Call: Ose S.T mare oo
Response: eee
Call: Ose S.T mare oo
Response: eee
Call: Okan Dara fun we lasan
Response: eee
Call: Okan dara faso fifo
Response: eee
Call: Elo S.T ke ridi oro wa
All: Gbogob Kokoro ara Ojobo, gbogbo idioti yen o le raiye, eela ishaka rea bi gba lo, on foso mo ki jase o sa, ole koko kii jewo o jare.
Call: Ose S.T. mare oo
Response: eee
Anyone in South Western Nigeria encountered this advert in the 80s and 90s. The soap was a thriving wonder and was in high demand. Today, it doesn’t exist anymore. Why? What happened? Was it preventable? What can we learn from the collapse of this indigenous brand? The case studies of Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter are ok, but it will really be good if we can learn from companies that became prominent here. It is also worth noting that failure offers more lessons than success. So why not learn something from those who touched huge success and still somehow failed?
The S.T. industry story is long, with few references, so I will try to summarise it, clearly pointing to the weaknesses and opportunities.
The company was started by Alhaji Safiriyu Tiamiyu, who decided to brand the product after his initials. Reported records showed that he began the business with a capital of N5,000. He had N2,000 of his own and borrowed N3,000 from his father. Safiriyu Tiamiyu was a trader before starting S.T. Soap Limited. He was buying Garri from Auchi and selling in Lagos.
With very little education and a cottage company in the passage of his house, Safiriyu Tiamiyu built the soap-making company into a 1,000 Labour forced organization, with a cutting-edge factory in Ijebu Mushin, Ogun State, making S.T soap and well as polythene nylons. He was balling big time and could afford a few luxuries.
The businesses spiral downward began in 2004 with a sequence of events. Here are the highlights
1. His staff wanted to have a union to represent their interest to the company’s management. Safiriyu Tiamiyu saw ahead that a union would bring nothing but trouble for the business owner. He resisted it vehemently, and the staff protested by abandoning their tasks
2. The staff dissent was said to have caused damage to a high-end manufacturing machine. This angered Alhaji S. T, who invited the police to come to arrest the culprit.
3. The overzealous police came and did more harm than good. They didn’t only arrest staff workers but also the community members around the vicinity. Things degenerated fast from here forward, but the worst was still on the horizon.
4. The community was upset with police brutality and vowed to wipe out the company if their children were not released. Alhaji S. T caved into their demands and also caved into having a union
5. The union held the company to ransom from time to time, demanding salary increases incessantly.
6. After observing that the real culprits of many dissents were indigenes of the community that he had hired, he decided to do away with a good number of them – 50. This also didn’t work, as it fuelled community angst against him.
7. After reaching an agreement with the community with the help of the Police, it seemed the worst was over until sometime in May 2005, Alhaji Sarifiyu Tiamiyu was arrested by the police on allegations of kidnapping and buying human parts for rituals.
8. Though the case was dismissed barely a month after it was floated, the impact of these allegations and news that went out took Alhaji Tiamiyu outside his social circles, got him depressed, and took him completely out of the public eye until there was not much about either him or his company.
Everything was completely quiet until Oct 5, 2020, when the news of the death of Alhaji Safiriyu Tiamiyu of S.T. Soaps Ltd, at the age of 64, of an undisclosed ailment. (Story insights from Johnson Okunade’s mywovenwords.com)
What killed this business? What lessons can we learn from this story? You can join the discussion on my socials or my site. I will share another article with you about the lessons I can see in this story. Many things may knock a man down, but it takes a discerning eye to know the one that finally killed him.
