HOW WE WERE ABLE TO BREAK INTO INTERNATIONAL MARKET SUCCESSFULLY….Quincy, Daughter, Tobi Speaks On Quincy Herbals New Grounds

               ‘It Was Hard Accepting My Daughters Theory To Repackage Our Products‘….Quincy

Dr Mrs Quincy Ayodele, founder and Chief Consultant at Quincy Herbal is a World Health Organization expert on Traditional Medicine. She pioneered Herbal Sliiming in Nigeria and has been for two decades. This delectable grandmother spoke to us recently about the growth the company has witnessed and the contributions of her daugher to the recent achievements.

You have grown from using plastic containers to sell your herbal medicines, you now package your products scientifically. Does this have anything to do with the change in perception you wanted?

Well, one of my daughters, Tobi studied biochemistry in school and after school, she joined the business about 5years ago and infused what she learnt in school to improve the business. She advised me to stop pounding the herbs in our usual local way and showed me how the products can be decently packaged without it losing its natural potency. That has always been a sort of headache, i was aback  because  I didn’t want to package something that will  reduced its potency or no longer have the natural formula. It was like a tug of war because I wondered how pawpaw or slimming garri could be packaged. I insisted that, it’s either they do everything natural or they just leave my products the way they are.  But she assured me that it could be done using scientific methods. So, I gave her the go ahead.  She spoke with some manufacturers in developed countries to see how it can be done.  So now, everything is naturally made now to the extent that, in products where we have to put orange, it has to be orange and not orange flavour. The slimming garri, tommy blasting tea, skin care products,  very well packaged, still retain their natural potency.

How did your clients receive the newly packaged products?

It was a welcome development. They like it so much that I feel so embarrassed for having stuck with using plastic  containers for so long. I wondered why they didn’t tell me all these years that we have been using mortar to grind leaves. Some of them were like, “Are you sure this is Quincy?” So, they like it and they’re proud to take it abroad because its looks nice and all that. It is well developed.

There was a story that went round that you were bleaching, that this wasn’t your skin colour 10 years back. How true is this?

I have always been against bleaching. I don’t like people using harsh chemicals, [hydroquinone] on their skin. I don’t want to keep treating damaged skin at Quincy. I want to create beautiful skins. That we are light skinned means we are maintaining our skin with natural products without having dark knuckles or blemishes. That means we have been using herbal products. When I started preaching against the use of hydro-quinone in  Nigeria market, I knew what I was saying. I knew there were herbal remedies medicine that you can use that will give a better result with no side effect unlike the use of hydroquinine. I also brought out my secret discovery. Yes, I have been light skinned and I was born light skinned, that has not stopped me from maintaining my skin under this harsh sun in Nigeria. Because we age on a daily basis, you can age gracefully and slowly too. So, I advice people to use the natural medicine, if you are not using that you are damaging your skin.

You can use some skin lightening creams now, but I give you a maximum of 21 days before you start seeing stretch marks, rashes and all. But with the use of herbal medicine, it will be forever. For example, I use clay. These are some of the things we use at Quincy. We discover it, its in Nigeria and the international market. We use also sea sand to exfoliate. We manage and exfoliate our dead skin cells to bring out the youthful skin cells that will make you light. We also reverse sun damage. If you want to be light go natural, if you don’t know how to go about it, contact people like us for counseling. Its not everything we ask you to come pay for at Quincy.

Does that mean there are products a black woman can use to make her light?

If a woman is jet black, we can only give products that will make her glow. We check out her thighs and stomach, places that have not been exposed to the sun to know her real skin colour. Quincy-AyodeleLike I said, we can only give natural products to make her glow.

Apart from the slimming  Garri, what other food items do you have for slimming? 

We have what we call the slimming rice, but it’s not the regular rice. Even the garri, has no cassava at all. But when you mix it with water it looks like garri. Our clients gave it that name because when we formulated it, they said it looks and tastes like garri. Its a special drink that makes people lose weight. Our food are the regular food you purchase in the market but we just teach you how to cook it and eat healthy. We also have a tummy blaster tea. Its an organic tea that helps get rid of belly fat.

How affordable are the services?

Our services are affordable, they are mid-price. People think Qunicy is expensive, but when you see how effective our products are, our packaging, you won’t even want to think of the price. And also for the pricing, I have told our new generation that when I started Quincy, I wasn’t bothered about the profit. I was working towards sustaining the business for years to come and here we are today. It’s going to be like a generational business. We are not particular about pricing, we are particular about the result  and we ensure that we recover the amount we used in producing the herbs especially in the packaging. Our products are quiet affordable at home and abroad.

                       ‘My Aim Is To Make Quincy A World Recognized Brand‘….Tobi

Pretty Tobi Ayodele-Keeney, who now operates as the MD spoke on the new development that has taken the brand accross Europe in the last couple of years and how they were able to achieve that.Tobi a mother of two is Biochemistry graduate from the University of Maryland in the US and a Masters degree holder in Nursing.

Excerpts…

What are some of the new developments you have added since officially joined Quincy Herbals? 

I joined officially around 2010. I have been abroad for my studies and also worked there. After having my first child, I moved down to Nigeria. So, it didn’t make any sense to me to stay there and work for somebody else when we have a family business here in Nigeria. Even from inception, we have always been part of it. I joined in 2010. My mum has been doing it for so many years in a certain way, which has been working well for her and it’s still working till today. but it’s also good to bring in new ideas. So we decided to redesign the logo and also incorporate social media into the business. Social media wasn’t an issue 15 years ago or even 10 years ago. I was almost done at the University when Facebook came up then, Snapchat, Twitter and all are now big deal. So, we have to start incorporating the social media thing to attract the younger generation. We re designed the packaging as well. The products had always been very effective. We didn’t change anything in our products or services. My mum had always had the formular years ago and it’s working, so we just added to it to improve as we move on. At a point, I said to myself if we really want to make it more important we have to put it on an international level to make it more acceptable. In the United States, I know what the Americans want to buy, I know what the Chinese want to buy. So, we repackaged the product so that anybody can look at it and accept it and say waoh, is this from Nigeria? We re-introduced our skin care line and we noticed a lot of people come to us for their skin problems as a result of using some products on their skin or they have gone to one place and they have burnt their skin. Or as they were loosing the weight the skin becomes saggy and they want to firm it up. People with dark knuckles and all. So we have to develop products that can address that. Products that can lighten your skin naturally. We have hot sun in Nigeria and it shows on the skin. There is no how you can avoid the effect of the sun. So, how do we reverse the damage? Our duty is to get all these things done. Also, we have naturally made products for women who develop a change in colour from child birth. After all these, the next thing is gaining ground on the international market, and the next thing that came to mind is amazon.com. Amazon is the biggest online platform in the entire world. If you are on Amazon, you are all over the world. It’s not very easy to get in to sell health and beauty products, its a restricted section on amazon. It took us about a year or two to finish the process.

How were you able to conquer that line?

You need to have good products that have been screened, sealed and are effective. They won’t just accept anything. Its not easy to be a black owner of any product on Amazon. We are not selling other people’s products on Amazon, we are selling our own products. I think we are the only Nigeria company selling our brand on it. And if you check our store, we are really moving so fast, we are getting sales from all over the U.S, from different races.We even have people that order from Europe, India via our website. They don’t want any product that will make their online market look bad, so they are being very careful of what goes on their website. So whatever you put on it has to improve the quality of their own website and bring sales for them. They told us how exactly the product is going to look.

And hope this development won’t affect the Nigerian buyer in terms of prices?

No. Some products are even cheaper here than on amazon while some are expensive there. You know there is a forex issue going on pressently so whatever we sell on amazon is related to what the buyer in America can afford. Whatever we sell in Nigeria, the pricing is based on what the buyer can afford here in Nigeria.We don’t use one to measure the other especially with the dollar rate. We use the sales from that to support the company on the international front and the sale from Nigeria company to support the company on the local level.

How were you able to convince and also carry your mum along with the online platform?

It was a bit of a battle in the beginning,you know because she has been doing it for the past 15 years and she is making her sales there. So,  you know when I told her we would scrape some things, she felt somehow. And I came to join her when there was recession all over the world, 2009 to 2010. There was not recession when she started. It was a coincidence and at that point we had to redesign how we sell the products because of the bad economy in such a way that you can still get your target and still make your profit. It was a good coincidence, I don’t know if it will be that easy if there was no recession and I tell her to let’s do social media. And besides, she has always been a phone person, she already had a Facebook page. But there was no Whatsapp then. So a lot of things just moved to me and my siblings to do and it just made it easier. But there were some things that I do that I don’t tell her and when she sees it she comments and gives advice.

After two childbirths, you don’t look it. What has been your secret and what are your advice for women giving birth to have a youthful look?

Childbirth and pregnancy increase some of the hormones in the system. One of such hormones is progesterone, and you get so much of it and that causes so some women to depreciate in their look and they get dark and it causes patches. Some women are lucky, but am not one of the lucky ones. The more I give births, the more I get darker. We have products for that. I have never used any other person’s product. I used vaseline and ori (shea butter) when I was young, but obviously that is not enough when you start giving birth. So, we usually recommend natural products and we also advice them to avoid exposure to sun if possible. Like I said, our sun here is very harsh. And we also tell them to stay away from harsh creams. You buy all these so called 7 days creams and after 7 days you see them having terrible side effects.

Would you know some herbs like she does?

Well, I do but not as much as she does. Although she takes me along sometimes in search of some herbs and all. I guess I still have a lot to learn. I can never know as much as she does. I didn’t grow up in the village, I grew up in Lagos and America. I have tried to document the ones I have known and look for the scientific names and the ones that is useful for my own practice. The one that is useful for my practice I master it , and I don’t want to be a Jack of all trade.

How has the experience been like since you joined?

It has been ok. We have even opened a new branch in Lekki Phase 1, where we offer spa services. Our own spa services are unique and all related to treating one skin ailment or the other. You know we are a clinic of sort. We deal with skin care and weight loss. But we have been able to break a lot of barriers which are like doing a man’s job. You know in Nigeria, women still face a lot of discrimination.

What are your  roles as the M.D?

My role is to ensure we give our clients best service, of cause to ensure that we are profitable and also make sure we maintain that high standard. I work with a team of people and they have all been doing their jobs well.

How do you see your job of being a herbal practitioner in this 21st Century?

It’s in the mainstream already. My mum has done all the awareness and breaking the stigma, which has made my job easy. So my job is to keep it floating and make it more profitable.

How do you combine the job and that of being a wife and mother?

Well, I have a supportive family, and a good mother.  Although it’s not easy because my kids are still young and we don’t like leaving our kids with the maids. So, I have a supportive family, I make sure my important family members are close by so we can delegate duties to one another. We share responsibilities between myself and my sister on how to see through the affairs of others branches in Lagos and Abuja. We have a good check and balance system.

What are the challenges you face being the MD?

Challenges come depending on the situation of things. The challenge we are having now is how to expand further. Brands that are everywhere are the most successful. The challenge is how do we also expand and still keep everything effective quality wise.