Meet Kenyan Employer who Rewards Best Performers With A Car Each Year

Phineas Kimathi, the CEO of Kenya’s restaurant management and catering company San Valencia Ltd is a legend to many people in many ways. The mention of his name rings a bell to anyone familiar with the glorious Safari Rally days where he made a name as a rally driver.

Still, Kimathi stands out among employers because of his choice method of motivating his best performing workers—rewarding them with a car every year.

However, Kimathi regards himself primarily as an accomplished hotelier—and he has proved to be one with his clientele ranging from State House to top-notch corporates and parastatals in the country.

His company, San Valencia commands lots of respect for its capacity to provide catering services to events of mammoth proportions with the most notable one being KenGen’s first annual general meeting in 2006 at Safaricom Stadium, Kasarani where San Valencia fed the more than 40,000 local investors.

And back to his company, employees and cars, The Nairobian’s Silas Nyanchwani recently interviewed Kimathi to unravel the motivation behind his generosity of rewarding the best employees with cars.

First things first, why the name San Valencia, it sounds exotic?
I chose the name San Valencia because of the power of brand and how people perceive a given brand. I chose the name San which means Saint in Spanish and Valencia is a very hospitable and leisurely city in Belgium. If I picked the name of my village, it would not have worked.

Your background is in rallying, how did you end up in catering?
Actually, what most people do not know is that I am an hotelier by profession. I studied in Utalii College before I went to London, United Kingdom for further studies (at Greenwich College). So, my background is not in rallying. Rallying is just a passion.

In the early 1990s, I was a consultant for tourists’ companies helping them on how to feed and accommodate tourists. But after the inflation occasioned by the YK92 (Youth For Kanu ‘92 as it was an election year), most of my clients could sustain themselves through the money they had borrowed from the banks. I went into personal business, setting up Silver Spoon. This later rebranded to San Valencia ten years ago.

And you have since expanded to other brands?
There is the Valencia Inn in Mombasa, a three-storey establishment, 16-roomed with three bars. We also have Dann’s Club, which has been voted the best entertainment joint in Mombasa.

We also have the San Valencia at Anniversary Towers. It is now called the San Valencia Square having expanded to the Mezzanine floor, where we have conference facilities as well the hotel and restaurant on the ground floor. We just opened a restaurant inside the Nairobi National Museum. Additionally we do the outsourced outside catering and consultancy for our corporate clients.

Was feeding the KenGen guests the most challenging task?
It was challenging, but the biggest challenge came when catering for the 2,500 people during the Kenya Airways Marathon in the Maasai Mara. You know three days in the middle of nowhere. No river, no electricity, nothing. And we had to serve three meals a day, complete with a bar. We only succeeded because we have highly specialised trucks that have instant freezers and chillers.

So, how do you handle your employees, word is that you give them Subaru cars every financial year?
(Familiar laughter), I do reward excellent employees based on one’s performance and not necessarily a Subaru, it is much more than that. I think of human capital in a totally different way. As an employer, there is a way you visualize and prioritise your assets, be they buildings, cars, money in the bank. For me, human capital is what counts most. For some employers, they only look at the bottom line: profits. Some employers can’t even feed their employees, yet they make billions in profits. When the employees are sick, they can’t even afford to go to a hospital. People often accuse me of not being a capitalist. But after a careful personal examination, I learnt I am a social capitalist. You generate wealth, before you can enjoy it.

And do you also give houses or intend to give houses on the same rewarding scheme?
I wouldn’t say yes or no. We look at the circumstances. Some employees are housed in some estates for strategic reasons. Mainly, you don’t want to call them at night to come for a function and they are afraid because they stay in an insecure neighbourhood.

Have you reached where you wanted to be?
To me, life is a journey. And success is a journey. In terms of where I want to be, I would like San Valencia to be listed at the Nairobi Stock Exchange in a couple of years. We are also expanding to East Africa, presently we looking at Kigali and a few selected Counties. We are talking to a number of financiers. Then I can be proud that as Kenyan, I grew something from scratch, until it was listed.

[Courtesy: The Nairobian]