Oluwaseun Abioye is the Chief Executive Officer of Largelife Furniture Limited. A chartered accountant who has worked for KPMG and UAC Nigeria PLC, Abioye ventured into entrepreneurship to add value to the economy via excellence service delivery. In this interview with ENIOLA DANIEL, he spoke on his journey so far and desire to make a difference.

Could you tell us about your background and how you got to where you are today?
Like you already know, my name is Oluwaseun Abioye and I am the CEO of LargeLife Furniture Limited. I am a chartered accountant by training, a husband and a father of two and an ardent reader. I was in paid employment as a management staff for seven years, did a stint of two years as an analyst in KPMG, and five years in UAC Nigeria Plc, before I ventured into entrepreneurship in 2015.

LargeLife Furniture is an indigenous furniture manufacturing company based in Lagos Nigeria. We specialise in the manufacturing of all kinds of home furniture, office furniture, hotel furniture, restaurant furniture, amongst others. Our productions are based on orders.

Since 2015, we have satisfactorily furnished over 1,600 homes across Nigeria and produced over 25,000 individual pieces of furniture. Our goal is to make affordable indigenous elite furniture that looks just as good as imported furniture in a timely manner.

What makes your brand different from others in the industry, what are you brining to the table?
LargeLife Furniture Limited is different from other similar brands in many ways. First, timely delivery is essential to us. Quality is incomplete when it is not delivered in a timely manner. No matter how beautiful looking a Furniture item is, if it is delivered a month or several months past the agreed timeline, then it leaves a sour taste in the mouth of the client. Armed with this knowledge and insight, we take timely delivery of orders and projects very seriously and sacrosanct.

The secret is to begin the work immediately the project is commissioned and advance payment is received. The factory staff and scheduling manager deserve all the credit. They work so hard, put in extra hours to ensure the production timelines are met. We pride ourselves as one of the best furniture-making medium sized companies in Lagos.

Our craftsmen are specialists who only specialise in an aspect of furniture making and are not generalists. Our procurement staff have years of experience scouting for the best fabrics, leather, rare accessories, unique designs and lot’s more. In terms of locally made furniture in Nigeria, some of our clients have actually told us we are one of the best and we are humbled and honoured for such review comments. We genuinely seek to make our customers happy at every occasion.

What would you consider the major highlight of running LargeLife so far?
When we started in 2014/2015, I told all my families, friends, colleagues, neighbours, virtually all my contacts about my new business. I had big hopes that orders will start rolling in, in just a matter of weeks. Little did I know it would take me over seven months for my first order after constant and consistent marketing every single day for those seven months.

Fast forward to 2022, the company has grown to a nine-figure annual revenue company. Over the years, we have significantly reduced our error rates, added expert and talented craftsmen to our production team, and improved the overall quality of our inputs and finishing of our outputs. We at LargeLife Furniture believe strongly in this Japanese concept: Kaizen, which means ‘Continuous improvement’ and we apply it daily in all our operations.

It will interest you that more than 50 per cent of our clients are Nigerians in diaspora, mostly people in the UK and the US, who have houses in Nigeria, and it’s a thing of pride that we are able to meet and exceed the expectations of these elite clients with exquisite taste and international exposure.

What are the major errors people make when buying furniture?
The major error people make when buying furniture is failure to get an express and executable written statements, documents of warranty and guarantee on the furniture items. Furniture purchase is an important decision and purchase that usually run into millions of Naira.

For some reasons, the furniture may start developing some structural or minor defects after some months of use. With a warranty, the client can legally request the supplier to correct the anomalies or request for a replacement in serious cases.

Secondly, exposure to direct sunlight negatively impacts the durability and aesthetics of a furniture item. Such furniture comes a lot cheaper, but in a matter of 8 months, the sofa for example (that has been exposed to sunlight by the seller for several months) may become almost unrecognizable; the fabrics or leather becoming totally faded.

What lessons have you learned in the course of running your business?
One of the lessons I have learnt is genuine commitment to customer satisfaction. I have learnt that when a business genuinely aspires to go all out to make her customers happy and satisfied, customers reward such business with deep loyalty in form of repeat patronage and referrals from friends, colleagues and families.
We are committed to genuine customer satisfaction. One way we achieve customer satisfaction is by commitment to quality outputs.

I keep telling people and my staff that quality begins with a clear understanding of what our client wants. So, listening is very important.
Another major lesson is that your staff members are important pathway to business growth. When you take care of your staffs and genuinely care for them, then they will be loyal to you and grow the business in return.

Another thing I have learned is that integrity is very important in running a business. Just last year, we furnished a royal palace in Abeokuta, The king (HRM) called me himself and said someone spoke so highly of me and our company and he wanted to talk to me directly to encourage me to keep doing good.