Southern Sun

"The two sides clearly had different views regarding their new arrangement. To SAB, Sol’s new Southern Sun was a subsidiary of their huge company. To Sol, SAB was his banker, not his boss. However, to protect their position, SAB insisted on planting two of their men in Southern Sun’s management company – one at a very senior level and the other in administration. Gordon Hood, a long-time SAB employee, was duly installed in Southern Sun, effectively as Sol’s “number two”."

"Two weeks later, Sol was back at the Carlton Tower to offer me a job as personnel director of Southern Sun. He explained that he had started a fledgling hotel company, but his goal was to develop a chain of resorts across South Africa and beyond. He needed a man who knew where to find – and how to attract – quality hotel management, and he believed that man was me. I was taken aback by the offer. I thanked Sol for his interest but politely explained that I had no intention of leaving my current managerial job and no interest in working in South Africa."

"Most, if not all, of the black residents of King William’s Town had never put foot in a hotel and, therefore, had none of the skills or knowledge required to cook or serve in a five-star establishment. I had to come up with a plan. With the help of Mossie Mostert and the mayor of King William’s Town, I got permission to use the magistrate’s office as an interview site. Word was put out in the community that Southern Sun intended to hire 120 workers for a new hotel in the Cape, and that we would offer free training courses to teach the new recruits the skills of cooking and serving. The plan was to send the new staff to the only hotel school in the country, located in Pretoria, where they would receive six months’ training in the art of restaurant operations before starting work in Plettenberg Bay. Unfortunately, they would not be allowed to take their loved ones to Pretoria or Plett, but at the end of the course, they could take a two-week break back home before going to Plett. Despite these strict conditions, when Mossie and I arrived at the magistrate’s office, we were astounded to find hundreds of eager applicants cheerfully lining up to be interviewed. Many of the potential new recruits clutched battered little suitcases or bags, ready to travel to Pretoria."

"Since there were no other prospective buyers, Sol carved out a fabulous deal for Southern Sun that left Stanley and Bea almost nothing but the “Roller” and the diamonds. However, in addition to the three buildings in Johannesburg, the deal included a small hotel near Marble Arch in London – the Montcalm, a curved white terraced building that the Tollmans had recently acquired. It seemed nice, but neither Sol nor I had seen it. I was quite pleased that a hotel in central London would shortly be added to my portfolio. It would be useful to me personally. I was, however, somewhat taken aback when Sol and I were driving to the meeting to sign off on the deal and Sol suddenly announced, “You know what? We should let the poor Tollmans keep the Montcalm. Neither of us has even seen it, it’s not very big and how are we going to manage it from here? No, let’s be nice. Let’s let them keep it.”"

"The Southern Sun promotions team, under the ever-enthusiastic Adele Lucas and her sister, Diane Valentine, had invited journalists and photographers from key media outlets in South Africa, as well as top influencers from England and France. Somehow, she had persuaded Air France to give free passage for celebrities and journalists from Paris, even though the local opposition hotel company represented the French airline."

"Why were Southern Sun hotels so successful? How were they different from the hotels that had gone before them? First, there was Sol’s belief that a hotel had be more than just a place to sleep and to satisfy your hunger. Those were just the basics to provide – the things that guests expected but which did not necessarily bring them satisfaction."

"What was real, however, was the opportunity to establish a chain of resorts of the same quality as Southern Sun somewhere else in the world. The financial performance of the company over its first five years had been outstanding, achieving well over 20% annual compound growth in profits. In the days before the digital era, this rate of growth was unheard of, and it had attracted the attention of investors both in South Africa and abroad. The time was right, it seemed to Sol and Dick Goss, to take Southern Sun abroad. Dick favoured Europe, but Sol had his eye on a bigger prize: the US."