By Ebunoluwa Sessou

Princess Olufunmi Adepiti established her brand “Tasty Corridors” in 2017.

She switched from her Law profession to being a Cook. In this interview, she speaks on how COVID-19 pandemic is posing challenges to the food industry and how she is addressing it in her own way.

COVID-19 pandemic has affected so many businesses including the food industry, but you seem to look at it from a different angle, can you share your experience even as you consider the safety of your clients?

COVID-19 pandemic was a high point for us in the food industry.

We had to take a step back to re-strategize and see how we can serve our customers better.

I am a Level II UK Certified Food Safety Handler so I have learnt how to handle food in a safe way so that customers are well satisfied and food that I produce is safe to consume for customers.

It is contrary to our excellence ethos for our products to cause stomach upsets or lead to food poisoning. 

All customers’ foods are well wrapped in food grade films, then the packaging is in such a way that nobody will open it and tamper with the contents, and it’s sealed just to make sure that customers get it in whole form, and we make sure that the food is delivered immediately to customers.

So, what does it take to make a landmark in the industry?

In the industry, you must have the technical know-how. If you understand how the industry is, it is not just enough to say that you can cook.

Apart from knowing how to cook or knowing how to prepare these delicacies, there’s the business aspect of it.

I am someone who has leveraged heavily on social media, especially Instagram. I had to learn how Instagram works, how to use technology to promote my business.

So, it is not enough to have talent or to have skills in cooking.

You need to brush up your culinary skills with financial management, digital marketing, photography, videography and the likes just to make sure you differentiate yourself from the competitors and set yourself apart.

….And challenges?

Yes, there have been challenges especially in terms of getting funds. It is not easy trying to break even in the food processing industry.

You need funds to get equipment, production space, permit and regulatory licenses.

At Tasty Corridors, we are currently working on five (5) products for NAFDAC Accreditation and we are at the last stage for NAFDAC Officials to come and inspect our production site, so we need funds to get a production space, say, at least a 2-3 bedroom flat where we can produce our products.

We have 5 product ranges and we do daily food delivery, lunch delivery and food in a bowl which we send out to customers based on their orders so we need funds to get machinery and equipment.

Electricity is another major challenge. We have to resort to a generator set and that would increase our cost of production because we have to get fuel and so on.

If we are unable to fuel the generator set, production would be truncated.
Regulation is also another issue.

For instance, we had some challenges when the regulation of dispatch riders was unclear. Dispatch riders are part of our distribution chain because they take care of the delivery.

It is not enough to cook; we need to also make sure that the food gets to the consumer safely.

Logistics is a whole lot of challenge to food-preneurs like me because it’s not enough to cook food.

One has to ensure that the food gets to the final consumers safely. So, it’s also another challenge.

We would need to get our own bikes and dispatch boxes to make sure that food gets to customers in record time.

For the funding challenges, we have partnered with investors to provide us short term funding so as to meet our production requirements and we have also approached some financial institutions for loans.

Business structure?

In terms of business structure, I would say that maybe my background as a lawyer has helped me a great deal so I have policies in place so that customers and I would not have friction.

There is clarity on what is guiding my business, and I can have something to make reference to when there are conflicts.

I would also know how to resolve the conflicts. I work 9-5 as a lawyer and at night, I strategize and plan my food business.

How has training and development helped your business growth?

When I started my business on Instagram, I was clueless on how things work on Instagram, how to project my brand, how to create content that align with the values of my customers, and how to target my customers.

I had to undergo webinars and training. I paid for product photography training so that I can take pictures with props and proper lighting just to present my food in better light.

I learnt how to edit videos so I would shoot videos to talk about my brand because I couldn’t pay brand influencers and some of them did not give me much returns so I realised that I am my best brand influencer even though influencer marketing is very important. Because I had limited resources, I had to “carry my brand on my head”.

Business safety process?

I also go for food safety training. I went to Hospitality Business School where I learnt inter-continental and continental cuisines, and African dishes but with a major bias for local delicacies.

That’s how I have evolved over the years as a business owner.

How do you manage the male counterparts?

I never feel threatened. Every day, I think of innovative ways to please my customers, to bring my customers solutions and create impact.

It brings top of mind awareness for me that I need to stay at the top and that I need to be better than who I was yesterday.

Can you give us the story behind your brand?

The idea for my brand was planted while I was much younger. At the time, I lived at Ebute-Metta, and a lot of my neighbours were Togolese who were known for their local delicacy, Ewa Aganyin.

I interacted a lot with my Togolese friends and in the process I learnt how to make Ewa-aganyin. I boast about how I learned how to make Ewa Aganyin from the real source.

After my NYSC, I applied for multiple jobs but all to no avail. But, I didn’t relent and so, I began some research online for possible businesses I could do.

It was in the course of my research that I discovered that  people wanted local dishes but had difficulties in getting them either because of distance or the available vendors did not get the recipe quite right.

I thought that it was a need I could meet. So, the business was born, and the journey began.

I started on Instagram. I opened a page and an influencer, Askdamz, gave me a shout out. I made sure, in my early days, to differentiate myself from the local Ewa-aganyin seller on the street.

All orders were packed in a box and sealed with films to ensure that they were spill-proof.

The brand name was actually inspired by the way we lived back then. I lived in the regular face-me-I-face-you building with no kitchen, everybody cooked in their corridors.

In the evening, you would see different people bringing out their pots and cooking utensils from a wooden box.

There is a wooden box which the Yoruba call Kombodu. So the corridors were always filled with the aroma of lovely local delicacies.

That was where the inspiration for the brand name came from. I knew that whenever I wanted to do the food business, I would want tasty in the name.

The corridors came to me during the NBA Conference in 2017 when I thought about the aroma-filled corridors of my sojourn in Ebute Meta. Then the name came together, Tasty Corridors.

How would you rate your journey so far?

One of my secrets to success is that I work very hard. I am very calculative and I am quite innovative.

I am always thinking. Rather than complain about competitors or anything, I look at the gap in the market like, “what is it that people are not doing? How can I fill in the gap? How can I satisfy my customers?

Vanguard News Nigeria