By Dan Garang Marrial
Melbourne - Noel Surur and his wife Florence – an inspiring and hard-working Sudanese couple - took the plunge and set up a grocery business in Noble Park, south-east of Melbourne in 2006. They had a simple philosophy: “let’s try and see if it works”.
The couple worked hard to get enough capital to start the business venture. Mr Surur, 34, drove trucks in Keysborough and Florence worked in aged care in Dandenong.
“We did not have enough money to start a business; we started from scratch, I had only saved a little money from the work, so my wife and I had to work harder to achieve our business dream,” Mr Surur said.
“We decided to do this business because we thought it was a good way to earn a living. My husband and I work hard full-time and overtime to create this business, while loving and caring for our two beautiful kids – Diana, 5, and Surur, 2,” Mrs Surur said.
The family is “bonded by love and respect” and they say that leads them to success in business. Love is usually greater than respect for many couples but in the Surur’s case, respect is greater than love because it instils flexibility and outgoingness between them and their business.
Mr Surur and his parents left war-torn Sudan for Kenya in 1994. Clashes between rebel forces and the government meant they had no option but to flee their beloved country. They settled for nine years as refugees in Kenya.
Many people, who didn’t make it to other countries, died in battle or from hunger or diseases. The war claimed more than 2 million lives.
Mr Surur went to a poor high school for refugees in Kenya and did well to get sponsorship from the New Sudan Council of Churches. He went to university and studied electronic engineering but didn’t finish because he was caught up by the process of coming to Australia.
He met Florence in Kenya and they arrived in Australia in February 2003. He is the son of a Sudanese politician, Eliaba Surur, a Member of Parliament in Sudan, who fled from Kenya and later returned to Sudan to resume his job after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005.
The Sururs started their Noble park business as a small grocery shop, but it soon expanded to two large stores opposite each other with bold green writing on each, `Surur African Variety Shop’. One shop sells food, while the other stocks beauty products and entertainment goods such as African DVDs, CDs and tapes.
They sell Sudanese traditional food ingredients such as spinach, dry fish, corn and corn floor, okra, Kuzura and so on. His customers are mainly Sudanese, Fijians, Asians and some Australians.
Many had thought that race might have been an issue behind the Surur’s business success, because Sudanese people came from all parts of Melbourne to shop there.
Some people thought they may have been avoiding Australian and Asians shops but that is not the case, say regular customers James Eka and Nyawangak Dei.
“I don’t buy here because I am Sudanese, but because this shop has 90 per cent of the food I need. Surur is really a good businessman, he sometimes gives us credit and he knows what we need as Sudanese more than other businessmen. I sometimes go to Asian shops and buy other things that I need,” Ms Dei said.
Mr Eka said: “I buy in Surur’s shop because it has got all our traditional food ingredients, I can’t compare Noel with others, and he is doing well at the moment.”
The Sururs now call Australia home. They have bought a townhouse in Endeavour Hills and their business has grown enormously in the past two years.
The couple is a great inspiration to other Sudanese people and already about 10 Sudanese shops have emerged in surrounding areas of Dandenong and some shopkeepers seek advice from him. He urges all Sudanese people to work hard and to follow their dreams.
