Business
‘Belaire Champagne Gaining Ascendancy in Nigeria’
Samuel Douglas a Country Sales manager of Sovereign Brands, owners of the Luc Belaire brands, Bumbu Rum, Cloud Chaser and Skeleton wines. An American-based company, dealing in Nigeria through Ekochiv Ventures Nigeria Limited its local distributor. During an Exclusive interview with SIDNEY NWACHUKWU, Country Editor of Saharaweekly, he states that Belaire brands, are fast-rising products and have come to stay with its dynamic approach to changing the climate of Bubbly market in Nigeria/ Africa.
Excerpts:
What made you bring your business to Nigeria?
Firstly, Nigeria is the most populous Black nation in the world. Meaning there is strength in numbers. It shows there are lots of opportunities. Also Nigeria is one of the most vibrant markets in terms of social life. People are most desirous of good lifestyle. All around the globe, you would find out that of two Black people you meet, one is a Nigerian. And it’s easy to know who the Nigerian is. In terms of social circle, they are the people who would turn up the most. So it is an opportunity for any brand that wants to grow to be in Nigeria, especially in the wine/spirit business.
Nigerians are some of the most stylish people in the world. In fact, we run the entire African market. The growth of the bubbly brands is driven by Nigerians. They took the lifestyle from Nigeria to the world. They seek out their fun and leisure time; what they want, they seek it and pay for it, and it has become the norm. The South Africans had to learn from us. So we will always be the key market, not just for wine/spirit, but also for luxury goods. I believe we have the highest number of luxury cars on the streets in Nigeria across the Africa.
Your brand of champagne, Belaire and Bumbu, seems more like rum. What is behind the captivating names?
Sovereign Brands is a company that thrives on innovation; we are very creative minded people, we thrive on creativity and innovation. It’s a business that is blessed with a lot of talents. In every field here, you find some of the best hands, in marketing, sales and commercial departments, you would find people that are tested and know what they are doing. So the business is very careful and selective of the brands they deal with. It seeks out brands it wants to create, sell or do business with. It looks deeply into the heritage of these products and tries to understand what suits the market and what would be best for the consumer, as well as easy for them to manage and easily deal with it.
Belaire is actually a French word that means ‘one with a pleasant demeanor’. It’s very easy for anyone to relate with the brand. First, it’s a playful brand; it can function in any space. As a person, you know who has a nice lifestyle; when you are jovial and playful, everyone wants to be around you. You can see that the growth of the brand is very organic; it’s what everyone wants to be part of. Part of the style – the name, colour of the bottle, luminous label, that’s what people want to see. They are driven by what they see. And as you know, when you walk around a lot at night, very bright colours attract your attention like bees to honey.
For Bumbu, is based on the original recipe created by 17th century sailors of the West Indies, who blended native Caribbean ingredients into their rum and called it “Bumbu” – the original craft spirit. Just like the Bumble bee, you love the sweet taste. It’s just to get the consumer to understand that it’s a drink and something you can easily relate with. Truly, it’s a pleasant thing.
What has been the response or acceptance for these drinks?
You tried it yourself, did you enjoy it? For everyone that has tried Belaire, they all have one or two things to say – all positive. So far we are just a year old in the market. I am the first Country Sales Manager for the brand in Nigeria. It has been an awesome journey so far. Where we are coming from, the equity we have been able to build in the market, over the years is huge. It has got its positive and negative sides; but for us, as a business, it’s been positive and it’s been an awesome journey. The response has been tremendous and our growth has been very swift. For a product that was not mainstream trade product to have this kind of response, it’s been awesome. I can only thank God for it; and a lot of hard work. At the end of the day, it has been grace. I have always attributed every success in my life to God because he is my only source of power & inspiration. I hold that very dearly. Everything I touch I am always positive they will receive positive response. It doesn’t matter how much opposition arises.
What are your strategies in the business?
Strategies? You don’t discuss that in public. Truth is, once you have a good product, good team, the right market space discipline and good management skills, you can sell practically anything. I don’t know any strategy better than that.
Any plan to leverage on media?
We are already doing that. One of the major strengths has been the leaning towards media. We’ve been highly focused on new media. We are very focused on ensuring that we have very strong foothold, thus we aim to extend our use of media, but we are very focused on where we can gain more serious advantage, not just visibility.
As you well know, online platforms come and go. Strategically, what media areas do you want to use to gain dominance/consolidate?
First and foremost, we are a luxury brand. Did you say we are a high-end firm, well, not from my point of view? Our products are affordable, though it depends on who is buying.
Back to the issue: now there’s a middle-class that can afford our prices to an extent. Let’s say someone picks 10 bottles of our product but comes in once in a while. But another regularly picks just two bottles. That is okay for us. I believe we would find many that are comfortable and want to be in that class field compared to other brands. However, we are not competing with anyone. We are special in our own space. We’re Black and love to do things differently.
So if you love the brand, you’ll pay anything for the product. It’s not about the money; it’s the value the brand is putting out there, that’s what you want to see as a consumer.
Your products taste so great, what are you doing to push it into the public eye?
I spent years with Hennessy; I played a key role there, only a little has changed in the market. We in Belaire are doing what we have to do. In just 12 months, look at the kind of response and acceptance we have gotten in sales, visibility and acceptance. That should tell you that we know what we are doing. It took Moet Hennessy 10 years of intensive trade activities to get to where they are today, but again you can say the market wasn’t as saturated as it is now. Secondly, we are a brand to watch out for and we have done fantastically well and still growing.
At some point in the life of this market, the biggest products making sales in the night life then were, Red Label, Wines and Beers. As far back as 2006. I know how many bottles of wine I would sell in those days in my club; not much Champagnes in those days. I sold far more Whiskies than Cognac. So I know. We’re a part of the growth. Things are so much competitive today. Most big brands have made so much money and are investing majorly in the market.
Every product within the wine segment has a competition in terms of volume but that’s all that it is, we are just doing what we want to do and we are growing. I can’t tell you our position in terms of bubbly. But I can tell you that if we want to look at figures, give me three years, and the market will understand exactly where we are coming from.
How do you get 95% of parties in Nigeria to Petronize Belaire?
I may not be able to post figures and percentages now, but today we are at a lot of weddings, anniversaries etc with Belaire, there is a working template for the market?. Yes! Every business has a template and all players know that.
Once you get the template right, you will see the results, as people will come forward. And so far, people have been coming forward.
Recently, I visited Abeokuta for an appointment, and I decided to check out the market. I was at about 5 outlets, and I was super-impressed. There were outlets I didn’t even know, and they all had Belaire well arranged on the shelves. They had our products in their bars, fridges, on display. And I smiled because my sweat and stress is paying off. So to answer your question, guys are already picking the brand. I asked the bar-men about Belaire and they said that it what is new and cool.
We are not just in Lagos State I have been to the East, South, parts of the North as far as Kaduna. we are spreading, pushing our frontiers. We are also in Jos, Makurdi and Abuja.
Besides the earlier reason told, is there any other reason for bringing your products to Nigeria?
In 2014, we threw a party at an outlet across my then office, to celebrate a product. I later had a routine check of the tables across the venue, I was surprised to find a guest drinking Belaire Rose. I was furious and asked that they take it out. They pleaded that it was their last bottle. In our industry, there’s always that thing against competition and they know me well to fight tooth and nail to protect my product; as I turned my back on that table, I asked one of my trade guys to watch out for that brand (Belaire).
How do you marry your faith and career so well together?
I remember someone once asking me how I cope with managing my work and being so close to God. It’s just like my daughter once answered somebody on coping with seeing dead bodies as
NNPCL and Corruption’s Final Throes
By Pius Olasanmi
In the twilight of the Obasanjo administration, when Nigerians were still capable of being outraged, when Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of refineries was a buzzword that still held some mysticism to bamboozle citizens, during a conversation, a certain man said something profound. The man said, “As a businessman, if I were the owner of these refineries, knowing that they are three decades old, I would take the last money I have, hire bulldozers, raze them to the ground, and obtain loans to build new ones.”
When we pressed him further on why he would engage in such waste, he explained that repairing the refineries is the real waste. He explained that even if the TAM were honestly carried out, a thirty-year-old refinery would never compete favourably with a new one that would integrate contemporary technology. Operating at its best, such a refinery would never be comparatively more efficient. It is therefore pointless to have spent another one naira on the refineries at that point.
A few months later, I had a conversation with a then-lawmaker on an entirely different matter. I mentioned that the National Assembly has failed by not crafting legislation that would criminalise and punish public office holders who foist wrong decisions on the country. The logic: a public office holder need not steal to be punished, wrong decisions should attract penalties for an office holder who opts for the worst of all options when there are less injurious ones.
These established premises speak to the ongoing nauseating efforts at revisionism by those who wrecked the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and its previous iteration, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Notably, this campaign to rewrite history is traceable to Engineer Mele Kolo Kyari, the disgraced immediate past Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL and his hirelings. They have suffocated the news and the public opinion space with even more lies than they spun while in office.
The Saint Kyari campaign is anchored on convincing Nigerians that the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna Refineries were fully functional when he was booted out of office. So brazen is the campaign that one of its talking heads challenged the group chief executive officer (GCEO), Engr. Bayo Ojulari, to “inform Nigerians categorically what happened to the functioning refineries he inherited from his predecessor, Engr. Mele Kyari.” The effrontery.
We have not forgotten so soon the charade that followed the baffling claim that Nigeria has spent $2.8 billion on the repair of the refineries, while they are not churning out even a single litre of refined product among them. Saint Kyari and his goons played all manner of tricks, all of which embarrassed President Bola Tinubu, who had counted on ticking off the return to productivity of the refineries as part of his achievements, only to realise that he was deceived into celebrating phantoms. Tragic.
Lest we forget, 200 trucks were arranged as props in a well-directed video clip to celebrate the re-streaming of the Port Harcourt Refinery. The disappointment. Nigerians were to learn from several reports that the Port Harcourt refinery was not producing and was instead using old, stored petroleum products to load trucks. Worse still, the Kyari crew was passing off sanction-tainted Russian-sourced crude oil refined in Malta as locally refined products. More insult was piled on the assault on our collective sensibility with the lies that the Port Harcourt Refinery exported semi-finished products. Brazen.
Meanwhile, Kyari and his hirelings called those who pointed out or protested these glaring scams all manner of names. They hid behind industry technicalities and jargon to create the impression that those of us who knew Nigerians were being robbed did not understand what we were saying. The point remains that a $2.8 billion investment can potentially build a refinery with a capacity of around 100,000 barrels per day (bpd). Of course, the actual capacity of such a refinery will depend on various factors, including the complexity of the refinery, the technology used, and the location. That is the amount that Kyari’s regime at the NNPCL took and did not give Nigerians refined products.
Fast forward to Kyari’s sack and the appointment of Engineer Bayo Ojulari, who has demonstrated that things can indeed be done differently. Kyari’s exit was expectedly followed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) going after him and his associates. The extent of the theft is better understood against the backdrop of N80 billion being found in the bank account of one of his associates. They went on the run.
Perhaps because the EFCC was biding its time on securing international warrants for the arrests of these characters on the lam, they have become emboldened. They have decided to fight back and rewrite the story of their participation in the greatest fraud against Nigerians. Engineer Ojulari’s renewed mindset, which is entrenching a semblance of the transparency Nigerians demand, became their natural target. The demons that once roamed around the corporation came out with malevolence. They started spinning stories of corruption to tarnish the incumbent who refused to hide their crimes. The objective: bring Ojulari down. But alas, he is winning the war as it stands.
His innocence is proven, and it is glaring that those who want him out are mere charlatans who can no longer ply their corrupt wares because of the impact of the new reforms. Corruption in the NNPCL is in its final throes. The fake news being unleashed against the incumbent leadership is akin to corruption’s last kicks as reforms in the sector strangulate it and its practitioners. The reforms must take place in the NNPCL, whether the industry demons like it or not.
As a parting shot, Kyari and his associates would do well to prepare their defence. In addition to accounting for the $2.8 billion they laundered in the name of repairing the moribund refineries, they must also answer for the poor decision to fix that which is irretrievably broken. Awarding contracts for Turn Around Maintenance of 59-year-old refineries that a right-thinking person had suggested should be demolished almost twenty years ago, when they were only 30 years old, is criminal. Trying to deceive Nigerians that the fake repairs worked is treason.
Olasanmi is a public affairs analyst writing from Lagos.
GRANDIS 5STAR LUXURY APARTMENT & SUITES SET TO REDEFINE LIVING IN VICTORIA ISLAND
Set to Rise elegantly against the Lagos skyline, is the Grandis 5Star Luxury Apartment & Suites. According to Adejuwon Ademola, The General Manager of the Development company, it is more than just a residential building
“it’s a lifestyle statement. Standing 17 floors high in the heart of Victoria Island, this revolutionary masterpiece of modern architecture will offer a panoramic 360° view of Eko Atlantic, Victoria Island, and Ikoyi, transforming every apartment into an exclusive penthouse experience for the world’s most discerning elite.”
Developed by Dumarco Construction Limited, a globally acclaimed company with decades of delivering complex, high-value projects in the highly regulated petroleum, oil, and gas industries, Grandis 5Star brings unmatched international safety standards, uncompromising quality, and timeless elegance into Nigeria’s luxury property market.
> “When you live in Grandis, you’re not just buying a home—you’re investing in peace of mind, world-class safety, and an effortless luxury experience that will remain pristine for decades,” says Adejuwon A. Ademola, General Manager of Dumarco Construction Limited.
The Gold Standard in Safety and Quality
Dumarco’s roots in the oil and gas sector mean the company operates to some of the strictest safety protocols in the world. Every stage—from conceptualization, design, construction, to long-term maintenance—follows internationally accepted procedures and quality assurance measures. Cutting corners is simply not in Dumarco’s vocabulary.
> “In the oil and gas industry, there’s no room for compromise. We’ve brought that same discipline and zero-tolerance for mediocrity into property development,” says Ademola. “That’s why Grandis will be one of the safest and most enduring residential developments in Nigeria.”
To ensure transparency and prevent (project complacency), Dumarco deliberately separates the developer, contractor, and consultant roles, engaging only the most competent professionals in each respective field. Dumarco’s project team includes globally recognized contractors such as Julius Berger, Cappa & D’Alberto, and Elalan, Migliore Construczione & Tecniche (MC&T) and their partners VENCO IMTIAZ CONTRACTING COMPANY (VICC) based in Dubai, UAE, Business Contracting Limited, alongside leading consultants like Morgan Omanitan & Abe, LAMBERT, and James Cubitt.
Grandis – Investments, appreciation, returns and profitability
Our selection process for the location of the project alone was pains-taking and completely thorough scientific process. Top professional companies were employed to conduct a scientific data acquisition and analytical survey of the entire Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lekki and Eko Atlantic before a project site is selected. Analyzing and acquiring areas developmental charts and trends, studying and gathering historical and present sale prices, rental charge and occupancy rates over a 50 year period from every individual street before the selection of the location of any of our developments especially true for the Grandis Project
He adds,
“Our clients and residents can be rest assured that the location of Grandis has been scientifically proven through all existing data to provide our clients with a 100% occupancy rate, highest developmental location, highest rental income and investment returns. ”
The Grandis Experience
Located minutes away from international corporate headquarters, embassies, and landmarks such as Eko Hotel, Radisson Blu, and the Radisson Red, Grandis offers unmatched convenience for professionals, diplomats, and high-net-worth individuals. Every residence is designed for both indulgence and efficiency, with high-grade finishes, smart-home systems, and private amenities that ensure seamless living.
From sunrise over the Atlantic to the glittering Lagos night skyline, residents will enjoy uninterrupted luxury, supported by discreet and highly trained staff, advanced security systems, and a design that prioritizes comfort and privacy.
> “We designed Grandis for people who want everything—security, elegance, convenience, and the assurance that their home will look as spectacular in 20 years as it does on day one,” Ademola notes.
A Legacy That Lasts
With its combination of visionary architecture, peerless safety, and meticulous maintenance planning, Grandis is built to remain iconic for generations. Thanks to Dumarco’s meticulous approach, the building’s service charges are expected to remain low while its value and appeal continue to appreciate over time.
In a market often marred by shortcuts and substandard practices, Mr Ademola says
Grandis stands as a beacon of what luxury living should be—safe, spectacular, and built to last.
“Grandis 5Star Luxury Apartment & Suites — Where safety meets sophistication, and every detail is designed for a life well-lived.”
He added
Website -www.dumarcoltd.com
Project website – www.26idowutaylor.com
Email [email protected]
Tel / WhatsApp +234 9077777883
GM – Adejuwon A. Ademola
celebrity radar - gossips
Nationwide Talent, One Broadcaster: Tinubu Picks Pedro, Bello, Din, Mohammed to Lead NTA
Tinubu Overhauls NTA Leadership: Media Powerhouse Rotimi Pedro Takes Helm as DG
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has announced a major shake-up at the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), appointing renowned media executive Rotimi Richard Pedro as the new Director-General in a move widely seen as a bold step toward modernising the state broadcaster.
Pedro, a Lagos native, brings nearly 30 years of expertise in broadcasting, sports rights, and marketing communications across Africa, the UK, and the Middle East. A trained entertainment and intellectual property lawyer, he also holds an MSc in Investment Management and Finance from City University Business School, London.
In 1995, Pedro founded Optima Sports Management International (OSMI), which rose to become one of Africa’s leading sports content providers—distributing premium events such as the English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, FIFA World Cup, and CAF competitions to audiences in over 40 countries.
His career highlights include top roles at Bloomberg Television Africa and Rapid Blue Format, as well as advisory work for FIFA, UEFA, Fremantle Media, and the African Union of Broadcasters (AUB). At the AUB, he was instrumental in securing exclusive pan-African free-to-air media rights for all CAF competitions.
Alongside Pedro’s appointment, Tinubu named Karimah Bello from Katsina State as Executive Director of Marketing, Stella Din from Plateau State as Executive Director of News, and Sophia Issa Mohammed from Adamawa State as Managing Director of NTA Enterprises Limited.
Industry insiders credit Pedro with building commercially viable broadcast platforms, driving sponsorship growth, and delivering world-class content to African audiences. His appointment marks one of the most significant leadership changes at NTA in years—signalling the government’s intent to strengthen the broadcaster’s competitiveness in a fast-evolving media landscape.
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