Selling up to make the dream come true


- Greg Vogt

Another day at the office


The past year has been extremely interesting for Anthony Doherty and his wife Natasha. One moment they were living the Johannesburg life with Anthony joining the freeways each day to make Investec investors money. A Private Client Stockbroker, Anthony was always at the cutting edge of where and where not money should be. But like most of us, a little seed had been planted somewhere and a recurring dream was beginning to occur.
And, when they woke up they were the proud owners of Garden Route Game Lodge. Anthony had been watching and analyzing the results of the listed hospitality and tourism businesses. The trends shown were good enough for him to remain interested and for the dream to grow into a reality. His analyses included looking at the various regions of our country and soon he was comfortable with his aims being set on the Garden Route. This because of the traffic from Cape Town and the successes that were being attained in the area. The signs were right and instinctively he was ready to make the investment of his life for his biggest and most important client – himself and his partner.
By chance an advert of the Garden Route Game Lodge was brought to him and overnight they were off to see what it was all about. Anthony liked the fact that one could see game within thirty minutes of the ocean - and some of the countries most beautiful coastline - whilst being close to the main motorway between one of the countries busiest tourist routes.
A deal was struck with the seller ( a deal that did change slightly over the subsequent few months) and today Anthony and his partner are far from the freeways of Gauteng. In fact the last time I spoke to Anthony he had been up all night relocating his lion to a new enclosure, a task he said that was a far cry from a day in Investec’s offices.
“ The risk is huge in that I had to sell all my assets up there to take on this venture. Not having been involved in tourism before everything is new and it has taken quite a bit of getting used to” explained Anthony. I must say they looked very comfortable in their new roles and seemed to be very hands on people. “ I have been spending most of my time getting to grips with the numbers of the place. I will now get more involved in ther parts of the operation” he confirmed.
Anthony described the business involved to income streams; one from tourism and one from the sale of game. “We are currently moving cheetah up to a client who we have just accepted as a byer”, explained Anthony confirming their strict code of screening their byers, especially when selling their cats. Later Anthony confirmed all went well with the sale and that the cheetah arrived at their destination safely.
Anthony has no illusions about the limitations of the game lodge in terms of its size, number of animals and the experience it offers. “Our plan is to deliver an exceptional service to our clients within what we have to offer. Where else can you stay overnight (not even five minutes from the N2) and have a game drive or walk, before moving on. We also encourage people to use us a base to adventure around and see what this part of the Garden Route has to offer.
“We have made a bold start and are currently enjoying realising our dream of returning this part of the Garden Route to how it was many years ago. Farmers in this area have also realised that unless their farms are large (over 1000ha), they cannot make good money from farming. So we have begun leasing land from surrounding farmers, slowly enlarging the area we are operating from. It’s a win-win situation with the farmers getting an income from the land, the game lodge getting bigger and the land being returned to it’s original state”. We have to add that the win is also for the Garden Route. With Anthony’s approach to business and both his and Natasha’s input to tourism, the whole area benefits.