Cooking Up Success: The Story Behind Universal Kitchens

[00:00:01]From side hustles to success stories, this is The Finance Ghost Plugged In with Capitec, where we explore what it really takes to build a business in South Africa. Over the past two decades, Clinton van der Broda has built Universal Kitchens from literally nothing into a business with over 200 people.

[00:00:19]Welcome to this episode of The Finance Ghost Plugged In with Capitec. This is episode two of season two, which means there are a number of shows for you to go back and listen to if you are new to this series. So, please do go and do that. Lots of great entrepreneurs to learn from. And certainly today's guest on the show is going to bring us some fantastic insights about building a business from scratch in South Africa.

[00:00:38]That is Clinton van der Broda, and he is the founder and CEO of Universal Kitchens. It's a really impressive business. He's been building it for roughly two decades now, and I'm excited to tap into that story. So, Clinton, welcome to the show, and thank you for agreeing to do this.

[00:00:52]>> Ghost, thanks for reaching out to me, and it's quite an honor and a privilege.

[00:00:56]I'm actually emotional that people watch us how we play out in business. I'm excited to chat about our journey.

[00:01:04]>> When we were getting to know each other a bit before this podcast, something you mentioned to me is that you started this business with roughly a 500,000 rand loan all those years ago. We won't disclose your turnover today, but you've got more than 200 staff. So, I think that is a remarkable story to go from basically half a million bucks in debt to get this thing off the ground through to providing for 200 households. That is really, really impressive. How often do you honestly just sit and think back to how everything started, or is that so long ago now that you kind of forget about it, and you just focus on what you need to do today, what did you do last week, what's coming next week? What does a journey like that actually look like?

[00:01:41]>> For any entrepreneur, regardless of his age, that's starting a business, sometimes you don't know how it will play out. And quite an interesting story I want to mention, I watched a video interview with the great Mr. Christo Wiese, and he said that sometimes us as entrepreneurs in Afrikaans, he said that ons is van ons lootjies getik. What that means is sometimes if we as an entrepreneur, you start your business, and if you know of all the challenges that you must face with your business, I don't think you will take it on. Whether that is a new business within your business, whether it is a new division, whatever it relates to within your business, making your business more profitable or innovative, bringing in new machinery, there's a lot of things, moving parts of running a smooth line business. If you must think back that what you went through, and yet you did it, I think sometimes we as entrepreneurs, we've got a lot, sometimes we buy our lootjies getik, sometimes we mad. And if I look back at where we are today, 20 years later, I would have never imagined that we would have been where we are today. And first of all, I would like to say to the heavenly Father that I pray and I believe in that is giving me the wisdom and the courage and the empowerment vision that is in me to take the business 20 years later and still have the drive and the passion of the business still today. I started off with my dad that played a big role. I've started in a business household with my dad in business. I was a good entrepreneur. We discussed I was supposed to be a golfer, and we all know how golf plays out. I think there was much more for me in a business career, and I started off with a 500,000 loan.

[00:03:39]I'll never forget it. I still signed the check to one of our machine suppliers. I started off in a overdraft in a minus 500,000, and today, with my wife being the financial director, we try and run the business to the smooth possible way we can.

[00:03:56]>> If I reflect back when we started till today, it's a dream come true, but yet I'm excited of what's coming.

[00:04:04]>> I've met a lot of people within our business, a lot of friends that I've created through the business.

[00:04:11]>> So, I think let's go back to that beginning period and just unpack it a little bit more. You thought you might become a professional golfer. What you've alluded to there is that that's a high-risk decision. If you become any Els or Ernie Els or any of the younger guys that we have today, then great. But obviously, if you spend your life on the Sunshine Tour, that's a very hard way to actually make any kind of living. I guess that's what drew you away from there. Maybe just unpack a little bit more that early journey with your dad working in the business, some of the lessons learned there, and then how that actually led you to go and start what you're doing today, which is Universal Kitchens.

[00:04:45]>> I was a very young guy and I was always [snorts] good at rugby and cricket and I had a lot of leadership in me and I obviously wanted to become a professional golfer.

[00:04:55]I did my part. I've invested, eat, sleep, and played golf. That's what I did. And obviously, each person's life turns out differently. So, obviously, I quickly decided, you know what, golf is not for me. And as I said, I was brought up in a household where there was always business with my dad. Through the ups and the downs with him, I've learned a lot and I think when I decided that I want to do something myself, yet I didn't know what to. At that stage in my dad's business career, he started building spec houses, building four, five houses a year on his own pace, doing his own finishes, etc. And I thought I can run that side of the business for him because he was originally in the aluminum industry and it was family involved and it turned separate paths. So, my dad started building big estate projects selling houses for 3 million plus. When I was on site, I saw the people doing these kitchens at that time. It drew my attention and it was a clean job. It caught me and probably the design of it of how it looked. If you think about it where the kitchen is the heart of the house. Obviously, that caught my attention and we started with it. At that time, I was very young. I met my wife that we still married today, blessed marriage. I will never forget it. My dad said, "Okay, right. Well, now you need to buy yourself a bakkie." I was 19 at that stage. I thought, "Yes, yeah. I'm going to get a double cab bakkie or at least a club cab." And my dad said, "No, no, no. You getting a long horse." We call it a long horse.

[00:06:32]It's was a cult bottom range bakkie. It was a work bakkie. It was my church bakkie. And that time, I just met my girlfriend, my wife now. And did it. I was focused in my goals. Yes, we went through a lot in the business. I've restructured the business. It was exciting when I started. Advice I can give is I was really into it. I was dreaming my business. I was visualizing my business. How do I operate the next day? I had a to-do list. I was not just coming in in the morning. Whatever comes my way, take it and leave 5:00 or 6:00 at night. It was not very clever. I just focused on my end goal and I did it. So, Clinton, I think let's start to dig into then this journey of actually building the scene because it's been two decades.

[00:07:17]You've come out the other end with a really substantial business that does some very interesting stuff. And maybe to just touch on some of that. You've done some pretty big collaborations with celebrities. I mean, the website is beautiful. You've done a lot of really premium kitchens. The work looks amazing. And I'm so fascinated by how someone actually incrementally builds that bit by bit. So, you've touched on a few points there about how you basically eat, sleep, and live your business. I think that any business owner will fully understand what that is like. It does tend to take over your life. That also tends to be the case for a number of years. When I worked in corporate advisory, a lot of the businesses that we would sell on behalf of people, they'd often been around for about two decades. So, where you are in your business journey now is similar to where a lot of entrepreneurs, the really successful ones, get to. It takes, like I said, 20 years of work, which is an incredible journey. And I just wanted to highlight one of my favorite quotes here. It's by Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase. I'm not much of a crypto guy, but I definitely love this quote, which is action produces information.

[00:08:17]So, I first heard it on The Founders Podcast with David Senra, which I highly, highly recommend. I'll just say it again. Action produces information.

[00:08:25]What does that mean? It means that in order to figure out where to go, you basically just have to start moving. You have to start walking in a particular direction, and you're going to learn some stuff along the way, and then you'll know what to do next. One foot in front of the other. Would you say that that is then your journey over the 20 years? Is it just incremental growth over time, or did you find that there was a really big bang moment? There was a particularly lucky break, or was it more of a grind?

[00:08:51]>> If I reflect on my journey so far, I was focused. Every year, I would start my year with my diary of the previous year, and I will go through each and every day in my hard book diary, although my management moves in calendar sharing, etc. I look where I've maybe slipped up, or I reflect on a meeting that I've had.

[00:09:15]I start my new year diary with the things I've slipped up. I will make notes of it that's too my importance, and I will then physically mark it down, and I will then run it through. So, to get to the bottom of all these, us as entrepreneurs, we've got a lot of plans.

[00:09:34]We wake up at night and think about this, think about that. Where I will take a day at a time and try and run through it or try and plan it. Yes, our business has grown in such a big turnaround from a staff point of view, from a total business point of view. Our business has upscaled in the last 5 years. I didn't get a business breakthrough as such. I just was dedicated, I was goal-driven, I worked in my diary, I aligned myself with the right management team around me, making sure our marketing strategies is correct in certain time frames as we moving in our Cape Town market as well more aggressively. I would pinpoint it and I would just run through it. Whether it now takes a week or a month, I'm an executor. I don't just leave things.

[00:10:24]>> It sounds like a bit of a snowball, right? You do a lot of things well for a long time and then suddenly the business just takes off. It just starts to scale.

[00:10:31]You've alluded there it's quite rapid growth in recent years. I guess COVID would have helped drive people were staying home and staying safe as it went and they were spending a lot of money renovating their homes. Did you find that COVID was a really important boost for the business?

[00:10:44]>> In 2020 COVID, that February was COVID, I think, or March lockdown. Prior to that, in November 2019, I signed a 5-year lease in George with our first showroom. We are expanding across not just in Gauteng. And when I went through COVID, I was not anxious or I didn't look around me. I was focused. I know that that was a good area for us and it still is today, that old garden route area. As an entrepreneur, your brain switches on differently. Your angle is different. You think on your feet. I think way in ahead of this and about that, A B C D plans you must always have. COVID, we went through it, we had one of our brilliant years because we were active, we were alerted. The staff thought, are they going to lose their jobs?" There was a lot of things happening within the economy in all of South Africa and the whole world, in fact. No one knew what is going to play out. We were on the ball. After COVID, it was good, but we carried on as normal.

[00:11:45]>> So, I have a really interesting question for you, actually, as I listen to this backstory. You've made it pretty clear that, obviously, your faith is very important to you. A lot of it is just like getting on with it and just working towards that future and everything else.

[00:11:56]Do you think that in the tough times, having strong faith, which is, obviously, a feature of your life, is that something that's really helped you believe that actually it's all going to be okay? And the reason I ask is that entrepreneurs will go through this crisis of confidence pretty often, right? Where something goes a little bit wrong in the business or something scary happens, like signing a lease ahead of this global pandemic, as you've described there. And I guess you've got to have something that you cling to that lets you believe that long-term it's going to be okay. And maybe in some respects, that's slightly easier if you are a person of faith and that's what you would cling to. Without going into the details of that, it's more just an interesting thought experiment, which is to what extent do you believe that's actually helped you to just keep your mindset where it needs to be?

[00:12:39]>> Any entrepreneur that makes 100 calls plus a day, I can't make all the calls all the time right, spot-on. People will say, "Oh, Clinton is born with a golden spoon in his mouth." It's not that. The faith, I don't want to go too deep into it. If you look at boxers, when does a trainer throw in the towel? When he's really man down on the ground and he's got nowhere to go. Then it's when the trainer will throw in the towel. You must make sure how you surround yourself with the people that you don't get distracted from your goals. Be quiet about your finances, your assets, etc. Be personal in your life, in your business, that people can't ruin it. Be positive. Don't throw in the towel, doesn't matter what. Think through things. I don't just make an impulsive decision. And I would know when the right answer is and I will know when to pull the trigger.

[00:13:29]>> I think it really comes down to purpose.

[00:13:31]For me personally, it's my kids that probably get me out of bed in the morning. Well, sometimes literally, but certainly emotionally as well. To just understand that I'm building something bigger and providing for them. And I think for entrepreneurs, you've got to make sure you have a purpose that goes beyond just oh, I want to make money.

[00:13:46]And for some people, it's the purpose of actually just creating jobs and having all these families that are being supported. And if you build a big enough business, as you've done, then that purpose actually starts to become a whole bunch of things. So, thank you for sharing that. I think that's really helpful.

[00:14:00]>> Just to add to what you just said there, I think in any entrepreneurship, as you start, you think about money. When I started my business, and I will still today will remind my children, my wife, my close family, that when me and my wife got married, we didn't go on a honeymoon because it was crunch time. I just started my business. Only in that December, when it was builders holiday, only then we went. Your focus mustn't be on the money, because if you're going to focus on the money, you're going to get very disappointments throughout. Look after the cents, and the rands will look after themselves. I do focus on the small things, but I'm not a person that sit and calculate how much that we make on this. There's checks and balances throughout, and as the business has grown as well, things that we do quarterly now as well, where I'm sitting at the moment, and out the Vaal Triangle Showroom, as we started with a shopfitting, there was a small little space. We opened up a coffee shop, Manna Cafe by Universal Kitchens. It's not about the money, it's about the passion, it's about how it came our way, and it is just as if we've done coffee shops, and it is our first coffee shop. I'm proud my daughter is running this side of it, but it is so incorporated with our business and where we are, that it's just amazing. It just came naturally our way. So, I just wanted to mention that as well.

[00:15:28]>> So, Clinton, I know that this has really been built as a family business from the start. And I love that story about how you couldn't go on honeymoon after you got married. Having an extremely supportive partner is one of the most important ingredients for any successful business. So, kudos to you and your wife for achieving that along this tough journey. It's very hard for entrepreneurs, and well done. I know your kids are involved as well. So, I guess you've always got a balance off building a family business versus building something that one day becomes a legacy business where it survives you, but gets other investors on board down the line potentially, or someone buys the whole thing. Those jobs are then secured going forward. And it sounds like that's what you've done. If you've got into over 200 staff, then this business has certainly grown beyond you yourself every day.

[00:16:15]How do you do that? Because that's honestly the hardest thing for entrepreneurs. That's the struggle that is just so consistent. It's how do I build a business from just me through to just me and some trusted people, and then into something that someone can actually come along and potentially invest in? What would you say has been your biggest learning and your approach to doing that?

[00:16:34]>> I started this business, and I've grown it, and I still do, and I'm still passionate. My daughter is now first year interior designing. She's in Stellenbosch. My son finished matric last year. He's already slowly but surely getting involved in the business from a groundwork point of view. And obviously my wife runs the finances, and then we've got a lot of other staff that's also family. So, at the end of the day, I don't sit back and say, "Right, I've built up this business.

[00:17:03]Who's there to invest in us?" We play the game, and I take on the things.

[00:17:09]Recently did the Waterkant, which is a brilliant showroom after 18 months. So, we've got Joburg showroom. We've got our head office factories in Boksburg where we manufacture 90% of our things. The George showroom, we've got a George factory as well. And then we've got Paul's showroom. And then we've recently opened up our factory in Momsbury. We're also going to start manufacturing that side. The family know where they are within the business and they know where my head is going places. Support me 100%. Whoever comes along and knocks on my door, we will address it and we'll take it as it comes.

[00:17:46]>> Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It's a difficult thing to get right, but you obviously have achieved a degree of scale there. Congratulations on doing that. I know that part of that would have been the marketing strategy and it's something you alluded to earlier is that marketing has been quite an important driver of the story for you.

[00:18:01]So maybe just talk to us a little bit about the brand collaborations you've done with local celebs. I know you've done some interesting stuff on TV. To what extent has that played a role in the success of the business?

[00:18:11]>> Minki van der Westhuizen was our brand ambassador for 4 years. And we really reached out in her market. We've tapped into her audience. And we actually became friends through the journey. Even her husband, Errol van der Westhuizen.

[00:18:26]They good people. Once a year we recap.

[00:18:29]We didn't even have a real contract in place because we trust one another and honor her for what she's did for our brand.

[00:18:36]We've done a lot of other things with other celebs. Bok van Blerk. Yeah, there were so many. We chatting to a few rugby players as well. I make sure that we'll align ourselves with the right audience, the right people. I was very lucky in a way that I've got a lot of network and a lot of resources from the years of doing business. We are busy in negotiations signing up a new brand ambassador. I don't rush it. If it comes, it comes. If it doesn't, then we move on. We do what we need to do.

[00:19:06]>> Let's talk about some of the business history you've got with Capitec. And I know that you banked with Mercantile for many years before Capitec wins and acquired Mercantile and turned that into Capitec business. My understanding is you were actually quite involved in that process even, so perhaps just talk to us a little bit about the importance of having the right financial backing I suppose for what you're doing and the extent to which the access to the services that a bank will bring you has really made a difference to what you've built.

[00:19:33]>> I'm not a really clever person. I've learned the hard ways also and the good ways. And I'm a really loyal person to such an extent only now that I've been here four months more permanently. I've now got a barber that actually cuts my hair. If I go to a barber, he is my go-to. If I buy a certain brand car like we love Toyota as our dailies, I will buy from one dealership. That's the same with my CIA our company CIA has been with us for 15 years. Harold from Froneman Mercantile Bank we've banked with them. It was very well-known as a small business centrum or bank. It was a Portuguese bank. I had a manager there looking after our account by the name Johan Craft still today is with Capitec very much senior role. He guided me through business through how we must look at our financial obligations of management accounts. I didn't even know about management accounts back at that time. I was not worried about all the bank boxes etc. etc. I was just driven.

[00:20:40]I know I must pay that over and then we play the game. I was not worried about that because I knew that it will be sorted out. Johan Craft really with my company CIA they really nurtured me and played a huge role in today's business climate that we are in to understand actually the financial side of the business provisional tax your VAT.

[00:21:02]There's so much things that plays a role and with Mercantile at that time we were very small, but yet they were still doing a Capitec bought over Mercantile.

[00:21:12]And through the process, me and my wife, we went into a panic stage because we were used to Mercantile's banking online. We were used to who do we speak to when we buy a HP vehicle or a machine. Capitec took me, we had a meeting and they explained to me the process and I actually could understand why they did it. It's to get into the business sector more aggressively.

[00:21:35]Through the Capitec process, I also realized that I look at Capitec business as we are standing today. They are actually my business partners. Truly, we make sure we transparent with them with our financial statements, our management accounts on a quarterly basis. We really try and make their lives easy so that when we need to buy a machine, just imported machines now, a few million. It was not a blink of an eye, it was a few emails up and down and within 24 hours we got approval. We bought a building in Boxburg. They back me and they are my business partners. They there to look after me and I'm there to look after them. Yes, they make their money, but it's not an issue for me. We show the growth because we've got a business bank that's actually involved in our business. Jack Nietling who's my manager, we talk weekly and whether we talk around a coffee or just over the phone, how's it? So we've become close and I can see the Capitec guys, they know what they are doing. They get involved in the business, they know my business, they back my brand. Sometimes I must give a little bit more of an explanation to them or a business plan to where we are and where we going, etc. And they back us 100%. I can only do so much. We invest in our own business as well, but so does Capitec. So I'm grateful for that. Just a final question from me. Any advice you've got for people listening to this who might be thinking of taking on some kind of kitchen renovation project? Obviously, that's your bread and butter and unfortunately, this industry has got a reputation for having a lot of contractors who are nowhere near as ethical as the way that you do business.

[00:23:18]So, what sort of advice would you give people to help protect them from that situation?

[00:23:23]>> It all boils down to good cook cook is dear cook. What that means in English is don't try and get the cheapest possible quote for your kitchen. There's a lot of entails us doing our work professionally. If I look at our 3D designs, our renders, what we showcase to our clients from the first appointment or the second appointment when they come to our showroom, our the kitchen or bedroom cupboards, walking closets, wine cellars, the bathroom vanities, the studies, wall cladding, do all the joinery within the house. And if they come to our showroom to look at it, that's the important part. We pay a lot of money monthly, nationally for all my staff, for my designers to have that program, but yet it's the best program available. Yes, we can go and save cost and get cheaper designing programs out there, but we use the best. Our hardware we use is the best. I know it. I was in Austria myself. They invited me to Austria at their headquarters in Germany and Austria. So, I make sure that all our suppliers are aligned with our vision and what we stand for on quality and on service. It's very important and all that boils down to a end result price because there's so much hands that goes through the process and there's so much things that's happening. In 5 years time or in 10 years time, you must pick up the phone and say listen here, there's something wrong with my kitchen and Universal Kitchens will be there because we honor. We say what we do and we do what we say. I live for that. My people, my staff know, client comes first. Always the client must be happy.

[00:25:03]You pay for that at the end of the day.

[00:25:05]My personal involvement in the business, my phone number is all over media and it's on our website, etc. Search it, Google it, Clinton Furner Dog. We're transparent. We've got an open mandate and we try and keep to that. Although it's not easy to deal with people and staff and there's a lot of moving parts, but we try our best and we communicate to our clients and I feel that has got no price. If I look at my personal life and I deal with business people, I will pay the premium of buying something by someone I know and I can trust and I know my money is safe and I know if he says tomorrow it's tomorrow. But if I want to go for the cheapest, I don't know if my money is safe. I don't know how they operate. There's nothing to reference back to me. People tend to just go for the cheapest and I always say to the market and to everyone and even with our staff today on our quarterly trainings with our sales staff, I say, "Remember, guys, we as Universal Kitchens, we've got a national footprint. We try and bespoke your work.

[00:26:08]So, we really try and take one is your investment or your budget, we take it into consideration and around that we build your design of the look and the feel. We can manufacture for you a 3 Series BMW, a 5 Series BMW or a 7 Series BMW. Where do you want to fit in? We don't just want to sell the 7 Series because there's place for the 3 Series.

[00:26:33]So, we've made sure within our business that we don't cater just for the 7 Series BMWs. We actually take your budget into consideration and when [clears throat] we do the consultation process, we manage through it and we guide you."

[00:26:49]>> Clinton, thank you so much for your time today and just congratulations on everything that you've built and all the best for the future and all that it brings to you. I'll include some links to Universal Kitchens in the show notes so that people can go and find it and see what you're all about. No doubt they'll find you on the socials as well.

[00:27:05]And all the best for the future.

[00:27:06]>> Thanks Ghost and thanks for the opportunity and please watch us. There's many more to come, exciting things.

[00:27:12]Thanks.

[00:27:14]>> Real stories and real people. Yours could be next. Plugged in with Capitec.

[00:27:19]Capitec is an authorized financial services provider, FSP 44669.