The phrase “A man of many talents” carries certain expectations. For some, gaining expertise in various fields is a great life achievement in itself. If you know Alberton Richelieu, as we’ve come to know him, you’ll know he’s an apt example of this. He’s a businessman with several thriving ventures and also an experienced tennis player. Prior to all of this, he started his journey in law school. Don’t just take our word for it, read on to find out what Alberton Richelieu shared with us.
Starting with a background on who you are and how you’ve gotten to this point:
I’m from Mongiraud, Gros-Islet. Growing up I was a very active child. I was involved in several sports including tennis, which I started at age 7. I’ve since stuck with tennis over the other sports because it’s an individual sport.
I attended St. Mary’s College for only 2 years. After that I got a partial scholarship to attend the IMG Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Notable talents like Serena Williams and Andre Agasaai also attended the academy. Because of tennis I’ve travelled all of the Caribbean, South America, a large majority of African countries and the US.
What were some of the challenges you faced as a tennis player?
The main issue was with financing. You’d come up against players from other countries who have bigger budgets allocated to sports facilities, training and so on. It was often the case that my parents and family would end up reaching into their own pockets to help finance the journey once the Government had reached its limit.
You first began studying law in Trinidad, what influenced that path?
My dad is a lawyer, and my mom works with him. My sisters are lawyers. On the other hand, my grandfathers are all businessmen, so it’s a mix of business people and lawyers. Outside of my tennis career I own four businesses; Construction & Recycling Inc., A&M Cooperate, Oasis 101 and Adventure Real Estate.
What was your thought process behind adding businesses to your portfolio outside of playing tennis?
While I was at school in Trinidad I found out that recycling was a big thing over there. I was lucky enough to meet with a strong buyer with connections to the owner of one of the biggest shipping companies in Trinidad. We had a conversation and I started recycling the following summer. Then I decided that I wouldn’t be going back to law school.
What is Construction & Recycling Inc. all about?
We purchase scrap material and metals from individuals and corporate institutions. We process and export them to steel mills where it’s melted and turned into new materials. We export different metals to different places depending on the pricing. Those places include Korea, North America, China and Hong Kong.
As for the construction side of it; The Dominican Solid Waste Authority contacted me to help with exporting lots of galvanized material, which I have expertise in. At that time in Dominica, there were a lot of construction projects going on. I happened to meet a very big client who wanted me to renovate a house for them. I didn’t have a lot of experience in the construction field so I took the contract and hired the right personnel to get the job done. They all came to Dominica to start and throughout that process I learned a lot about construction.
How long has this business been established?
Originally I started it with a good friend at university, Ian Alcide, about 12 years ago. We split up because of a shift in market prices that caused financial strains. Ian is doing his own thing now but I always followed up with the recycling. This company currently employs about 20 people altogether.
What challenges do you encounter in the recycling and construction business?
The main area of difficulty for me is dealing with financial institutions as a young businessman. But because I have a good team around me, we’re able to work around these situations. People are understanding the importance of it. With the Solid Waste Authority here in St. Lucia, they’ve been very good to me. They’ve done everything in their power to help me succeed in the recycling business.
Tell us about your other business, the restaurant: Oasis
I came up with the decision to create Oasis during the pandemic. A friend who ran Joe’s and Rum Bar told me that he wanted to close down Rum Bar because Joe’s was doing well. I personally don’t know much about starting and managing restaurants. I consulted with my friend Nicolas Anthony, who I played tennis with and Matthew Hartman, who is the President of the Saint Lucia Restaurant Association. They took my ideas and put everything together; staff, menus etc. My construction guys put something together based on a plan I drew up and that’s how it got started. I sought inspiration online and through my travel experience I tried to curate things that I thought would make the perfect combination. I have a good team so I don’t need to be there 24/7.
What was the risk involved with opening a restaurant when you don’t have experience in that field?
When I see a business opportunity I just move forward with positivity. If I don’t think it’s a good idea, then I won’t do it. With the restaurant, I haven’t been able to identify what the stand out challenges are because we’re under 6 months of operation at this point.
What plans do you have moving forward as a businessman?
I plan on opening up a full time recycling plant with a car crusher and everything. I’m also working with the Saint Lucia Solid Waste Management Authority to get their old cars onto the property. Having this setup would eliminate the middleman in my operations and allow me to export larger amounts to other countries right here from St. Lucia.
For Oasis, the plans include franchising the business and seeing how we can sell the business to different people. As for A&M Cooperate, we want to expand into opening our warehouse and carry out larger distributions on island items. With Adventure Real Estate we’re looking into doing more property sales, acquiring more property, all for middle income and working class clients.
How do you manage your time with all of the businesses that you’re involved in?
I manage to get free time. It’s down to having reliable and responsible people who have been there from day one. They know the business; they know how things work so they just get it done without me having to be there doing things myself. Whether it’s good or bad times I get great support from my family as well.
What advice would you give to up and coming entrepreneurs?
Keep on trying. Most times we get a hurdle in the way and we want to give up. But if you remain positive and think of the solution rather than the problem you’ll always be prepared for when things go wrong.
Keep up with what’s going on with Alberton’s business at these handles: @constructionrecycling and @oasis.101. We wish him all the best!
