Ian Fuhr - The Culture of Sorbet & Beyond

Expedition Business brings you the highs & lows of our inspiring South African Entrepreneurs and how they manage to keep the flame of business adventure burning. 

Ian Fuhr is the living definition of a serial entrepreneur in South Africa.

His working career is lined with a number of entrepreneurial start-up businesses, which include:

• His retail chain Super Mart was sold to Edcon in 2003 and was rebranded to Jet Mart.
• His record company Priority Records was sold to Jive Records of the UK.
• Ian also had a race relations and customer service consultancy called Labour Link which consulted to public companies between 1991 and 1997.
• And then he started the first national chain of beauty salons called Sorbet which he launched in 2005. The Sorbet business has subsequently grown to 225 franchised salons and is the largest chain of salons in Africa. In 2017, Sorbet was sold to Long4Life, a listed company. Ian subsequently left Sorbet in February 2019 and set up a new coaching and consulting organization called The Hatch Institute. Hatch is aimed largely at helping business leaders with the issues of self-development, culture, leadership, customer service, and race relations.

Ian Fuhr has written three books:

“Get that feeling” (2014).  This book tells the story of his lifelong entrepreneurial journey which started when he was 22 years old.

“The Soul of Sorbet” (2018). This book highlights the power and competitive advantage of the corporate culture of the Sorbet business. 

“Cultureneering” (2021) This book shows how to build a strong culture in a diverse workforce that lays the platform for obsessive customer service.

“Today, I’m even more passionate about culture than ever before, which is why I’ve launched the Hatch Institute. I truly believe that we’ve built a framework that any business can embrace and follow. I believe that if we all become ‘cultureneers’, we can change the face of business in South Africa, solve race relations in a meaningful and impactful way, and spread success across our country and all levels of society.”

This episode is hosted by Christél Rosslee-Venter and sponsored by addShine Promotions.

For more information on how to become involved with Expedition Business, please visit www.expeditionbusiness.co.za.