10 NAMIB TIMES
6 NOVEMBER 2015
Sven Thieme, and the most ambitious lodging project in the history of Namibia: The Strand Hotel Swakopmund. The Strand Hotel Swakopmund will be officially opened today by the President of Namibia, Hage Geingob. Sven Thieme is the Executive Chairman of the Ohlthaver & List (O&L) Group of Companies, Namibia's largest privately owned company, and the grandson of original founder, Karl Werner List. O&L, with 13 operating companies, provides Namibia's milk and beer, much of its fish and groceries, and a smattering of other interests from property management & development to engineering. One of the most recent ventures is in four of Namibia's most impressive hotels & lodges under the moniker of O&L Leisure, the company that owns the long awaited and remarkably innovative new Strand Hotel Swakopmund. Wikipedia describes Sven as a Namibian business magnate. Magnate or not, Sven is a down to earth gentleman, and a genuinely nice guy. He graciously answered a few questions for Leisure Times Namibia on the phone while in the waiting room of the doctor's office with his daughter (she's fine, just a check-up after an ear infection). S v e n , y o u w e re already running 12 businesses, what made you decide to start O&L Leisure? I have to go back a long way to give you the full story. We have had Namibia Breweries since 1920, and along the way we had to fight a few battles. We actually started in the
hotel business because of competition with South African Breweries (SAB). In the old days liquor licences were only issued to hotels. SAB were very aggressive in Namibia, trying to push us out with pricing and pressuring hotels and suppliers to exclusivity deals, and even buying some hotels. We fought back by buying up our own hotels and suppliers, ourselves. At one point we had 65 properties. Eventually, after the dust settled with the SAB battle in the seventies and eighties, we sold off the smaller properties and kept only the four premier sites, the Strand Hotel in Swakopmund opening on October 9, 2015 , The Kings Den Lodge in the Caprivi which we will open again as the new Chobe Water Villas on December 1st, 2015, the Mokuti Etosha Lodge and the List family's Midgard Country Estate. We w o r k e d w i t h several partners over the years to manage
the hotels. The latest was Kempinski, a German Hotel Management Company, but in the end they were just too European, trying to do things the European way, and our customers and business partners didn't feel it was working. We found success in Namibia in our twelve other companies with our own business model, and we decided it was time to try our way of doing things. What were your biggest challenges with the Strand Hotel Swakopmund? The first priority, the first challenge, is always, always, in any business, to find the right people. The second challenge is the volatility of the market. The third challenge is that the standards in Namibia are just not up to what you can find in Europe, Asia, North America or even South Africa. It is simply a different culture. Yes, we live at a different pace, and that has its charm, but there are certain things about
which we need to pick up the pace! Our distance from Europe is a challenge. It is far less expensive for Europeans to stay in Europe than to come to Namibia, and we have to give them good reasons to come here. It is all about an extraordinary and unique experience. We are offering vastly improved venues at Midgard Country Estate and Mokuti Etosha Lodge , plus the international four star quality Strand Hotel Swakopmund, and the new Chobe Water Villas in the Caprivi with a mindblowing View from your 85m2 Water Villa. We are trying to provide our guests with a true and authentic Namibian experience with all its charm, but on an International standard. What are the most exciting aspects of the Strand Hotel Swakopmund? The most exciting thing to me is the design, true to Swakopmund and the tradition of the Swakopmund Mole. This design welcomes
Sven Thieme (on the right), Executive Chairman of the Ohlthaver & List (O&L) Group of Companies, with Christof Holzapfel, General Manager of the Strand Hotel Swakopmund people inside and outside the hotel allowing both visitors and locals to enjoy and experience the Mole. I am excited for the customer experience, the setting, the atmosphere of having a nice beer with friends in the Brewer & Butcher, the seafood at the Ocean Cellar, or the fresh goods from the Farmhouse Deli. These all offer experiences for everyone, right there on the most beautiful area in Swakopmund, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. The Mole and the Strand Hotel Swakopmund, we hope, will again be the new “old” social epicenter of Swakopmund, a fun place for all Swakopmunders and Namibians but also for our international Tourists. A place where they can mingle with the “locals” like nowhere else. The Strand Hotel Swakopmund is a fusion of European and Namibian styles. It is a
friendly place where people can come together. It is high standard and highly professional, but also “gemütlich”. Our ultimate goal is to
make the Strand Hotel Swakopmund a destination in itself for Swakopmunders, Namibians, Africans and people from all over the world.