the ingenuity of the Kenyan entrepreneur is constantly at play. The Tamarind group is venturing into accommodations with the construction of the $15 million “Tamarind Tree Hotel” at The Carnivore which will commence operation in 2016. In addition, the group is going into Estate and properties management with the objective of being the most preferred hotel management company in East Africa.

Bottom-line…

Life will not always give you what you deserve. You have to demand it and work hard to achieve it. This is what Martin Dunford, Co-owner and Chairman of Tamarind Group, has done with his career. He knew what he wanted to achieve and he set about getting it. He didn’t cower at the hurdles on the path to his dreams, he didn’t quit when he was faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges neither did he give up after encountering series of failures. In fact according to the business man, “Quitting is never an option”.

The tenacity and resilience of people like Martin to prove beyond every reasonable doubt that one can succeed in whatever one does regardless of crippling challenges, is the reason why CEOAfrica chooses to celebrate great African entrepreneurs. As an advice to African entrepreneurs and business leaders, Martin says “Lead from the trenches, you cannot sit at the ivory tower and write memos.”