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Taking care of the small things leads to the big things"A person who advocates or strongly promotes preservation and careful management of natural resources and of the environment.” This is how the dictionary describes a conservationist, and this is exactly how one would describe Adrian Gardiner – and with incredibly healthy business acumen thrown in for good measure.
It is not often that one arrives for a breakfast interview and leave hours later, feeling as if you have just had a good chat with an old friend, particularly when the person is the chief executive officer of one of South Africa’s most successful hospitality and tourism groups.
Adrian Gardiner has the ability to put one at ease immediately; it is always refreshing to meet someone who has gone against the grain, backed himself and come up trumps in the end.
A person who against all odds has believed in his cause, struggled through the hard times and has come out smiling when the rewards are finally reaped.
Gardiner, Mantis Group CEO and founder, walked away with the prestigious Tourism Business Leadership Award at the 2009 Hospitality Investment Awards Ceremony held at Sandton City last month, in recognition of his pioneering spirit, his commitment and dedication to the growth and development of companies and individuals in the hospitality and tourism industry.
In the same month, Gardiner attended the grand finale of the prestigious World Travel Awards (WTA) held in London, and was awarded two top international awards. Shamwari Game Reserve received the World’s Leading Safari & Game Reserve Award; and World’s Leading Conservation Company for 2009.
Over and above this, Shamwari Game Reserve walked away with the Leading Eco Retreat in Africa at the Amarula Best Retreats in Africa Awards 2009, for its ecological and conservation principles.
“To be acknowledged at the World Travel Awards and the Amarula Best Retreats in Africa Awards 2009 is an outstanding achievement.
The Shamwari Game Reserve team has set out to continuously elevate the guest experience at the game reserve, creating new benchmarks in delivering complete wildlife and hospitality offerings to our guests and travel industry colleagues,” Gardiner humbly acknowledged.
“Going forward, we will continue to maintain the highest regard for our environment while remaining at the forefront of conservation and hospitality in Africa.”
The WTA are hailed as the “travel industry’s equivalent to the Oscars” by the Wall Street Journal newspaper and are described as “the most comprehensive and the most prestigious awards programme in the global travel industry” by numerous media reports.
Gardiner’s love of animals and the environment is also evident in his involvement as chairperson of the Wilderness Foundation South Africa, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) with its headquarters at Shamwari and Port Elizabeth.
He is also responsible for setting up the Born Free Foundation and Animal Rescue Centre at Shamwari, which has saved cats from circuses and zoos around the world and brought them back to live ‘in the wild’ at Shamwari.
So how does someone go from being the assistant to the accountant at Spar supermarkets, to the CEO of the Mantis Group: handling over 24 incredible hotels, lodges and resorts across the world?
Leadership editor Robbie Stammers asked Gardiner how it all came about.
When you initially envisioned Shamwari, people were skeptical that it would work. Do you feel vindicated now, seeing as how successful it has become?
When you say people were skeptical, that is ‘putting it mildly’. You must remember that in 1979, I lost everything and had to begin again from a minus position. There were many of my colleagues who remembered this.
My auditor and friend of many years recommended that I cut my losses and close down and sell all the farms. He was not alone with this kind of ‘encouragement’.
I was rather naïve and went on a countrywide trip to ask my competitors in the north to share my vision. They all told me a safari destination would never work in the Eastern Cape, although I was able to prove that many more species occurred in this area compared to the Kruger!
I honestly believed that our position was the ultimate USP (unique selling proposition), being 45 minutes from a major city, the end or beginning of the Garden Route and, most importantly, the first Big 5 reserve in South Africa to be malaria-free.
Vindication is that Shamwari has pioneered the Eastern Cape as a “game” destination, with at least 14 other photographic safari destinations around us!
Why were people initially negative about the Shamwari project?
The main reason that people were negative was because a project of this nature had not been undertaken before and they believed it would be impossible to create a free-range Big 5 reserve.
If you look at the Addo Elephant Park model, it took them almost 100 years to realise it could be achieved – believe it or not, they followed the Shamwari model in order to remain competitive.
Today, it is one of the most successful national parks in South Africa, and I would like to think it is thanks to Shamwari.
Much of your work revolves around environmental issues. Are you an environmentalist/conservationist first and a businessperson second, or vice versa?
I have always believed that conservation/environmental issues are not sustainable in the private sector unless a business model
is applied.
I have seen examples in our country where private businesspeople have created wildlife areas because of passion and wealth – the next generation does not have the same passion and philanthropic outlook, and the consequences are that it is sold up or lost.
We have always practised the business model and through this, we believe our work will be preserved – we receive no government handouts or subsidies.
As South Africans, are we failing to see the full potential that our natural recourse can provide?
We certainly are. If I look at all the provincial parks in the Eastern Cape – some of the most spectacular lands in our country – being left unimproved, fallow and wasted, I cry!
Why do you think our fellow South Africans, who have been landless for so long, wish to invade these protected areas? Can we blame them?
The sooner the local governments realise that public, private sector partnerships are the model of the future, the better chance we have of saving our land for the future.
How difficult a decision was it to sell a stake in Mantis to Dubai World Africa?
The decision was easy. Firstly, no stake was sold in Mantis – Dubai World purchased a majority share in three of the Mantis game reserves, namely Shamwari Game Reserve, Sanbona Wildlife Reserve and Jock Safari Lodge.
Why? I have already alluded to the land issue in this country and I believe the whole of Africa has suffered with regard to land distribution after colonialism.
I wished to protect the work we have achieved over the last 20 years, and what better way to do that than have a government as your partner.
Dubai World Africa has been very active locally; what does it bring to the table?
Dubai World is no longer active in Africa as, unfortunately, the economic recession in the world has affected its spending capacity out of Dubai.
However, its initiatives in Africa i.e. Rwanda, Nkomazi Game Reserve in Mpumalanga, are now part of the Mantis Group and under our management.
Can you tell us more about yourself? You studied at the University of Cape Town and were somewhat of a wild, fun-loving young man who followed his own path in his own way. What was your first job following your studies, and what did you do leading up to Shamwari?
I was born in Zambia, moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) when I was three, was educated in Zimbabwe and then went to the Cape Town University in 1962.
I found academic studies a pain and was far from a model student. In fact, I took seven years to complete a three-year degree – four years full time and three years at night. I realised that I had let a stupid academic qualification beat me, that is why I went back at night to finish my BCom.
My first job was as an assistant in the accounts department at Spar head office, which was then in Cape Town. I graduated from the accounts department to assistant the marketing manager.
I left Spar after four years to join the Golden Arrow Bus Company as assistant the general manager.
That lasted four months – corporatisation was not for me.
I was offered a job in 1969 in Port Elizabeth with the Spar wholesaler: the only person I knew when I arrived in Port Elizabeth, was the owner of the business. We ran a very successful cash-and-carry business and sold in 1974 to Metro. That is when my career as a self-employed businessman began.
In the same year, I bought a Penguin Pools franchise and by 1978, I owned every franchise in Port Elizabeth. I then created a transport company, a crane hire company and a construction company. However, it all collapsed the next year because of being overgeared and with huge bad debt. I lost everything.
I had to go back to installing pools and started all over again, conceptualising a transport broking company and plant hire company. This enabled me to buy back the crane hire company in 1981.
For the next nine years, I became very involved in assisting Zimbabwe with bulk minerals through Port Elizabeth, and created one of the most successful shipping stevedoring companies in Port Elizabeth. In 1990, I sold the shipping and crane business.
During this period in the ‘80s, I created the first horse stud farm in Plettenberg Bay, and became one of the biggest and most successful racehorse owners in South Africa.
After selling the stud farm and most of the horses and the two businesses, I bought the first piece of land, 1 200 hectares, which was the beginning of the Shamwari story.
By 1994, I had assembled 10 000ha and realised by 1992 that with the money invested, the entity should be commercialised. The rest
is history.
The Mantis Group now has a number of ‘different businesses within the business’; can you explain the different elements of the Group?
The Mantis Group comprises a vast selection of exclusive boutique hotels, five-star game reserves, an award-winning vineyard and luxury yachts.
The portfolio includes the multi-award winning Shamwari Game Reserve near Port Elizabeth; Shamwari Townhouse in Port Elizabeth; Oceana Beach & Wildlife Reserve near Port Alfred; Lake Pleasant Living near Knysna; Views Boutique Hotel and Spa in Wilderness; Sanbona Wildlife Reserve on Route 62; Jock Safari Lodge in the Kruger National Park; Nkomazi Game Reserve on the Komati River; and The Last Word Retreats in Cape Town, made up of The Constantia, The Long Beach, The Bishops’ Court, The Franschhoek, and the Princess Emma – a luxury powered yacht docked at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.
The Grande Roche Hotel in Paarl adds to the portfolio on South Africa’s famous wine route.
Further afield in Africa, two properties in Rwanda will open later in 2010 and include Gorilla Nest Lodge on the boundary of the Volcanoes National Park; and the new Nyungwe Forest Lodge situated on the edges of Nyungwe Equatorial Rainforest.
The Draycott Hotel and The Lord Milner in London; Cap Estel on the French Riviera; Stenden University Hotel in the Netherlands; Alladale Wilderness Reserve in the Scottish Highlands; The World – the world’s largest private yacht; The Merchant Hotel in Belfast; and White Desert – the world’s most southerly safari experience in Antarctica; all form part of the Mantis Group’s International portfolio.
We specifically try and discover interesting products. We are not a Southern Sun, Protea, Hyatt, Holiday Inn or the like – we are a unique collection, with a diversity of attractions.
How many properties does the Mantis Group now have, and what and where are your plans to develop in the future?
The Mantis Group has 20 properties in its portfolio – it is our intention to grow to 100 properties by 2015 and there is a business plan to achieve this. We would ideally like these properties to be located in Europe and South Africa.
The Group is currently broken up as follows: Mantis Boutique Hotels; Mantis Game Reserves; Mantis Residences; and the fourth division, it is hoped, will be Mantis Hotels i.e. city hotels with over 80 rooms.
Mantis has strategic alliance partners that have been great ambassadors for us:
• The Born Free Foundation Education and Animal Rescue Centre at Shamwari;
• The Stenden University in Port Alfred with its Wildlife Campus at Shamwari;
• The Wilderness Foundation, an NGO with its headquarters at Shamwari and Port Elizabeth.
I am the current chairperson of the Foundation. This is the movement begun by Dr Ian Player.
Your sons work with you: do you see the Mantis Group as a family business, for you clearly are a strong family man?
We definitely do see the Mantis Group as a family business and that is not simply because my son, Paul, works for me, but because I have people who have worked for me both in my other businesses and Shamwari for 30 years or more.
We have a very strong commitment to our team members who are all family.
Your itinerary is still incredibly hectic with much travel; do you plan to slow down in the future? And if so, what will Adrian Gardiner see himself doing in ‘retirement’?
I would like to slow down and am in the process of creating a succession plan. Tragically, I lost my partner and friend of 20 years, Danie Malan, who passed away suddenly in February this year.
I doubt that I would ever ‘retire’, but would definitely like to pace myself better with a little time to read, travel and play golf.
What advice would you offer to those readers who are chasing their dream?
The advice I would give anyone today is that success starts with a good education – although I did not subscribe to the disciplines of this.
Secondly, and most importantly, hard work and fairness to your fellow colleagues.
Would you agree that Shamwari has put the Eastern Cape firmly on the map?
I would like to think that Shamwari played a significant role in placing the Eastern Cape on the Tourism map. We are undoubtedly a wildlife destination comparable with the best in South Africa.
We need to uncover other product, such as a waterfront development etc. to keep the tourists in our area instead of being transient.
What would you say was your defining moment in life?
My defining moment was definitely when I married in 1968 – that put a stop to the hectic bachelor life!
Although I always set goals, I became far more goal-orientated and disciplined in my life.
Leadership salutes Adrian Gardiner. Whoever said that nice guys don’t finish first, got it all wrong. ▲
Robbie Stammers
