Tayo Bolodeoku
PARTNER CONTENT
No one units out to alter Nigeria from their kitchen.
However in 2005, when Tayo Bolodeoku’s twin sons had been identified with autism, change wasn’t on the menu, survival was. So she did what resilient individuals do when the world tilts sideways: she made one thing.
She baked. Each single day, she baked from her kitchen – not for revenue, not with a ten-year marketing strategy, however with the type of willpower that comes when your arms want one thing to do whereas your coronary heart learns to breathe once more.
From these small acts of therapeutic got here one thing extraordinary – proof that ache may be reworked into function, that sweetness may be energy, and that magnificence can rise from the damaged.
A decade later, farmers in Jos develop strawberries they by no means imagined would find yourself in premium gelato. Over 100 individuals now earn their dwelling by way of the dream she began. A thousand Lagos college students have stayed in class due to partnerships born from that very same sweetness.
All as a result of one girl refused to let ache have the ultimate phrase.
That is how Hans & René turned Nigeria’s most beloved gelato story – the place remedy was pleasure, and a kitchen dream turned the center of a tradition that celebrates the candy life.
From Brown Packing containers, With Love
Mrs. B’s cupcakes, within the early days, got here wrapped in brown packing containers with see-through lids and raffia strings tied by hand. No brand, zero technique, simply pure love wrapped in a field – and everybody who ate a chunk might inform.
So when she shared these packing containers of muffins with pals, household and fellow college mums, very quickly, what began as private remedy reworked into one thing no person anticipated: individuals began asking for extra!
Her pals at college wished her muffins, their pals of pals wished them too and by the point Mrs. B realised what was taking place, she had a wholly casual enterprise operating from her kitchen – with completely satisfied believers ready to obtain their very own packing containers of sweetness.
When the time got here to call the enterprise, Mrs. B didn’t want to rent a branding marketing consultant. She named it after the 2 individuals who made all the things doable: her sons. Hans & René – or because the household is aware of them, Hanny and Rinny.
However there was extra to it – there at all times is with the issues that matter. Hans means God is gracious. René means born once more.
Right now, these brown packing containers tied with raffia string have turn into iconic and even in 10 years of explosive development, Hans & René has by no means misplaced that contact of intentional handmade-ness or the ritual of care as over 100 staff now carry that philosophy ahead.
What began as one girl’s act of affection has turn into a household tradition that believes excellence occurs whenever you care greater than the world requires you to.
Massive Desires In Italy And A Wheelchair
By 2015, although Mrs. B had constructed a profitable cupcake enterprise and the type of fame that almost all entrepreneurs dream about, she decided that will completely change the trajectory of all the things:
She was going to study gelato by way of technical coaching, publicity to finest practices, and an actual mastery of craft.
Off she went to Italy. To Carpigiani Gelato College. Then to Le Cordon Bleu in London. Subsequently, she took programs in Dubai and even annual pilgrimages to the gelato festivals in Italy – as soon as attended in a wheelchair in 2019, simply days after breaking her leg, together with her husband pushing her by way of exhibition halls as a result of Mrs. B didn’t do something midway.
However right here’s the half that makes Hans & René completely different from each different artisanal dessert model: She didn’t go to Italy to make Italian gelato, she went to grasp the approach so she might make Nigerian gelato.
This distinction modified all the things.
Right now, each flavour on the Hans & René menu is a dialog between Italian mastery and Nigerian soul. Younger entrepreneurs throughout Lagos and past now consider in the opportunity of constructing world-class merchandise rooted in their very own heritage as a result of this model gave permission to a whole technology to be happy with the place they arrive from whereas reaching for excellence.
Hans & René’s Malva pudding
Agbalumo Gelato: The Unconventional Italian-Nigerian Fusion
If anybody might foresee that agbalumo, the brilliant, barely tart fruit that Nigerians fought their siblings over on childhood streets, will make a scrumptious gelato flavour, it was undoubtedly Mrs. B!
The agbalumo sorbet took weeks to excellent however the second it hit the menu, one thing shifted within the air.
For the primary time, strolling right into a premium gelato store meant seeing your childhood mirrored again at you as absolutely the star – all of a sudden it was luxurious, one thing value ready in line for and one thing subtle sufficient to serve one’s most discerning pals.
The individuals’s response to the agbalumo sorbet was so overwhelming, Mrs. B decided to supply and protect agbalumo year-round. She constructed relationships with farmers who had by no means imagined their fruit would find yourself in gelato and created a provide chain that honoured their work and harvests like they mattered – as a result of they do.
However the genius Mrs. B didn’t cease at agbalumo, she created with zobo, with tamarind from childhood reminiscences of “lickylicky”, with guava that tastes like summer season and even with boli and epa – roasted plantains with groundnuts, all by some means reworked into frozen scoops of pleasure and laughter which have served the Nigerian candy life group for years, with every flavour rigorously perfected as a celebration of our Nigerian roots.
Ardour E Attitudine: The Hans and René Technique
One hardly ever mentioned secret behind Hans & René’s enduring success is Mrs. B’s “ardour e attitudine” hiring philosophy.
She hires first for coronary heart, instructing the ability later – a philosophy born from the quiet persistence of autistic parenting, and the unshakable perception that with dedication and steering, anybody can grasp a craft and construct a life rooted in dignity and function.
This hands-on, heart-first strategy is why Frank, who as soon as mopped the flooring at Hans & René, now leads all the gelato-making group.
It’s additionally why Patricia, who joined in 2009 as a caregiver for the twins, now serves as the corporate’s Head Decorator – a testomony to what perception, alternative, and belief in individuals can construct.
Actually, again in 2020 – on the peak of the lockdown, when the world held its breath and the longer term felt unsure – it was Mrs. B and Patricia who turned the household eating desk right into a makeshift adorning station. By then, the dream was not simply Mrs. B’s; it had turn into theirs.
So, when Hans & René swiftly rolled out curbside pickups and cashless funds, it wasn’t simply good enterprise – it was the pure response of a group certain not by contracts, however by a shared coronary heart.
In any case, you may train somebody to make gelato, however you may’t train them to care.
Over ten years, Mrs. B has employed over 100 group members. 100 individuals whose total livelihoods are tied to a dream that began in a kitchen, supported by a easy management philosophy.
AYÉDÙN: 10 Years Of Sweetness!
“When you might have one thing good, share it. That’s how sweetness multiplies.” – Mrs. Tayo Bolodeoku
And that’s precisely what she did!
Over ten years, celebrities have lined up subsequent to highschool kids, businesspeople have pulled up in informal garments subsequent to households – all making Sunday mornings their sacred weekend ritual on the Hans & René flagship – with the easy perception that excellence tastes higher whenever you’re sharing it.
In 2019, Massive Brother Naija introduced Hans & René into hundreds of thousands of Nigerian dwelling rooms and what began as a easy characteristic turned a cultural second – all of a sudden, everybody was speaking concerning the gelato, the story and the girl behind it. The model had transcended retail to turn into a part of the nationwide dialog.
But it surely didn’t cease there.
In 2021, CNN’s Inside Africa informed the model’s story to the world as a result of they checked out what Mrs. B had constructed and understood that this wasn’t nearly gelato however a girl redefining what’s doable whenever you refuse to compromise.
The Lagos State Authorities honored Mrs. B on Worldwide Ladies’s Day 2020. Not for being well-known however for doing one thing uncommon: taking her ache and reworking it right into a platform for different individuals’s pleasure.
Talking about pleasure, Lagos will always remember the primary “Hans & René Owambe” in 2019 – a joyful, vibrant celebration of Nigerian Independence Day. A celebration the place the model invited the candy life group right into a celebration of who they’re and what they’re able to.
Past the TV options, awards and unforgettable events, Hans & René has partnered with Educate For Nigeria and raised over 5 million naira to help schooling in underserved communities. The #40kfor365 initiative in 2024 helped 1,000 college students see brighter futures by way of the identical constant perception that when you might have one thing good, you share it.
Gelato has been taken to orphanages, autism programmes have been quietly supported, staying true to the origin story that began all the things.
As a part of its Tenth-anniversary celebration, Hans & René is deepening its legacy of coronary heart – giving again to 4 colleges throughout Lagos in a gesture that displays the model’s enduring dedication to group.
Right now, Hans & René’s provide chain has advanced into greater than a community of producers; it’s a platform for shared development and alternative. A farmer in Jos is not only a provider – she’s a accomplice in one thing higher. A small-scale ardour fruit grower now sees their harvest reworked into premium gelato, opening a market they by no means imagined doable.
That is what unfolds when a enterprise is constructed not only for revenue, however guided by function.
The ten-year anniversary theme is AYÉDÙN – a Yoruba phrase that carries all the things directly. It means life is good but it surely additionally offers a deeper nudge to search out and share pleasure, regardless of the circumstances.
With a stable basis and a decade of studying, the enterprise is now liberated to dream higher. To be extra strategic, extra formidable, extra intentional. To cease surviving and begin hovering.
Hans & René is simply getting began.
The Imaginative and prescient For The Subsequent Decade
For Mrs. B, the primary decade was outlined by survival – navigating the dizzying weight of a vertigo analysis whereas shifting between continents, studying to adapt with out give up, and holding quick to her imaginative and prescient in a world that saved urging her to bend.
The imaginative and prescient for the subsequent decade is completely different, larger and bolder.
Hans & René’s gelato unfold
It’s development and affect.
Not simply in Lagos and Abuja, however all of Nigeria. Making gelato identified and beloved throughout a nation that deserves to style itself in luxurious, all over the place and for everybody as a result of excellence shouldn’t be unique – it needs to be extensively celebrated.
As you learn this, the subsequent technology are already writing their very own tales. Mrs. B’s first son is discussing enterprise technique together with her. Her daughter is obsessed with neurodevelopment and group care. One of many twins has found a love for baking – persevering with the legacy.
The Farewell Ritual That Holds It All Collectively
Each single day, in each single outlet throughout Lagos and Abuja, there’s a second that occurs as clients flip to go away with melting gelato on their tongue and pleasure of their chest.
Somebody from the Hans & René group seems to be them within the eye and says: “See you tomorrow.”
It’s not a gross sales technique and it’s not even actually goodbye. It’s a promise, a blessing and it’s all the Hans & René philosophy wrapped up in three phrases.
As a result of this model was by no means nearly gelato – although the gelato is completely, undeniably distinctive.
It was about what Mrs. B discovered in her kitchen in 2005: that whenever you make one thing together with your entire coronary heart, whenever you refuse to chop corners, whenever you have a good time the place you come from prefer it’s the best factor on earth, whenever you rent individuals for his or her character and train them the craft, whenever you keep wildly, courageously, superbly curious, whenever you share your sweetness generously – Folks style it.
They style the grace and resilience.
They style Nigeria – actual Nigeria, proud Nigeria, wonderful Nigeria – melting on their tongue.
They arrive again tomorrow. Similar time, identical place.
And so they carry their pals. And people pals carry extra pals.
Celebration Is within the Air, Lagos and Abuja!
As a result of when a girl refuses to let heartbreak be the tip of the story, when she builds one thing that feeds individuals, employs them, educates their kids and honors their fruit – that’s not only a enterprise or gelato, that’s pleasure and legacy.
And that’s completely, undeniably value celebrating.
Ten years.
Ten years of a girl saying “no” to adequate and “sure” to excellence. Ten years of a mom who turned her ache into another person’s pleasure. Ten years of proving that the perfect companies aren’t constructed on hype or smoke however on coronary heart.
Ten years of Frank watching and changing into a maestro. Ten years of Patricia rising. Ten years of farmers from Jos changing into companions in one thing larger. Ten years of households making Sunday mornings sacred. Ten years of 100+ staff believing in one thing they couldn’t fairly see but.
Ten years of “See you tomorrow”
To everybody who has stood in line for agbalumo, to everybody who has tasted zobo and remembered their childhood, to Frank, to Patricia, to the farmers, to the households who made this sacred…
Thanks for ten years of being a part of one thing revolutionary.
