Meet Kenyan entrepreneur behind Surgipharm

Back in 1897, a young Nauhria Maini was a student at the Roorkee Institute of Technology, an engineering college located in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India.

Little did he know he would travel to Kenya where his legacy continues to live today through his generations.

Maini failed his final exam and was afraid to go back home.

Instead, he traveled to Mumbai, then Bombay, and then sailed to Kenya’s coastal town of Mombasa, one of his grandchildren narrates.

Upon arriving in Mombasa, Maini took a job as a police inspector for a couple of years before moving to Nairobi.

A relative had joined him in Kenya by the time of relocating to Nairobi where together, they established businesses in real estate, furniture and money lending.

The family is the original owner of Kipande House, situated at the corner of Kenyatta Avenue and Loita Street.

That is the story of how 78 years old doctor Vijai Maini’s existence in Kenya began.

Vijai has lived to build one of the most respected and leading pharmaceutical companies in Kenya –Surgipharm.

 Dr. Vijay was born in a bungalow at Third Avenue Parklands, Nairobi in 1943, where the Aghakhan University now stands.

In 1947, the family built a house along the same avenue. 

He went to City Primary School, then joined the Duke of Gloucester School Nairobi which was founded as a Railway Educational Centre in 1906, now Jamhuri High School. 

 After A levels, he left for the UK to study Pharmacy at the Sunderland University in the North East of England. He qualified after three years and started working at a local pharmacy.

His brother was pursuing a degree in engineering in neighbouring Scotland.

Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with cancer of the lymph (Lymphoma)in 1968.

Vijai gave up his job and went to stay with his brother in Scotland.

“The university gave us a room at the hall of residence where our mother joined us. Unfortunately, the brother passed on after eight weeks,” soft spoke Vijai narrates.

Their younger brother who was also in the UK qualified as a medical doctor came back to Kenya, worked at Kenyatta National Hospital, before flying back to the UK for further practice. He remained in the UK to date.

After the brother’s death, Vijai decided to travel back to Kenya in September 1969, giving up his UK job.

He had an idea of doing pharmacy business in Kenya.

“My first job was at the Howse & McGeorge which had a shop along Moi Avenue. I was employed as a relief manager. Whenever a branch manager in Nakuru, Kisumu, Eldoret, Mombasa or Kampala went on leave, I would go hold brief for them,” Vijai recalls.

Howse & McGeorge was owned by the James Finlay group, which has been in the tea industry for decades. 

Vijai was also a pharmacist at the main branch in Nairobi.

After getting married in 1970, traveling became a challenge, he narrates, so he took up a job with Westco Limited, a family-owned company that dealt with importing and distribution of pharmaceutical products.

He was the manager. After 15 years, Vijay had built experience and contacts.

NEW VENTURE 

At the age of 40, in 1985, Dr Vijai ventured into business.

With seeding money of Sh1 million, he set up  Surgipharm, which would grow to become one of Kenya’s leading suppliers and distributors of pharmaceutical products.

Surgipharm was founded in 1985 with the objective of establishing a country-wide network of pharmaceutical marketing and distribution.

“I saw a gap in the industry including delays in delivery and efficiently moving products to different parts of the country. I decided to set up my own business along with a colleague I used to work with as a sales manager at Westco,” he explains.

The business was started on a 4,000 square feet space at Concraft House along Haile Selassie Avenue.

 There were 361 pharmacies in the country then.

“I remember when I started there used to be only one drug inspector who used to supervise retail pharmacies. Chemists were also few with the majority being foreign-owned,” he recalls.

There were about 361 pharmacies when Vijai started based on his license number. Today, the number has grown to more than 3,500. 

Building a business from scratch was not easy, he explains.

From being denied credit by banks and lack of access to drugs from local manufacturers and imports, Vijai soldered on.

 A French national he met during lunch at a rotary club was among his first clients.

“He was in the healthcare business doing hospital disinfection. They agreed to give us the distribution agency,” he remembers.

The big breakthrough however came around 1987 when the then Beecham research international decided to offer them the agency. 

Surgipharm started with sourcing drugs locally from the likes of Glaxo.

“I remember there is a day I went to one of the big players, the manager told me my company had no track record. I was disappointed,” he recalls his journey. 

At Glaxo, they gave him a deal where he could purchase on cash, with a limit of Sh50,000. 

He later secured business with French company, Centre Labo, which gave his company goods on open credit, which means they send the goods, payment after 90 days. The same with Beecham.

“You had to pay on the due date or you are out of business,” Vijai explains, “One thing we have always maintained is before you think of taking your own salary, make sure you have paid your suppliers. That has been the mantra for Surgipharm. Nobody has ever called us to tell say our invoice is due for payment,” he explains.

 In around 1995, they opened a branch in Mombasa-serving the coast region. 

Nairobi branch serves other parts of the country mostly using courier services.

 The 37 years-old company which started with six employees currently has a staff of 345.

 A lot of mergers have taken place in the pharma industry. They include the merger between Beecham Research laboratories and Smith, Kline & French which merged to form SmithKline Beecham. 

“We were lucky we had both under the same roof,” Vijai notes.

The industry has changed, Dr Vijai explains, from the days of patent protection to todays evolved market where there is a big choice from generics which he terms a good shift that is giving the Kenyan population a wide choice.

There are up to 20 generics to some drugs in the Kenyan market from different companies.

 Between 70-80 per cent of pharmaceutical products in Kenya is still imported.

Apart from pharmaceutical, Surgipharm also deals with medical and surgical devices.

The firm has set up an emergency store that ensures products are delivered to hospitals on a 24-hour basis. 

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

Supply chain disruption is among the biggest challenge in the industry, Vijai notes saying it is “very complicated”.

“This is because of temperature controls and the frequency which you place your order…a lot of companies now require a notice of between three and six months before they give you the goods. We have to do that planning,” he explains.

Recently because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the vessels are not available, air freight availability and costs have also gone up.

In the early years, temperatures in Nairobi hardly went above 15 degrees, but with global warming, temperatures go above 30 degrees.

Pharma businesses have to maintain drugs at specific temperatures which is a huge investment they have to make. One must invest in modern technology refrigerated storage and transport equipment, and backup generators at premises.

Counterfeits also remain a major challenge in the pharmaceutical industry.

 The other challenge is collecting money from customers, Vijai notes.

For instance, the company is owed money by Kemsa, Kenyatta National Hospital, Coast General Hospital among other facilities, which dates back to several months. 

Between Nairobi and Mombasa, Surgipharm delivers about 400 invoices a day. It also has a fleet of 20 motorbikes distributing in Nairobi and Mombasa.

During Covid, the firm had to scale down operations with the sales team strictly working from home, while the supply chain was working on a skeleton team, in shifts.

“It was a huge challenge, it affected the sale for some of the products,” Vijai notes.

 The pandemic was however a blessing in disguise as some products’ sales increased.

These include certain antibiotics, paracetamol for temperature controls, and vitamin C tablets which doctors used to recommend for an immunity boost.

Surgipharm under the leadership of Dr. Vijai has had an annual turnover of Sh700 million, diversified its portfolio to make it the leading distributor of pharmaceuticals in Kenya (85%).

It has expanded its distribution network creating access to patients and caregivers, with an active base of 2,5000 customers. 

 In 2017, he was approached by South African-based mobility company- ImperialLogistics, which bought a 70 per cent stake in the company.

"Rather than running like a family business, they have brought in a lot of discipline to the business,” Vijai notes.

 The father of two has however taken a back seat in the daily operations of the company as age catches up with him.

Vijai who is set to retire in March 2022 is handing over the leadership reins to Bridget Wachira- a seasoned manager in the pharmaceutical industry and both the first African and female lead of the organization.

Bridget has sharpened her career at GSK where she worked for 20 years, rising up the ranks to the position of Director- Global Health- in the UK.

 To those seeking to invest in the pharma business, Dr Vijai says: "Get some experience first, work somewhere, make a few mistakes, learn and then invest,”

One also needs to plow back everything that comes from the business as it grows, he says.

“Give it a solid foundation, forget about buying the four by fours, a fancy house, and so on…stick to the business,” Vijai says.