Tashas founder Natasha Sideris has come a long way since the early days of the nearly 20-year-old restaurant group when she was forced to get finance from loan sharks of the knee-capping variety.
While Sideris is teasing to some extent when she talks about the financiers that provided her with loans to grow her business, the truth is that none of the established banks were prepared to take a chance on her. Speaking to News24 at a recent get-together of Tashas Group staff and clients at their South African head office in Beechwood Gardens in Hyde Park, she candidly refers to her battle to get the banks interested in backing her as she sought to grow the tashas restaurant footprint from the two initial stores she opened in Athol Square in 2005 and Bedfordview in 2007.South Africans need to be in the know if we want to create a prosperous future.