The odd-job builder who’s expanding on Spanish isle

Apr 14 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

He may be in the running for a prestigious business award, but property developer and restaurateur Sayeed Ahmed is not one for boasting about his achievements. He tells Karen Dent how he prefers to do business.

HIS businesses stretch from restaurants in Majorca to student housing in Newcastle, with plans for a new entertainment development in the pipeline – but ask Sayeed Ahmed what he does and he’ll tell you he is an odd-job builder.

“I’ve always tried to keep a low profile, I don’t like blowing my own trumpet,” he says. But this 52-year-old Newcastle businessman’s days of anonymity may be numbered – he is nominated for the Entrepreneur Excellence Award in the Northern Jewel Awards, which recognise the achievements of the Asian business community in the UK.

Ahmed came to Newcastle from Pakistan as a five-year-old, with his parents and younger brother Salim. Another brother Nasir, who runs the business with him, and sister Kausar were born after the family settled in the city’s West End.

“My father wanted to better himself. He got a work permit and decided to come to Newcastle and as children we followed,” Ahmed said. “I grew up in the West End in the 60s. It was a culture shock but you adapted to it.

“The Asian community at that time was quite small.”

It is clear that family – and especially his father – have coloured Ahmed’s business philosophy. “The influence is there from my father because I saw he was hard-working and I saw him try to make ends meet.

“Asian parents are slightly different – they always keep pushing their kids a bit further. They’re not going to come out and say you’ve done well but behind your back, he’s telling all his mates he’s proud of you.

“I do remember things my father said to me. There are things that stick out in my mind like, ‘Never step on anybody’s toes because you wouldn’t like it to be done to you’ and, ‘There’s plenty to go round’ – if you’re looking at a deal and you know there’s somebody else out there, if you know them, don’t stand on their feet.”

His father started the business that became Portland Residential, the hub of Ahmed’s business interests. Based a couple of doors away from Newcastle University’s accommodation office, the company lets around 150 properties to students and professionals, as well as having interests in commercial property.

Ahmed began on the bottom rung of the family business after initially starting his own fashion business which failed.

“My father decided he wanted to retire and handed us six units. The opportunity was there to turn it around and we decided to build the business up. I hadn’t worked in the property or residential side before. Where other people have learned it through textbooks, I’ve learned it through working,” he said.

“I had lost some money which made me determined because I had a fashion shop after leaving school – the grass always looks greener on the other side – and that made me more determined to turn around and prove that I could do something.

“I think the determination came because my father decided to bail me out by selling the family house. People were coming in with silly offers because they knew we were in trouble and they knew we needed the money. I decided to make it or break it – and we didn’t sell the family house.”

Ahmed runs Portland Residential – the business has nothing to do with the Portland Group of care home homes and is named after Portland Avenue where it was originally based – with younger brother Nasir. Their other brother Salim is a silent partner. (“He’s a chemist, the brains of the family,” says Ahmed).

The headquarters moved when the company was offered the chance to buy a building just yards away from Newcastle University’s accommodation office.

Ahmed chuckles as he recalls: “The guy who actually had it wanted to sell it but he didn’t want the university to know because they can put a compulsory purchase order on it and acquire it.

“He said if you want it, you’ve got to go and have a look at it without somebody seeing you, so we had a look and the deal was done within 24 hours.

“It’s an ideal place – you’ve got the university accommodation office next door, you’ve got a hall of residence on the opposite side and behind you. As long as you can capture even 40% of those students who are passing, then you should be able to market the business.”

Although the lettings agency is the bedrock of the business, Ahmed is always alert to new opportunities and has opened a number of Indian restaurants in Spain during the past four years.

“I was in Majorca on business because I had some friends who wanted some consultancy work done, so I went across to sort that out. While I was there, I fell in love with the island,” he said. “I was sitting in an Indian restaurant having a meal when I asked why it was so bland. The guy turned around and said, ‘People come on holiday – they’re here for two weeks and they’re gone and they’re not really concerned if the spices are there or not’. So I decided there was a possibility of doing something – and now we’ll have a fourth outlet this year.”

He readily admits he is driven and is continually setting himself targets.

“I kept achieving my targets and in my 40s I decided to look at life, maybe it was a mid-life crisis, and decided I had done what I wanted to achieve,” he muses. “Then I got to 45 and I kicked off again. That’s when we decided to start restructuring.

“We are now looking at a site in the West End of Newcastle where we are thinking of opening a restaurant. It’s going to be a traditional ethnic type of restaurant – not the Western type of food but the traditional type of curry. We’ve started on the site and hope to have it ready for September this year.”

The Newcastle restaurant plan is not the only enterprise Ahmed has bubbling under for the city. He is working on an entertainment project, which will again be based in Newcastle’s West End.

He said: “If you go down to Manchester, or you go down to Leeds or Bradford, the ethnic community is large but Newcastle is still a very close, a very small community compared to the rest of England.

“We’ve got Chinatown here, we might eventually get an Asiatown – it’s been talked about, the council has looked at it, it might happen, it might not. Over the years, there are generations here now that are third or fourth generations and there’s a vast difference. We’ve got a site which is basically going to be an entertainment site, which we’ll try to incorporate into the whole community, not just the ethnic community, based in the West End of Newcastle.

“I think I’m putting something back to the area that I lived in. One thing I learned a long time ago was never forget where you came from and where you’re going, because on the way back you might meet some people that you’ve seen on the way up!”

That attitude follows him from his desk and out to the building site: “I won’t stay in the office, I will go out if I’m needed on a site – that’s our success because we will turn our hands to do the job.

“Say someone hasn’t turned up, a labourer, and you need someone to do the job, you’re going to go ahead and do it. I think people respect you more for it because they know you’re not bothered about getting your hands dirty. And you get to know what’s happening on the ground.

“You need a challenge to get up in the morning for. If you haven’t got a purpose in life, you’d just get bored. I need a challenge. If you haven’t got that get up and go, or if it suddenly disappears, then I think it’s time to pack your bags and chill.”

Away from the business, Ahmed says he’s considering taking up golf – not for networking purposes, but to help him relax.

“It’s just basically to knock the ball about and try to get the aggravation out,” he said.

“I find the more relaxing thing is just going for a walk, because you can actually think things over while you’re walking. I walk in the countryside or down the coast.” Although he now enjoys taking a break in Spain – he visited Marbella, Barcelona, Madrid and Minorca before choosing Majorca for his restaurant venture – holidays were not something the family could stretch to when Ahmed was growing up.

He said: “As a child, we did not go on holiday apart from a day out to the seaside at Whitley Bay or to the park at Chester-le-Street.

“It had a big play area and it was eels that you went fishing for – there were no fish – and you went swimming.”

He was heading off again to Spain on business after talking to The Journal, but his heart and his roots are firmly planted in the North East.

“I get homesick, if you’re away you do get homesick,” he said. “Apart from my few childish years in Pakistan, the majority of my life has been spent in Newcastle. It’s always been Newcastle.”

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CV

Name: Sayeed Ahmed

D.O.B: August 1956

Education

Westgate Hill School, Newcastle

Rutherford School, Newcastle

Newcastle College

Career

Waterloo House – Menswear Clothing Shop – Sales Assistant

Westfield Social Club – Waiter

Jean Manufacturer – Junior

Continental Food Store – Buyer

National Bank of Pakistan – Cashier

First failed company – 2 fashion shops

Worked in sales and Marketing

Set up own firm called S A Builders

Portland Residential was formed – Management side

Set up various companies as part of this group

Memberships:

Member of National Landlords Association

Newcastle Accreditation scheme (founder member)

West End Accreditation Scheme

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The questionnaire

What type of car do you drive?

Audi

What is your favourite restaurant?

Valley Junction 397 in Jesmond

Who or what makes you laugh?

Morecambe and Wise

What is your favourite book?

Autobiographies

What is your ideal job apart from your current job?

Working on a construction site

If you had a talking parrot, what would you teach it to say?

Money

What is your greatest fear?

Failing

What is the best piece of business advice you have ever been given?

Don’t forget where you came from

What is your poison?

Tea

What newspapers other than The Journal do you read?

The Telegraph

What was your first wage?

£9.50

How do you keep fit?

Walking

What’s your most irritating habit?

Repeating things.

What’s your biggest extravagance?

House

Which four famous people would you most like to dine with?

Sir Michael Parkinson, Sir Alan Sugar, Sir Richard Branson and Sir Sean Connery

How do you want to be best remembered?

He did his best for everyone and was always on hand for advice and friendship