Enterprise Africa July 2016

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR AFRICA’S INDUSTRY LEADERS

AFRICA

ENTERPRISE July 2016

www.enterprise-africa.net

SKA AFRICA:

MeerKAT Makes Stellar Discoveries as Progress

Gathers Pace ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

BCE / Van Schaik / Edcon / SASRIA

10 Reasons why Discovery Health Medical Scheme is your best choice.

Choice - The widest health plan range in the market.

Sophistication - Access to the best cancer treatment.

Prevention - Cover for preventative tests and screenings.

Technology - Advanced website and apps to give you the best service experiences.

Stability - The highest possible medical scheme credit rating.

Life-saving - Advanced support to give your essential information to emergency personnel.

No surprises - Full Cover Choice options allow you to avoid out-of-pocket expenses.

Savings - Discounts on day-to-day medicines, chronic

Affordability - The most competitive contributions

Wellness - Access to a separate world-leading science based wellness programme.

in the market.

Go to www.discovery.co.za or call us on 0860 000 628 to join the Discovery Health Medical Scheme.

Discovery Health Medical Scheme Registration number 1125

support and frames and lenses.

www.discovery.co.za

GM_31590DHM_27/03/15_V4

EDITOR’S LETTER

Joe Forshaw EDITOR joe@enterprise-africa.net Hal Hutchison SALES MANAGER hal@enterprise-africa.net Sophie Bolderstone SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER sophie@enterprise-africa.net Sam Hendricks SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER sam@enterprise-africa.net Shaun Cousins PROJECT MANAGER shaun@enterprise-africa.net Shannon James PROJECT MANAGER shannon@enterprise-africa.net Daniel Scott PROJECT MANAGER daniel@enterprise-africa.net Jane Larkman ACCOUNTS MANAGER finance@enterprise-africa.net Harvey Tarlton SENIOR DESIGNER harvey@enterprise-africa.net

Published by CMB Multimedia Chris Bolderstone – General Manager E. chris@cmb-multimedia.com Sackville Place, 44-48 Magdalen Street, Norwich, NR3 1JU T. +44 (0) 20 8123 7859 E. info@cmb-multimedia.com www.cmb-multimedia.com CMB Multimedia does not accept responsibility for omissions or errors. The points of view expressed in articles by attributing writers and/or in advertisements included in this magazine do not necessarily represent those of the publisher. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained within this magazine, no legal responsibility will be accepted by the publishers for loss arising from use of information published.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in a retrievable system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher. © CMB Multimedia Ltd 2016

Welcome to our latest edition…

//

This month we follow the theme of ‘international expansion’; growing beyond the borders of South Africa and the African continent; building relationships and markets in countries that are different and not what we’re used to.

While many of the big-name, well-recognised companies have already made this move, it’s not something that offers the certainty of success. There’s many that have failed in Nigeria, Ghana or Zimbabwe; Europe and the US are extremely difficult and the Far East is a logistical nightmare. But for those who get it right, the rewards can be enormous.

Our lead features come from BCE Foodservice Equipment, the SKA Project and Tsebo Facilities Solutions, and these are all companies and projects that have had success across different territories. The SKA Project is an example of how to build effective communication between many different parties from many different disciplines; BCE is taking the cautious approach and building its brand from within while researching international markets before jumping in, and Tsebo FS has firmly set out its vision of becoming Africa’s preferred supplier. We also learn more about Van Schaik Bookstores, Nampak, Edcon and Osmond Lange Architects all of whom are expanding into Africa.

When political, economic and financial elements are all uncertain, this type of expansion can be hugely risky.

Following the ‘Brexit’, many global markets have been thrown into turmoil and this creates a challenging environment for growth so we want to explore how successful companies achieve success and applaud them for their work.

If you have managed to expand internationally, get in touch with us @EnterpriseAfri1

Joe Forshaw EDITOR

GET IN TOUCH +44 (0) 20 8123 7859 joe@enterprise-africa.net www.enterprise-africa.net

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 3

06/NEWS: The Month that was...

A round up of some of the latest news stories in the industry

78/EXHIBITION CALENDAR: Key Upcoming Events Across the Country Our regular update to help you keep track of important events and exhibitions taking place across the spectrum of industry sectors.

08/LENGAU: SA Supercomputer Fastest on Continent The CSIR’s Lengau computer is the fastest in Africa. Unveiled in Cape Town last month, this Dell-powered supercomputer is 40,000 times faster than your office laptop.

12/

4 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

12/BCE: 30 Years of Excellence from BCE BCE Foodservice Equipment is your go to, one-stop-shop for all kitchen utensils, industrial cookware and commercial kitchen appliances. Operating successfully in South Africa for the past 30 years, the company is now looking at how it can grow internationally.

CONTENTS 20/

34/

60/ 20/MATUS: Leading Distributor of Hardworking Brands Eyes Growth

54/OSMOND LANGE: Connection by Design

The mission of leading hardware supplier, Matus, is ‘to be the supplier/distributor of choice of tools, hardware and related equipment’.

With origins dating back to 1929, South African architects and planners Osmond Lange combines maturity of reputation with 21st century style and a striking understanding of contemporary needs and aspirations.

26/SKA PROJECT: MeerKAT Makes Stellar Discoveries as Progress Gathers Pace

60/KIT-KAT GROUP: Unparalleled Range for Consumers

SKA (Square Kilometre Array) will be the world’s most powerful radio telescope - one hundred times more sensitive than any current radio telescope.

34/VAN SCHAIK: Van Schaik: ‘A Higher Purpose Than Just Making Profit’ With a substantial presence in SA and a growing footprint on the continent, Van Schaik Bookstore is now the go-to resource when it comes to academic textbooks and related products

40/TSEBO: People With Whom You Can build Your Future “We are part of the Tsebo Group that operates across 25 countries from South Africa all the way to Saudi Arabia.”

48/EDCON: Fresh Strategy Brings Renewed Hope to retail giant

From its humble beginnings as Kit Kat Café back in 1953, then located in South Africa’s old Asiatic Bazaar, today Kit Kat Cash and Carry spans some 20,000 square meters.

64/NHLS: Taking SA Healthcare to new Heights Thanks to brilliant innovations, international awards and strong and tested management, the NHLS is building a reputation as an organisation that achieves its goals and helps to build and maintain a long and healthy life for all South Africans.

68/SASRIA: SA’s Unique Insurance Offering Sasria’s vision is simple: “To protect the assets of all South Africans against extraordinary risks” and since 1979, this innovative organisation has been doing just that.

With origins dating back to 1929, South African architects and planners Osmond Lange combines maturity of reputation with 21st century style and a striking understanding of contemporary needs and aspirations.

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 5

GE INVESTS HALF-A-BILLION RAND IN SOUTH AFRICA American multinational General Electric (GE) has invested R500million in South Africa in its GE Africa Innovation Centre in Rosebank, northern Johannesburg.

The 2700 m² facility is the 10th innovation hub set up globally, but a first for GE in Africa. It has been certified as a green building and to support local business, it was 90% designed, built and executed in the country.

The building houses GE’s innovation across Africa within its key business sectors such as aviation, energy, healthcare, oil and gas, power and transport and will serve as the

new headquarters for GE Healthcare. “ The cutting edge facility boasts an Experience and Exploration Centre, coffee shop and catering facilities, agile workspaces, Learning and Development Centre, Innovation Ideation and Collaboration Centre, as well as a GE Prototyping Laboratory and sustainable Healthcare Customer Experience Centre,” the company said.

President of GE Africa Jay Ireland spoke of the importance of innovation. “Innovation is shaping how we see the world and how we participate in its development today and into the future.

“We are looking to impact and

enhance the career aspirations of over 100 engineers from previously disadvantaged backgrounds,” he added. “ These are young people who will come through the centre and share their innovative solutions while learning from some of the best GE minds in their respective fields.”

The South African government welcomed the centre. It demonstrated that Africa, and South Africa, were viable investment destinations, it said, and showed GE’s long-term commitment to finding innovative solutions to Africa’s infrastructure and healthcare challenges.

DOWNTOWN CAPE TOWN GETS BOOST Since the start of the year, the City of Cape Town has received a boost, gaining at least seven new development projects.

The projects include: the College of Cape Town in Buitenkant Street; a development by Telkom at its exchange on Lower Long Street; a redevelopment of Mike’s Sports on the corner of Bree, Strand and Waterkant Streets; a proposed mixed-use residential, retail and office development on the corner of Spin and Plein Streets; the proposed office tower by Ingenuity in Christiaan Barnard Street; the planned development at the Capetonian Hotel in Heerengracht; and the Gorgeous George Hotel and Bar development being constructed in St Georges Mall.

6 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

“In 2006, the City’s official valuation of the downtown sat at just over R6.1bn.

By the 2014/2015 financial year, this official valuation had risen to close to R24bn,” said CCID chair Rob Kane.

“By the end of 2015, when the latest report went to print, we estimated conservatively that another R8.2bn would be added to this figure over the next five years, with a total valuation close to R32bn by 2020 across 26 projects.”

The CCID does not yet know what the extra seven projects they became aware of since the latest report would add to the R32bn total valuation figure for 2020.

Bree Street has been identified as another node to watch, as it has moved

towards becoming the CBD’s first true 24-hour economy. During the day there are retail and businesses in operation, while popular after-work and night time venues take over later.

Another large transformer of the economic landscape of the CBD, according to the CCID, is the rollout of the City’s own fibre-optic broadband network. R1.7bn is being spent by the City throughout the metro to connect its own buildings as well as those of the Western Cape government.

To date 50 private buildings have already been connected and according to Tasso Evangelinos, chief operating officer of the CCID, it is estimated that by June 2021 about 1000 CBD buildings will be connected.

NEWS ROUNDUP SA GOVERNMENT AIMS TO BUILD SIX MILLION HOUSES IN THREE YEARS The South African government has set itself a target of adding six million houses and housing opportunities by 2019.

President Zuma made the declaration last month during a visit to the Vulindlela Rural Enhanced People’s Housing Process (EPHP) in Taylors Halt, outside Pietermaritzburg.

Zuma said the government has already built more than 4.3 million houses since 1994.

“We delivered 4.3 million houses and decent accommodation to our people since 1994. This has benefited about 20 million people.

“We will continue to build houses that are beautiful, which have water and electricity.”

SA WINE TASTES SUCCESS IN RUSSIA Following a recent Department of Trade and Industry’s Investment and Trade Initiative (ITI) to Russia, SA wine company Koopmanskloof Wines has sealed a lucrative deal with a Russian distributor.

Led by Deputy Minister Mzwandile Masina, the ITI, which ran last monthsaw more than 20 companies visit Russia.

Speaking in Moscow, Russian Managing Director at Koopmanskloof, Rydal Jeftha, said the deal with the Russian company requires Koopmanskloof Wines to start shipping over 60,000 bottles of wines from July 2016.

“We are also working on a long strategic

partnership of providing half a million bottles by 2020 and give our partners more brands in our portfolio to distribute in the Russian market,” he said.

“We are very excited as our set goal for this market is now coming into fruition and this will mean we can employ more people back at home, especially the youth.

This is an example of a small black business empowerment enterprise that can give hope to others and instil positivity that it is not all gloom in South Africa,” he added.

Koopmanskloof is made up of four farms in which 120 workers have shares.

GDP CONTRACTS IN FIRST QUARTER OF 2016 South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 1.2% in the first quarter of 2016, Stats SA said last month. “ The headline figure, the real GDP production decreased by 1.2% in quarter one, that is a quarter on quarter number and real GDP year on year is negative at 0.2%,” Statistician General Pali Lehohla said.

The decrease follows on an increase of 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The key contributors to the negative GDP growth rate were the mining and quarrying industry as well as the transport, storage and communication industry. Mining and quarrying fell by 18.1% and contributed -1.5% to GDP growth while transport, storage and communication decreased by 2.7% which contributed -0.2% to GDP growth.

The agriculture, forestry and fishing, as well as the electricity, gas

and water industries also contracted in the first quarter of 2016.

Meanwhile, finance, real estate and business services increased by 1.9% which contributed 0.4% to GDP growth.

Lehohla said household final consumption expenditure decreased by 1.3% in the first quarter with the main source of the decline being spending on transport while government final consumption expenditure grew by 1%. Both exports and imports decreased by 7.1%.

When asked whether South Africa is heading towards a recession (two consecutive quarters of negative growth), Lehohla said Stats SA could not say.

“We can’t say that we are heading for a recession, that we do not know, we can only measure going forward. It’s very difficult to say what is happening in the future,” said Lehohla.

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 7

FEATURE

SA SUPERCOMPUTER FASTEST ON CONTINENT PRODUCTION: Joe Forshaw

The CSIR’s Lengau computer is the fastest in Africa. Unveiled in Cape Town last month, this Dellpowered supercomputer is 40,000 times faster than your office laptop.

//

In one of the most technologically advanced of all of the African nations, a new addition was made recently to the technology sector that will further improve South Africa’s competitiveness at international level and has helped to bring renewed focus to developing IT capabilities in the rainbow nation.

In June, at the CSIR’s Centre for High Performance Computing in Cape Town, the Deputy Director-General for Research Development and Support at the Department of Science and Technology, Dr Thomas Auf der Heyde was on hand alongside Dr Happy Sithole, the Director of the Centre or High Performance Computing, to launch Africa’s fastest super computer – Lengau.

Lengau is the Setswana word for cheetah and this new computer certainly lives up to its name.

The cheetah can run at a top speed of over 60 mph; that’s more than double the fastest speed ever reached by even the world’s fastest human, Usain Bolt.

Similarly, the Dell-powered Lengau can process tasks 40,000 times faster than a standard laptop that might be used in

8 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

any South African home or office.

In technical terms, Lengau is a hugely important and impressive breakthrough for the CSIR and for South Africa. It has a processing speed capable of a thousand-trillion floating point operations per second and is expected to deliver about a peak petaflop worth of computing power.

The power behind Lengau comes from 1,039 of Dell’s PowerEdge servers, comprising 19 racks. The majority of these are dual-socket servers, equipped with Intel’s 12-core HaswellEP processors (specifically, the Xeon E5-2690), while a smaller number are fat nodes, each of which contain four Xeon E7-4870 processors and a terabyte of memory. A 4PB Lustre storage system provides file access, and everything is joined with a FDR (56 Gbps) InfiniBand network from Mellanox.

This is not a machine that will be used by the government as a showpiece; it has already been scheduled for critical work on major scientific projects.

Importantly, in the research, technology and innovation space, scientists will now have an opportunity to conduct

their research locally without having to travel abroad for higher performance computing infrastructure. The unveiling of Lengau comes after previous success for South Africa in the super computer industry.

“When we started in 2007,” says Sithole “we took inspiration from the fastest animals in the land and named our first high performance computing system IQudu, which boasted 2.5 teraflops – which is 2.5 million operations per second.

“In 2009, there was increased demand of computational resources, and a new high performance computing system dubbed the Tsessebe (Antelope) was launched.

“It boasted 24.9 teraflops and became number 311 on the TOP500 super computers, and ranked number one in the African continent.

“The system was later upgraded to 64.44 teraflops,” he said.

Today, Lengau sits just outside the Top 100 fastest super computers on the planet but is being hailed as a major achievement considering the nature of the South African economy relative

ENTERPRISE TECH: LENGAU

FEATURE

to other nations with supercomputing capability. With a GDP of around $350 billion (2014), the SA government has presented significant High Power Computing (HPV) systems on a limited budget. Today, all the other petascale machines on the TOP500 list are supported by nations with much larger economies.

“The launch of this petascale computing facility in South Africa is evidence, again, of our determination to be globally competitive in certain areas of science and to make the necessary investments, and of the competence of South African scientists and engineers to develop, implement and maintain such cutting-edge technologies,” said Science and Technology Minister, Naledi Pandor.

“I congratulate the CSIR and the CHPC on this quantum leap in support of South African science, especially dataintense research programmes like the Square Kilometre Array.”

Auf der Heyde said high performance computing contributes to economic growth.

“For our country to grow at the required rate, as set out in the National Development Plan, it needs to change gear by building capacity in the production and dissemination of knowledge. The Centre for High Performance Computing represents a deliberate move by this country to invest in modernising our research and development. High performance computing and advanced data technologies are powerful tools in enhancing the competitiveness of regions and nations,” he said.

Project partner, Dell, agreed. “The Lengau system will provide access and open doors to help drive new research, new innovations and new national economic benefits,” said Jim Ganthier, VP and General Manager at Dell.

With Lengau already working for the CSIR, the potential is only just being discovered. Mary Jane Bopape, CSIR researcher, said the new system has reduced research times on climate modelling from three hours to under

10 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

30 minutes. “With the new system, we have a lot more processors than we had before,” she said. “With that, we are able to make simulations quicker.”

The system has already been used for climate modelling by the CSIR, bioinformatics by the University of Cape Town, material science by the University of Limpopo and astronomy by South Africa’s SKA office.

Most indications suggest that Lengau will be used as the primary system for the CSIR for the next three years after which updates will be needed to keep up to date with the latest technology based on Moore’s Law. Currently, the world’s fastest super computer, Tianhe-2, is in china, the second and third fastest systems are in the US and fourth fastest is in Japan.

In one of the most technologically advanced of all of the African nations, a new addition was made recently to the technology sector that will further improve South Africa’s competitiveness at international level and has helped to bring renewed focus to developing IT capabilities in the rainbow nation.

In June, at the CSIR’s Centre for High Performance Computing in Cape Town, the Deputy Director-General for Research Development and Support at the Department of Science and Technology, Dr Thomas Auf der Heyde was on hand alongside Dr Happy Sithole, the Director of the Centre or High Performance Computing, to launch Africa’s fastest super computer – Lengau.

Lengau is the Setswana word for cheetah and this new computer certainly lives up to its name.

The cheetah can run at a top speed of over 60 mph; that’s more than double the fastest speed ever reached by even the world’s fastest human, Usain Bolt.

Similarly, the Dell-powered Lengau can process tasks 40,000 times faster than a standard laptop that might be used in any South African home or office.

In technical terms, Lengau is a hugely important and impressive breakthrough for the CSIR and for South Africa. It has a processing speed capable of a thousand-

trillion floating point operations per second and is expected to deliver about a peak petaflop worth of computing power.

The power behind Lengau comes from 1,039 of Dell’s PowerEdge servers, comprising 19 racks. The majority of these are dual-socket servers, equipped with Intel’s 12-core Haswell-EP processors (specifically, the Xeon E5-2690), while a smaller number are fat nodes, each of which contain four Xeon E7-4870 processors and a terabyte of memory. A 4PB Lustre storage system provides file access, and everything is joined with a FDR (56 Gbps) InfiniBand network from Mellanox.

This is not a machine that will be used by the government as a showpiece; it has already been scheduled for critical work on major scientific projects. Importantly, in the research, technology and innovation space, scientists will now have an opportunity to conduct their research locally without having to travel abroad for higher performance computing infrastructure. The unveiling of Lengau comes after previous success for South Africa in the super computer industry.

“When we started in 2007,” says Sithole “we took inspiration from the fastest animals in the land and named our first high performance computing system IQudu, which boasted 2.5 teraflops – which is 2.5 million operations per second.

“In 2009, there was increased demand of computational resources, and a new high performance computing system dubbed the Tsessebe (Antelope) was launched.

“It boasted 24.9 teraflops and became number 311 on the TOP500 super computers, and ranked number one in the African continent.

“The system was later upgraded to 64.44 teraflops,” he said.

Today, Lengau sits just outside the Top 100 fastest super computers on the planet but is being hailed as a major achievement considering the nature of the South African economy relative to other nations with supercomputing

ENTERPRISE TECH: LENGAU

capability. With a GDP of around $350 billion (2014), the SA government has presented significant High Power Computing (HPV) systems on a limited budget.

Today, all the other petascale machines on the TOP500 list are supported by nations with much larger economies.

“The launch of this petascale computing facility in South Africa is evidence, again, of our determination to be globally competitive in certain areas of science and to make the necessary investments, and of the competence of South African scientists and engineers to develop, implement and maintain such cutting-edge technologies,” said Science and Technology Minister, Naledi Pandor.

“I congratulate the CSIR and the CHPC on this quantum leap in support of South African science, especially data-intense research programmes like the Square Kilometre Array.”

Auf der Heyde said high performance computing contributes to economic growth.

“For our country to grow at the required rate, as set out in the National Development Plan, it needs to change gear by building capacity in the production and dissemination of knowledge. The Centre for High Performance Computing represents a deliberate move by this country to invest in modernising our research and development. High performance computing and advanced data technologies are powerful tools in enhancing the competitiveness of regions and nations,” he said.

Project partner, Dell, agreed. “The Lengau system will provide access and open doors to help drive new research, new innovations and new national economic benefits,” said Jim Ganthier, VP and General Manager at Dell.

With Lengau already working for the CSIR, the potential is only just being discovered. Mary Jane Bopape, CSIR researcher, said the new system has reduced research times on climate modelling from three hours to under 30 minutes. “With the new system, we have

a lot more processors than we had before,” she said. “With that, we are able to make simulations quicker.”

The system has already been used for climate modelling by the CSIR, bioinformatics by the University of Cape Town, material science by the University of Limpopo and astronomy by South Africa’s SKA office.

Most indications suggest that Lengau will be used as the primary system for the CSIR for the next three years after which updates will be needed to keep up to date with the latest technology based on Moore’s Law. Currently, the world’s fastest super computer, Tianhe-2, is in china, the second and third fastest systems are in the US and fourth fastest is in Japan.

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 11

BCE FOODSERVICE EQUIPMENT

30 Years of

Excellence from BCE

PRODUCTION: Manelesi Dumasi

BCE Foodservice Equipment is your go to, one-stopshop for all kitchen utensils, industrial cookware and commercial kitchen appliances. Operating successfully in South Africa for the past 30 years, the company is now looking at how it can grow internationally.

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 13

BUSINESS PROFILE

//WE ARE ALREADY ESTABLISHED IN KENYA AND NIGERIA AND WE ARE LOOKING AT ESTABLISHING AN OFFICE IN THE INDIAN OCEAN ISLANDS//

//

BCE Foodservice Equipment was founded 30 years ago and, now one of Africa’s leading foodservice equipment suppliers, the company is striving for further growth and advancement while always continuing to offer its valued customers quality, speed and flexibility. Servicing big name clients such as KFC, Hilton Hotels, Protea Hotels and many more through a national network of dealers, BCE supplies kitchen utensils, industrial cookware,

14 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

commercial kitchen appliances and a full range of related products.

Managing Director, Jaco Engelbrecht says that in this its 30th anniversary year, BCE has launched new product lines and is searching for new opportunities in new markets in order to continue driving the industry forward in Africa and further afield.

“This year is our 30th anniversary and we’ve been at an exhibition called Hostex in South Africa and we had a special lunch there to celebrate our 30-year celebration. We launched a new category of glassware called

Bormioli and we used Hostex as the launch-pad,” he says.

“Expansion is going well but sales are suppressed in Africa at this point in time. We are in a commodity cycle and Africa is commodity driven. We are well positioned to turn the screw when the cycle turns and we are already established in Kenya and Nigeria and we are looking at establishing an office in the Indian Ocean islands.

“Considering the exchange rate, we want to export. We manufacture some of our products locally and thanks to the environment, we should be competitive elsewhere and that’s why we’ve embarked on a strategy of taking our Anvil brand into global markets. We’ve booked a stand at an international trade show called Host, the biggest trade show for foodservice equipment globally, in Milan. We’ve

BCE FOODSERVICE EQUIPMENT

//WE’VE EMBARKED ON A STRATEGY OF TAKING OUR ANVIL BRAND INTO GLOBAL MARKETS// also requested information on building international brands from external consultants as our Anvil brand is well-known in Africa and SA but it’s unknown in international markets.”

A PROSPEROUS MARKET Right now, the SA economy is on thin ice. Growing by just 1.3% last year, and with confidence relatively low, the economic environment leaves much to be desired for growing companies.

It’s a challenge that faces everyone, and something which we discuss regularly with businesses across subSaharan Africa.

Euromonitor International, global consumer and industrial market

research company, said in a report last year that despite economic and household financial pressures, the consumer foodservice industry registered double-digit current value growth, supported by operator’s efforts to increase their value-formoney offerings.

‘In an attempt to maintain and gain share as well as differentiate their offerings, the leading players are likely to remain proactive over the forecast period, making value-for-money offerings basic components on their menus,’ the report said.

‘African nations, including South Africa, continue to be attractive markets with regard to the strategic expansion goals of global consumer

COMMERCIAL PRODUCT RANGE

foodservice players. The penetration of international players serves as a stimulus within the South African consumer foodservice competitive landscape and this is likely to continue to affect the industry over the forecast period. The recent penetration of leading global players such as Burger King and Domino’s continues to raise the level of competition, thus giving South Africans a wider choice,’ details the report.

Thanks to this stimulus, the foodservice industry is expected to maintain a healthy compound annual growth rate until 2019.

In the hotel sector, another important sector for BCE, in spite of economic conditions, growth seems to be robust. Back in December, leading African hotel consulting firm, Hotel Partners Africa, told us that the industry had been performing

SHARP R-21LVF MEDIUM-DUTY COMMERCIAL MICROWAVE OVEN Sharp R-21VLF offers durable quality and easy maintenance with stylish stainless steel interiors. It features super-rugged grab handles, designed to withstand a lifetime of rough handling.

Available from BCE Foodservice Equipment.

Seartec, an old South African company with a new vision to disrupt the status quo. Chief disruptors Mark McChlery and 0800 474 277 Bob Skinstad are the men charged with re-engineering and reigniting the Sharp brand in South Africa. A global brand delivering enquiries@seartec.co.za world class technology and managed business solutions in the office arena. www.seartec.co.za LED Professional Information Display Solutions | Multi Functional Printers | Scientific & Business Calculators Microwaves | Online@SeartecSA Stationery | Biometric Access & Security | | Point of Sale SeartecSA Seartec South Africa enquiries@seartec.co.za | 021 447 2349 www.seartec.co.za facebook.com/SeartecSA @SeartecSA

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 15

BUSINESS PROFILE

strongly in SA. “In the last six months I’ve seen some incredibly exciting news with hotel developments, refurbs and conversions in SA,” said CEO, Mark Martinovic.

BCE is currently faced with two main economic challenges; the exchange rate and driving demand that is constrained by the slow economy.

“We’ve been around for 30 years and any business that’s been around for that time goes through a cycle of growth. The challenge now is to stay on top of the curve and continue growing going forward,” says Engelbrecht “We import a lot of product but we do also manufacture. We have a factory where we manufacture our brand, Anvil. We probably manufacture a range of around 600

16 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

//OUR VALUE IS BUILT ON THOSE THREE PILLARS – QUALITY, SPEED AND FLEXIBILITY// products. A big portion of our sales to customers is international brands and when the currency is volatile it can impact on you severely. You always have to be mindful that you don’t lose margin through not acting quick enough to changes in rates.

“We keep an extensive stock we have over R200 million of stock in our warehouses and we can keep that stock for four to six months so we are able to absorb some shocks.

“We are unique and we supply products that cannot be found elsewhere – we have exclusivity on certain product ranges. Obviously, you have to make sure you meet that price point and do not cause

an oversupply. We also need to remember that all of our competitors are sitting in the same position that we are. For products that we can’t manufacture locally, we have to source internationally and whether that’s through us or our competitors, the exchange rate risk is the same.

“We’ve seen our stock position increase by around 30-40% in value and that has an impact on the overall profitability of your organisation regardless of whether you can pass on price increases.

From a demand perspective, customers have been more reluctant to buy new equipment. In the past, they might have replaced existing

BCE FOODSERVICE EQUIPMENT

equipment but now they will try and repair or switch to cheaper brands.

We are a premium brand. We are not the cheapest in the market and we don’t pretend to be. You do have to pay a premium for quality brands,” he explains.

A QUALITY OFFERING BCE holds the vision of ‘becoming Africa’s and the Indian Ocean Island’s leading supplier of industrial catering services and equipment though supplying only reliable, best of breed products at competitive rates and backed up by comprehensive after sales service’.

With a strong footprint and a set of closely held values, the company is certain to continue in its leading role in the industry. Three factors that are recognised internally and externally as traits of BCE success are quality, speed

//WE KEEP AN EXTENSIVE STOCK - WE HAVE OVER R200 MILLION OF STOCK IN OUR WAREHOUSES//

simple as possible. We have a 24-hour delivery period, we provide warranties on all our products, we provide quality brands many of which are international brands, we offer repairs and servicing with a 48-hour turnaround, and we offer customers 30-day payment terms. Our customers don’t need to keep stock of any items and this is a big advantage for smaller players in the market.

“Our critical mass gives us an advantage. We ship around three or four 40 foot containers a day and that’s a significant volume. We have a good relationship with many factories across the globe and they will manufacture for us on demand. We have an office in China with quality engineers that go and ensure products adhere to SA

and flexibility and today, the company’s size also helps it dominate the market.

“Our value is built on those three pillars – quality, speed and flexibility,” says Engelbrecht.

“Our value proposition is quite unique to our customers. We have a wide range of stock and we are like a one-stop-shop. Any customer of ours can pick up the phone and order an entire range from us instead of going to 15 or 20 different suppliers. Looking at our competitors, there’s no one in SA who can do what we do to the extent that we do. We do have competitors in each of the markets but no one keeps the range that we do. Our promise to our customers is basically to make life as

Vacuum sealers

MADE IN ITALY SINCE 1894

BCE AND TrE SpADE: 30 YEArS oF EXCELLENCE, ToGETHEr Meat mincers

Sausage fillers

Meat tenderizer

www.trespade.it

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 17

BUSINESS PROFILE

standards. Smaller dealers cannot go through the all the legislation that comes with importing equipment but we are ready to do so.”

Another big contributor to BCE’s success is that the company can very quickly build this business with small dealers all over the country. Currently, BCE has around 700 customers or dealers buying from it and it’s very easy for a dealer to set up a dealership because they don’t have to invest in stock – they buy directly from BCE. “We’ve made an effort in the last couple of years to build closer relationships with dealers. One of our strategic goals is to move closer to the end user. We’re trying to get end users to register their products online to secure warranties and get a better

idea of exactly where products end up,” explains the MD. COOKING UP A BRIGHT FUTURE BCE is extremely well positioned to grow significantly as we move through 2016 and further. The company’s catalogue, widely regarded as the ‘industry bible’ is packed full with world class products and each product is back up by the BCE promise of quality, speed and flexibility. With expansion in Africa already underway, the next step is looking internationally and the company has in the past stated its intention of going global. As mentioned previously, the currency market situation makes SA goods attractive to foreign investors and BCE has identified

European and South American markets as those with potential.

“The way that we’ve grown for the last 30 years is by adding products to our range but we’ve now reached the stage where it’s difficult to add new products as we have most of the products available. So the only way to grow is to expand geographically or to grow through acquisition,” concludes Engelbrecht.

BCE FOODSERVICE EQUIPMENT 0800 332 537 www.bce.co.za

//EXPLORA: THE ULTIMATE COOKING EXPERIENCE The professional cooking world is a world of continuing evolution, where innovation plays a significant role. Chefs and Master Pastry Chefs increasingly rely on technology to achieve high performance and new taste horizons.

control multiple machines and you can control those machines remotely ensuring maximum freedom in managing the various cooking parameters.”

Explora is available in standard or compact versions and are 100% Made in Italy. Explora is set to revolutionize the world of professional cooking.

How? We asked David Tommasin, Project Manager of Piron: “Explora is the future of ovens. It grows with the Chef, offering constant support that is practical and up to date. During its design and development we wondered what the real needs of those who work in the field of gastronomy and bakery could be and we created a product tailored around them. The most innovative aspect of Explora is undoubtedly the software, designed and developed internally by Piron. It can be continually updated, allows you to

So far so good but how much does it consume?

Mauro Brigo, Chief Mechanical Engineer at Piron had this to say: “Explora allows you to save energy in several ways; by the use of LED lighting, the insertion of a special system of fans and heating elements, and the choice of an innovative material that is especially insulating. Also, thanks to an advanced monitoring system, the user can keep under control, in real-time, the energy and water consumption.”

Explora can pave the way to a new way of conceiving the cooking experience.

Explora’s software platform, in fact, was created with the objective to be progressively implemented and updated according to the needs of users. Its smart It is in this context that Piron rises to the occasion. graphics interface makes it simple and intuitive to Piron, a dynamic Italian company, that manufactures ovens for professional cooking has made innovation its customize cooking parameters and to consult the primary objective. They have been working with BCE to multilingual cookbook features with visual recipes, provide cutting-edge solutions that meet the needs of broken down by categories and bookmarks with quick search tool. It is possible to program up to 30 professionals in the fields of gastronomy and baking.

It is precisely because of this strong link with its South cooking phases, mixable and preset, programmable directly from the ultra-sensitive glass touch screen of African partner that Piron will launch its newest the oven or remotely by smartphone or tablet. innovation Explora, this fall, in South Africa.

18 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

To know more you’ll just have to wait for the launch.

EXPLORA a new cooking universe The future is in your hands

Easy to use, programmable in just a few clicks and able to be remote controlled, the Explora is an oven made to order for cooking professionals.

Flip through the multilanguage recipe database with visual recipes, select your cooking phases and enjoy your ultimate cooking experience!

facebook.com/piron.ovens

instagram.com/piron.ovens

youtube.com/PironOvens

linkedin.com/company/piron

www.piron.it/en Speak about it with us #piron #pironovens #explorasolution

MATUS

Leading Distributor of Hardworking Brands

Eyes Growth PRODUCTION: David Napier

The mission of leading hardware supplier, Matus, is ‘to be the supplier/distributor of choice of tools, hardware and related equipment’. In the last 74 years, the company has so far achieved this aim and is now looking for new opportunities and growth as they move towards a bright future.

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 21

BUSINESS PROFILE

//

Not many companies have a history that is as long and as winding as that of Matus. One of the top names in hardware distribution, Matus was founded in Johannesburg in 1942. Two brothers, Lukie and Sam Matus, started the business and after mergers, changes of ownership, streamlining and booming turnover, the company has grown to become what is today a resilient, preferred supplier to the industrial, construction, engineering, agricultural, retail DIY and mining sectors.

Next year, Matus will be 75 years old and, just like in the early days, there’s no sign of slowing down for this ambitious organisation. Now targeting other

sub-Saharan African markets and looking at bolstering its product range and online channels, Matus is in an exciting period and CEO Greg Young is enthusiastic about the future. “ The reason our staff come to work is a little more than just collecting a salary,” he says. “We get our people to envisage more than just selling a tool. Whether it’s a pair of pliers or a trowel or a paint brush, we exist to help people build a better house or a school or a hospital – that’s where all our products go and it’s an important part of the ethos of our business.”

BUILDING & GROWING The Matus product range is made up of over 16,000 lines and includes

www.truweld.com Manufacturer - Wholesaler - Exporter

ALPEX PTE LTD

35 Tannery Rd #07-01, Singaore 347740

email: sales@truweld.com Tel: (65) 6345 4780 Fax: (65) 6345 4781

22 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

power tools, air tools, compressors, generators, adhesives, welding and safety equipment, abrasives, garden tools, locks, tools and hardware, electrical, drill bits, fastener and fittings. Operating a wholesale model, Matus partners with hardware stores around the country and going forward, the plan is to add new products to its extremely strong range.

“The product range which includes hand tools and power tools is now being substantially enhanced. New product categories have been identified which will create significant opportunities for the business to grow,” says Young.

“We are further targeting the DIY market to include into our offering, a vast array of consumables,” he adds.

Euromonitor International detailed in its 2016 report on the home and garden sector that despite the slow economic situation, ‘home and garden continued to witness positive growth owing to the rising demand for consumer goods’. Young agrees that the economy is a challenge but there are opportunities.

“In this difficult economy, there is an opportunity especially in the lower-LSM market where there is growth. People are looking after their homes and always still strive for home improvements. This ties in with the purpose of Matus in terms of building a better South Africa,” he says.

And it’s not just South Africa where Matus is helping to build a better future. The brand has moved across the border and now operates successfully in two neighbouring countries with plans to increase its African footprint in the near future.

BUILDING IN AFRICA “We have built strong relationships in several countries in Africa and off our solid foundation, vast

MATUS

//YES WE’RE IN THE DEPTHS OF THE BOTTOM OF THE CYCLE BUT IT IS A CYCLE AND WE NEED TO LOOK THROUGH THE CYCLE TO PLAN HOW WE WILL GROW OUR BUSINESS// infrastructure and comprehensive product offering, we have the ability to serve several new markets that we have identified. We plan to roll out the new market initiative over the next two years,” explains Young.

Africa represents a huge opportunity for Matus and similar

organisations that operate within the wider retail sector. The growing middle class and the rising wages in progressive economies such as Kenya, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Tanzania make for a new generation of DIY consumers; and then there’s the industrial construction sectors which are

thriving as Africa receives ongoing FDI as one of the last playing fields for major development projects.

Globally, in 2014, the DIY/home improvement world market turnover reached approximately €399 billion but Africa was not a significant part of this growth with North America and Europe combined representing

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 23

BUSINESS PROFILE

94% of this world market, although their joint population accounts for only 22.7% of the world population. As economies on the continent grow and general demand for retail solutions develops (with construction and home improvement being a part of that), it is vital to gain first mover advantage.

INDUSTRY LEADING RANGE One of the key drivers behind the success of Matus to date is its unparalleled product range.

Supplying everything from overalls to welding machines, Matus can meet any demand that might arise from a professional contractor to a one-off DIY project.

“Matus is the proud brand owner and product developer of sought after brands such as MTS, MAT-WELD, MAT-SAFE, MAT-AIR, Fox Tools and Fox Abrasives.

“At the higher end, we have high quality products for which we are distributors, brands such as Hitachi Power Tools, SykesPickavant, GROZ, Stahlwille and RACO, all international brands

24 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

//SOUTH AFRICA HAS BEEN THROUGH MANY CHALLENGES; MATUS HAS BEEN THERE IN THAT TIME AND WE PLAN TO BE HERE FOR AT LEAST ANOTHER 70 YEARS// that we have exclusive local responsibility for. We also have an array of other brands where we are the non-exclusive distributor and in most cases, are the largest distributor of these brands in South Africa. They include, Sellotape, Stanley, Gedore, Black & Decker and many more. It’s because of this that we are known as a one stop supplier for tools, hardware and related equipment,” explains Young.

“Our new product lines will target the broad spectrum of end users from the DIY enthusiast all the way through to the professional user serving the manufacturing and construction industries,” he says.

Helping to make the enviable range even more successful in the country’s hardware stores, Matus is frequently investing in its distribution channels, both

physically and digitally.

“Some time ago, Matus invested in a website called tradecounter. co.za, at the moment it’s just a reference page where any end user can go online and find out details about all of our products and where they can be purchased.

“We most certainly do not sell directly to the end user but we do want to be able to market to them. One of our objectives in the next two years is to improve the functionality of that website to give the end user a lot more information about our products and help them to compare. We believe that there’s an opportunity for a win-win with our current customers as this website can make their stores a whole lot bigger by customers being able to identify products online,” says Young.

MATUS

This online service is being developed with the customer very much in mind. Partnering to best suit the end user is of benefit to both Matus and its existing customers. This is why the company is also looking at rolling out a digital training scheme. This platform will not only help develop the end users product knowledge but also educate our customer’s sales staff, a move which is certain to drive sales.

“It’s very important for us to build a relationship with not only our customers but our customer’s sales staff and the end user. We want to build loyalty through a training initiative where we can deliver a lot of information regarding our products through an online training portal. We can also reward our customer’s staff for going onto that website to complete the training by allowing them to earn points. The more they know about the product, the better equipped they are to sell that product and that benefits not only our customers but ourselves,” the CEO explains.

7 DECADES OF SUCCESS Despite the positive environment that Matus has created for itself, there’s no hiding from the fact that the SA economy is currently not performing well. Unemployment is high, the Rand trades low and general confidence is waning. This creates a difficult environment for businesses that are looking for growth. However, Young is bullish about the future, saying that when the economy inevitably returns to strong positive growth, Matus will be well-positioned to build on its considerable market share.

“The SA economy is driven a lot through mining and that whole cycle; yes we’re in the depths of the bottom of the cycle but it is a cycle and we need to look through the cycle to plan how we will grow our business,” he says. “ Things are tough now and probably will be for the next year or two but the cycle will turn and we will be prepared for that in the industrial sector and the DIY segment.”

A big part of the company’s success in these less than favourable times comes from its

history. This is a brand that is well known in the market; it has a loyal set of partners and it is responsible for products that will always be required. This all stems from hard work over the years and this will be the base of the business going forward.

“Matus being a sizeable organisation; has the ability to see the difficult times through and we’ve been around for 70 years.

South Africa has been through many challenges; Matus has been there in that time and we plan to be here for at least another 70 years. We are very responsible in the way that we trade and we make sure that we add value to our customers,” Young concludes.

MATUS +27 (11) 681 9100 info@matus.co.za www.matus.co.za

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 25

© SKA

SKA PROJECT

MeerKAT Makes Stellar Discoveries as

Progress Gathers Pace

PRODUCTION: Karl Pietersen

SKA (Square Kilometre Array) will be the world’s most powerful radio telescope - one hundred times more sensitive than any current radio telescope; it will revolutionise our understanding of the Universe. It is currently being built in South Africa’s Karoo desert and progress in 2016 has been swift.

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 27

BUSINESS PROFILE

//

South Africa is today one of the world’s premier destinations for technology development and despite its position on the map (isolated from many advanced nations) and its economic situation, which leaves much to be desired, some of the world’s most important technological developments are happening here.

Some of the largest and fastest 3D printers in the world are being made in SA, the fastest super computer in Africa was recently unveiled, the world land speed record will be attempted later this year, rockets and satellites have been launched into space by SA-born Elon Musk, the CAT scan that helps medical professionals all over the world is from SA, the world’s first heart transplant was performed in SA and many more science and technology innovations emerge from South Africa through its people.

Ongoing since 1993, the SKA project is perhaps one of South Africa’s most prestigious science and technology developments. When complete and fully commissioned for scientific operations in 2030, the SKA telescope will be the world’s largest and most powerful radio telescope.

Made up of a collection of different antenna spread across Africa and Australia (more than 130,000 in total), the SKA telescope will help to answer fundamental questions about the laws of nature such as how did the Universe form and evolve? Was Einstein’s theory of relativity correct?

What is the nature of ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’? Is there life somewhere else in the Universe? Put simply, the SKA Project is a science mega project which requires the development and use of the most advanced technology.

Constructed in a number of phases, the telescope will be one of the most advanced developments ever devised by humans and will be centred around South Africa.

Back in August 2015, Enterprise

28 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

Africa profiled the success of the project so far and found that construction of the SKA precursor telescope, the MeerKAT (64 interlinked receptors), was underway and looking good. MeerKAT Project Manager, Willem Esterhuyse said: “MeerKAT will be a world-class instrument that will allow us to perform hugely exciting science observations – truly a national facility to be proud of.”

But since then there has been much progress. The project has moved very quickly and many developments have been seen, both on site in SA and also at the SKA headquarters in Manchester, UK. AWARD WINNING At the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction (SAISC) steel awards in September 2015, the MeerKAT project partners received many accolades for their work in designing and constructing the various steel components that are part of the MeerKAT array.

The project team is made up of Stratosat Datacom, General Dynamics Satcom Technologies (US), Tricom, Vertex Antennas (Germany), Efficient Engineering and Joesa Painting.

All of the steel parts of the antenna are extremely complex and require specific engineering that is not your everyday sort of operation.

The elliptically shaped support structure has a finished mass of more than 25 tons and each structure is made up of 6000 initial steel parts which are either welded or bolted

into larger assemblies.

“The engineering, detailing, jig fabrication and construction move these structures into a different league from your run-of-the-mill tubular truss type project. The accuracy of dimensions after erection is critical to give the radio telescope maximum chance of achieving its unimaginable expected accuracy,” the judges said.

“A scientific project of this nature that taxes the skills of South African engineers and scientists to rise above the challenges and make it work, represents excellence in every way, but it is especially a triumph in the use of steel work and is truly deserving of being the Overall Winner of the 2015 Steel Awards.”

Thanks to this acute attention to detail and rigorous process planning, the instrument that is currently taking shape in the Karoo has already proven its worth, despite barely being an instrument yet.

NEW IMAGES Currently in its final preconstruction phase (or detailed design phase), the design of the telescope is being fine-tuned before construction of SKA1 starts in 2018.

In April, 19 of the 64 MeerKAT antenna had been installed in the Karoo.

In May, hundreds of researchers and astronomers from around the world gathered in Stellenbosch to talk about the potential of MeerKAT and what it can be used for. At the same time, engineers and scientists

//WE’RE CONFIDENT THE SELECTED DESIGN WILL PERFORM WELL IN THE HARSH CONDITIONS OF THE KAROO IN SOUTH AFRICA AND WILL DELIVER THE PRECISION THAT THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY NEEDS TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THEY’RE TRYING TO SOLVE//

STOCKHOLM

AMSTERDAM LONDON

North America

FRANKFURT

Paris

Geneva MARSEILLES Sexial

The Backbone of Africa Fujairah

2

MUMBAI

4 DJIBOUTI

5

Lagos Accra

KAMPALA

Asia Pacific

NAIROBI

3 MOMBASA DAR ES SALAAM KIJITONYAMA

POINT OF PRESENCE (PoP) Transmission

Zobue

1

POINT OF PRESENCE (PoP) Transmission and IP

SEACOM PARTNER NETWORK

1

Main ONE

2

Mutare MAPUTO Beitbridge

MEET ME POINT (MMP) SEACOM NETWORK

SEACOM Milange

ISANDO Ramatlabama Onskeepkans

MIDRAND Mahamba

WACS

3

TEAMS

4

EASSY

5

MTUNZINI YZERFONTEIN

DURBAN

CAPE TOWN

First Telecommunications and Internet Service Provider in Africa to: / provide international sub-sea optical fibre connectivity to the east coast © Shell of the continent / significantly lower communications costs through an open-access network model / remove national and international infrastructure bottlenecks by providing city-to-city bundled pricing / facilitate research & education through sub-cost bandwidth

seacom.mu

info@seacom.mu

BUSINESS PROFILE

© SKA

//MEERKAT WILL BE A WORLD-CLASS INSTRUMENT THAT WILL ALLOW US TO PERFORM HUGELY EXCITING SCIENCE OBSERVATIONS – TRULY A NATIONAL FACILITY TO BE PROUD OF// in the SKA office in Cape Town were testing the imaging capabilities of MeerKAT using just four of the already installed dishes. Needless to say, the results were astounding and detailed images of never before seen radio galaxies in the distant universe were met with celebration by the scientific community.

“This wonderful result has enormous significance,” said Prof Justin Jonas, Associate Director for

30 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

Science and Engineering, SKA South Africa. “Just 10 years ago I would not have imagined that we would be hosting such a prestigious meeting in South Africa and building a world-leading radio telescope. This image and all that lies behind it adds to our confidence that this very complex project will be the success that we have been planning for over the past decade.”

Dr Fernando Camilo, SKA South

Africa Chief Scientist, who only joined the organisation in February following a distinguished career at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and Columbia University in New York, was understandably excited, saying: “This image covers less than 0.01% of the entire celestial sphere.

Given that we detect more than 50 galaxies in such a small patch of sky, observed with only four dishes, imagine the discoveries that are going to be made surveying the entire South African sky with the full 64-dish MeerKAT!” Dr Rob Adam, SKA South Africa Project Director paid tribute to the hard work that has been undertaken by all stakeholders to date. “It is a testament to the dedicated work of hundreds of engineers,

SKA PROJECT

scientists, managers and other staff, as well as of the South African and international industrial partners, and the support of the government and people of South Africa for more than a decade,” he says.

SKA DESIGN FINALISED The KAT-7 and MeerKAT precursors offering just a glimpse of what will be available when the SKA is complete, understandably work is moving at an ever increasing pace. Experts from all over the world are regularly visiting South Africa, Australia and the SKA offices, engineers and scientists are in constant contact from around the world and all stakeholders are being regularly updated and informed about the significance of the previous stage and the importance of the next.

In May 2016, the design for the SKA dish was finalised meaning

that construction of the dishes can begin and when construction of the complete array starts, the design of the dish will be ready to go.

After exploring different designs from Canada, China and South Africa, with components supplied by partners in Germany and Australia, the SKA Dish Consortium Board (made up of institutes from Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Italy and South Africa) agreed that the Chinese-designed Panel, Space-frame supported Metal (PSM) concept would be most suitable.

Head of Project at SKA Organisation, Alistair McPherson said: “This decision is a major milestone towards delivering the SKA. Being able to ‘see’ what the SKA dishes will look like for the first time is a big satisfaction for all involved.”

Roger Franzen, SKA Dish

Consortium Lead said: “We’re confident the selected design will perform well in the harsh conditions of the Karoo in South Africa and will deliver the precision that the scientific community needs to answer the questions they’re trying to solve.”

“The next step for us is to build and test a prototype at the South African site” he said.

The prototype will be called SKA-P and is led by JLRAT/CETC54 in collaboration with European companies MTM and Società Aerospaziale Mediterranea (SAM), and the assembly, integration and verification of SKA-P will be done on site together with SKA SA team.

“We expect the installation of SKA-P on the ground to happen by spring 2017. Once satisfied with its performance, the project will be in a good position to go to tender

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 31

BUSINESS PROFILE

and issue the contract for the mass production of 133 dishes to make up SKA1-mid,” said Franzen.

A BUSY YEAR 2016 is set to be an extremely busy year at SKA SA headquarters.

Following the success of the project so far, there is still so much left to do and a mega-project still lays in front of the team as we look forward to 2030 and full operations.

SKA Phase 1 will implement around 10% of the total collecting area of the second phase. 190 SKAmid dishes will be built and South Africa’s 64-antenna, mid-frequency radio telescope array, MeerKAT, will be incorporated into the array to provide a 254-dish array. The MeerKAT dishes are very similar

to the SKA dishes, and the design of the SKA dishes will be strongly influenced by the MeerKAT design.

“Within the coming year MeerKAT will join the ranks of worldclass astronomical facilities,” said Dr Camilo. “It’s extraordinary how much has been accomplished in South African radio astronomy over the past decade, through the hard work and dedication of numerous engineers, managers, scientists, and SKA South Africa partners, all supported by the South African government and people. MeerKAT and the related SKA activities provide outstanding scientific opportunities, as well as uniquely important channels for the development of human capital at various levels within the country. Much remains to

be done, but the future looks very promising, these are exciting times.

I’m happy to have the opportunity to join my colleagues in South Africa and help make this promise a reality.”

Dr Bernie Fanaroff, outgoing Project Director who was replaced

by Rod Adam, said: “It has been a wonderful project to build the biggest science instrument in Africa.

The SKA SA team is definitely one of the best in the world and is widely recognised as such.”

SKA PROJECT +44 (0)161 306 9600 enquiries@skatelescope.org skatelescope.org

© SKA

32 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

connect your future

A dynamic new market leader has emerged Following the integration of Dimension Data’s Advanced Infrastructure operation and Plessey, a dynamic new market leader has emerged; one that remains focused on the planning, building and support of innovative ICT infrastructure and one that is now bigger and stronger, with a broader range of innovative end-to-end solutions for a wider market across Africa.

Plessey is a company with a distinguished heritage and an exciting future. Founded almost a century ago in 1917, Plessey has been operating in Africa for over 50 years and continues to thrive in a rapidly changing industry by anticipating trends, evolving and expanding its service offerings to meet client needs.

Plessey offers a broad range of end-to-end integrated solutions to connect you to the future.

Our Mission To connect Africa through solutions that demonstrates Innovative thinking and best practice, that reflects in the structures we build, the technology we provide and the way we support and manage it for our clients.

Contact Us

Tel:+27 (0)11 655 1700 | Fax:+27 (0)11 655 1700 | Email: Info@plessey.co.za | Web: www.plessey.co.za

© Shell

VAN SCHAIK BOOKSTORE

Van Schaik:

‘A Higher Purpose Than Just Making Profit’ PRODUCTION: David Napier

With a substantial presence in SA and a growing footprint on the continent, Van Schaik Bookstore is now the go-to resource when it comes to academic textbooks and related products. Servicing institutions, professionals and students for more than 100 years, this is a company that knows how to succeed.

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 35

BUSINESS PROFILE

//

Book publishing is a changing market place, perhaps more so than any other established industry. The rise of technology has catalysed this change. Information is now more readily available than ever, questions and conclusions are more condensed and people don’t like to spend any time waiting for answers.

It’s a natural assumption that the traditional old book may be nearing its extinction; today’s information often comes in just 140 characters, it is just a few clicks away. But does the rise of technology inevitably mean the demise of the book? Well, if you look at information from PWC on global book sales revenue, you’ll find that the development of technology seems to be helping to develop the publishing world. Of all book types (consumer print, educational print,

36 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

professional print, consumer eBook, educational eBook, professional eBook), eBooks in each segment are the only formats that are set to record growth from 2013 to 2018. Globally, educational print book revenue is set to fall in that period by US $1.6 billion to US $33 billion. In the eBook segment, educational book revenue is set to increase by US $2.9 billion to US $5.3 billion.

In South Africa, one of the leading bookstores, focussing on educational text, is Van Schaik. Founded in 1914 by Johannes Lambertus van Schaik in Church Street, Pretoria, Van Schaik has, for the past century, been working towards its vision of becoming ‘Africa’s preferred supplier of academic resources’.

Managing Director, Stephan Erasmus tells Enterprise Africa that

books certainly still have a lot to offer and whether in print or online, there is no comparison when it comes to sequentially building a robust knowledge base.

“The perception is that you can Google anything and you can find things for free but that’s a misconception,” he says. “Text books give you the framework; if you know what question to ask you can probably find the answer online but when you start studying, you don’t even know what the question is. That is why people go to universities, that’s why they need a lecturer and that’s why they need a text book – to give them a frame and a guideline. There’s a sequence of things that need to be studied and learned, and principles that need to be engraved before you can make informed decisions

VAN SCHAIK BOOKSTORE

and that’s what a university and a text book gives you. Everything is packaged in the right format and ready to study in the right order so that you can build knowledge and wisdom in the correct way. Yes, you can find information online and if you search long enough you can probably find it for free but that’s not what studying is. Studying is to build knowledge in a sequential and logical format. The textbook is the perfect packaged format, authored by experts, edited and published by people who know what they’re doing, and we bring those products to the market.”

WRITING HISTORY Four years after opening in Pretoria, in 1918, Van Schaik began supplying textbooks to local primary schools and, realising the potential of this new market, Johannes van Schaik decided to focus solely on educational textbooks.

Even in the very early days of Van Schaik it was clear that this was a company that would lead. In 1942, Van Schaik started making titles available in African languages – a bold move considering the political situation at the time. In 1960, Johannes was awarded a medal of honour by the SA Academy for his contribution to the development of the book industry. In 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 Van Schaik was awarded the much sought after Sefika Academic Bookseller of the Year Award, presented by the South African Bookseller’s Association.

In 2008, the online store was launched and Van Schaik also opened stores on previously disadvantaged campuses such as The University of Zululand. In 2013, Van Schaik responded to the shifting and changing marketplace by adding e-textbook solutions to its product portfolio.

Today, paper text books are still the main product line for Van Schaik and are sold to meet the needs of

certain courses, as set out by the different universities and institutions.

“We supply books to students studying at academic institutions.

The lecturer will adopt the book, use it in the class as a guideline for the course and the student will then buy the book. The need is created by the institution, lecturer or market,” says Erasmus.

“We sell books from all the big international publishers. We get the top books that you’d find in the US or the UK and those are the things that the academics want to use. 35% of the product we sell is imported directly.

There are some books that are printed locally and are edited to suit the local market but are published by Oxford University Press.”

It is clear to see the importance and the impact that Van Schaik has had over the years. Now with

a presence in almost all of the educational centres around South Africa, both private and public, this bookstore is helping to shape our leaders of the future.

GROWTH & EXPANSION The future for Van Schaik is perhaps not as easily mapped out as it would be for other companies. Having grown in a careful and considered manner over the past 100 years, today the business is forced to look further afield, beyond South Africa’s borders, for real growth opportunities. This is because the company is so closely linked to education and it already has a strong presence across the country’s university and college network.

“Growth opportunities are limited,” says Erasmus. “There’s 26 official public institutions of higher education in South Africa. We’ve got 65 shops, some

A Range of Colour...

Variety is the colour of life

And with Marlin and Marlin Kids’ wide range of stationery items and its footprint countrywide, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be speaking to us:

HEAD OFFICE TEL: 032 459 2820 | FAX: 032 459 3255 careline@freedomstationery.co.za

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 37

BUSINESS PROFILE

Stephan Erasmus

of our stores are on campus and there might be three or four campuses so we have outlets across all of the locations.

Because of this, we need to look to Africa in order to grow. We do have an offering into sub-Saharan Africa through our online service but right now that’s not big business.

“We have two stores in Namibia, one in Botswana and four in Swaziland.

In 2006 we opened our first store in Namibia but since then we’ve only opened in Botswana and Swaziland so the idea to expand in Africa is still underway. We’ve commissioned new market research recently but that’s as far as we’ve gone; we haven’t made any

38 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

firm decisions on any country.”

But growing in Africa is not as simple as it might seem. While many companies make the move across the border, there are many tales of failure alongside the much-publicised success stories. Because of this, Van Schaik takes a measured approach to cross border expansion.

“Before we open a shop in an African country we do extensive market research. We use external research companies and we visit the countries to build up contacts. We look at the opportunities regarding availability of funding. It’s no use going to a country, opening a shop and people don’t buy

products. If there’s no need for academic books and there’s not a culture of buying then it’s useless opening a shop.

“We look at is there a culture of book use, is there a culture of adoption at academic institutions, is there proper funding available. We look at this size of the institution, where is the concentration of students, can we bring the relevant product to the country cost-effectively. You have to tread very carefully as getting stock on time through the ports and airports can become very difficult,” explains Erasmus.

“We’ve been looking at Africa for many years and it can sometimes take many years to open a shop. We were

VAN SCHAIK BOOKSTORE

talking to the University of Swaziland for many years and finally last year the opportunity came up and we opened four stores there. Obviously, everybody wants to be in Nigeria where there are huge population numbers but that isn’t always the best choice in terms of selling academic books.

“You need connectivity; you have to look at market size, ease of doing business, regulatory requirements, local shareholders, import duties, taxes; so you have to be very careful and take all of these things into consideration,” he says.

READING THE ECONOMY Another significant factor that is impacting on everyone’s growth and expansion just now is the economy.

We’ve reported many stories of how it has hit some companies hard and how others have managed to not only survive but thrive in these tough times. Erasmus explains that while Van Schaik has been exposed to macro problems that are somewhat out of its control, it has used its large footprint to dilute the effect on the business.

“The last three years have been tough from a sales and profit perspective,” he says. “We’ve been growing as we’ve opened more stores and entered new countries but in the local market is very tough. The ‘fees must fall’ campaign gave us problems; two of our stores were destroyed in the unrest and had to be completely rebuilt. Our new stores in Botswana and Swaziland did help us make up for the losses we had in those stores during the unrest.

“The problem in SA and Africa is the volatility of the currencies. Five years ago, the Rand was at 10 to the British Pound. Last year it hit 24 to the Pound. It’s a terrible devaluation and the price we pay for books has more than doubled purely because of the currency weakness. Many developing economies are in the same situation.

“We cover ourselves with regard to the exchange rate. We cannot expose our business to foreign exchange currencies that we have no control over. It becomes very complex and stock control becomes hard,” he adds.

With the economic situation in South Africa looking uncertain in the near future, with many commentators calling it ‘stable’ at best, it’s understandable that markets might fluctuate and, particularly with printed books, people might start looking elsewhere to find information but Erasmus says that ultimately, students will always have to pay for the elite knowledge that will help them through their course.

“The top expert knowledge in any field is still paid for as someone has to go to the effort to write a text book, edit it, market it and package it in the form of a book or eBook,” he says.

Importantly, Van Schaik is not just a bookstore. At locations around the country, and through the excellent website, the company stocks lifestyle-oriented items, general books, laptop computers, tablets, eBooks, software and is continuously expanding the product range. Notably, the aforementioned rise of technology does not seem to be killing off the printed text book.

“Electronics, especially tablets, have grown tremendously in the last few years.

“We haven’t seen the explosion in eBooks in South Africa; it’s not close to 1% of our total turnover,” the MD explains. “There’s many reason for this including connectivity, technology, power and price. Even in the US and the UK eBooks haven’t taken off in the way that people thought they would. In the fiction market, this format is more popular but that’s a totally different market.”

While Van Schaik does offer some fiction and non-educational titles, it’s not a market that the company will

be focussing on or targeting in the future. “There are established players in that market and our shops are on campus. We provide study material and sometimes students won’t even spend their money on the books they need so what are the chances they will spend money on a fiction book. We do offer some products in our stores but it’s less than 2% of our market,” says Erasmus.

Over the past few years the South African government has been asking higher education to play a fundamentally greater role in the development of the country. Today, the demand for higher education is higher than ever. In 2011, almost one million people enrolled at a university or technikon, this is compared to under 500,000 in 1994. Africa has the fastest growing middle class in the world meaning more disposable income and in SA the middle class grew by around 250% between 2004 and 2012. All of these stats are good news for Van Schaik and as a ‘highly respected company with acceptable business ethics and morals’, it looks like we can expect further success from this important organisation.

“We see ourselves as playing an important role in supplying academic material in remote areas of our country.

We believe we contribute towards education and the spreading of quality education in Africa. We open stores in remote locations; in the past we’ve opened stores in containers with aircon, sometimes we’ll have a 3x3m shop, some of our stores are 1000m2 but we do try to get out there and we believe we have a higher purpose than just making profit.,” concludes Erasmus.

VAN SCHAIK BOOKSTORE (021) 951-4049 vsb@vanschaik.com www.vanschaik.com

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 39

TSEBO FACILITIES SOLUTIONS

People With Whom You Can

Build Your Future PRODUCTION: Manelesi Dumasi

“We are part of the Tsebo Group that operates across 25 countries from South Africa all the way to Saudi Arabia. Our group has 34,000 staff members and we use those employees to suit the needs of our clients,” explains Tsebo Facilities Solutions CEO, John Wentzel.

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 41

BUSINESS PROFILE

//

As we discovered last month, the facilities management industry is not an easy place to operate, especially when the economy is performing poorly.

Management are quick to cut spending where possible and this is usually not a wise strategy. Facilities management is today, more than ever, a hugely important factor in the success of any business and when top quality service is provided, companies can thrive and make use of happy employees, happy customers and cost savings and efficiencies.

Offering a unique and industryleading portfolio of services to some of the biggest clients in the industry, Tsebo Facilities Solutions manages more than 4000 sites in Africa across a range of sectors including leisure, retail, commercial, industrial sectors and more. “Our ability to optimise work environments and the supporting services of an organisation enables our clients to achieve their objectives more

42 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

efficiently, and at a lower cost,” the company says.

As part of the Tsebo Outsourcing group, formed in 1971, Tsebo Facilities Solutions has a robust history that can stand up to any other company in the industry.

CEO, John Wentzel explains that the company is demonstrating its strength in a current project in the city of Tshwane.

“The single biggest initiative that we are busy with at this point in time is the construction of Tshwane House which is the municipal headquarters of the City of Pretoria,” he says. “We are part of the consortium that’s building that, it’s costing in excess of R1 billon and we will operate it for 25 years post construction. It should be complete by the end of the year and operation and management of the building will commence in 2017.”

According to the Municipality, ‘Tshwane House, a modern, forwardlooking municipal centre, will bring local government closer to

its people, and is the first step in rejuvenating the inner city.

‘A part of the old Munitoria building was destroyed by fire in March 1997. This block was never rebuilt. As a result, the staff of Munitoria were scattered in the inner-city. The building contained inadequate space regimes, was not environmentally conducive and was not socially cohesive.

‘The scope of the project entails the demolition of the old, inferior Munitoria, a complete new design, construction, financing and other defined services including operations and facilities management’.

HISTORIC STRENGTH Tsebo Facilities Solutions is able to contribute to ‘big name’ projects like this thanks to its track record of consistently dealing with similar clients and its industry-leading reach.

“We’ve been around for a number of years as a division and a group,” says Wentzel. “Many of our clients

TSEBO FACILITIES SOLUTIONS

have been with us for a number of years so the first thing that separates us from our competitors is that we always stand by our clients. Even when the client is going through difficulties, we will stand by them.

“Secondly, the reputation of this group has been built on years of consistent delivery in a manner that our clients know that they can trust.

We are ethical, we have values and we live by those values.

“Thirdly, we have scale. Our ability to provide services is close to unlimited. Whether it’s cleaning or security or catering; whether it’s in Cape Town or Kigali or Congo; we can do everything for you,” he says.

Thanks to this reputation and position in the industry, Wentzel says that the company often does not need to actively market itself through traditional methods as word of

//OUR CORE BUSINESS IS TO ENSURE THAT THE NON-CORE COMPONENTS OF CLIENT’S BUSINESS IS LOOKED AFTER SO THAT THEY CAN FOCUS ON THEIR CORE BUSINESS// mouth and referrals keep the orders rolling in.

MANAGING GROWTH Facilities management is a business that can grow quickly. All it takes is a team with a knowledge of the industry and a list of contacts and a small business can be created. In fact, we often see this happen but unfortunately, the much more difficult task is keeping the company on a growth path. This is something that Tsebo has managed to do consistently for the last decade.

“The Tsebo Group grew out of a

catering business and as it expanded into complimentary services, facilities management was the next company so within the group, facilities management is the second oldest division. We directly employ around 1600 people but we also manage around 5500 sub-contract staff.

“Over the last decade, at group level, we’ve achieved double digit growth consistently irrespective of the economic downturn. Where we are right now, across the African continent, our turnover is measured in billions and the company has exceeded targets over the last ten

Concrete Projects Technical Contractor

Structural Repair / Civils • • • • • •

Structural concrete repair/ investigation Reservoirs Bridges Spalling repairs Crack injection Expansion joints

Flooring Systems • • • •

Epoxy coating flooring Vinyl flooring Concrete floors/ polished concrete finish Industrial flooring

• • • • • •

Bridge jacking and bearing replacement Handrail replacement (Bridges) Steel plating Fire damaged repairs Carbon fiber replacement of steel Rope access

• • • • •

Airport flooring Food processing plant flooring Harbours Terrazzo floors Floor grinding

• •

Rope access Glass fiber linings

Specialist Coatings • • •

Acid tanks Steel tanks Concrete Reservoirs

+27 31 700 2715 admin@cpsc.co.za www.cpsc.co.za 26 Circuit Road, Westmead, Durban, South Africa

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 43

BUSINESS PROFILE

years.

“The underlying challenge that a business like ours always has to face is that our services are delivered through people. Our biggest challenge is ensuring, notwithstanding the myriad of things that go on, that our staff understand that the primary responsibility is to serve the client,” Wentzel explains.

This management of people and instilling the values of the company into employees is a huge part of the

44 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

Tsebo set-up, not just with facilities solutions, but across all divisions of the group.

“Our single most important investment is investment in our people and we measure that by how much we spend on training and development and we consistently spend in excess of 2% of our turnover. That’s to ensure staff are correctly and continually trained,” reiterates Wentzel.

“Because we’re a services business, we don’t invest in

infrastructure. We don’t have fancy building or huge fleets of cars – we work mostly on our client’s sites so we invest in systems as we need to keep track of thousands of sites and people.”

QUALITY SERVICE Over the years, Tsebo has become a trusted name, synonymous with quality and excellence and that reputation was enhanced further earlier this year after the company claimed the winning place in the

TSEBO FACILITIES SOLUTIONS

coveted SAFMA Awards ‘Excellence in FM’ category - the SAFMA Awards’ highest accolade.

Through one of its Public Private Partnerships, Tirasano, Tsebo Facilities Solutions picked up the award at a celebration alongside its peers in Sandton. SAFMA said the company had ‘met and exceeded the expected role of FM within a PPP’.

Achieving success like this pays testament to the unrelenting drive at Tsebo for client satisfaction.

“Our core business is to ensure

that the non-core components of client’s business is looked after so that they can focus on their core business.

“We know that when we manage a hospital our primary mission is to help ensure that patients are cured – everything that we do in a hospital is geared towards achieving a client’s ultimate goal,” says Wentzel.

Providing a full list of soft, hard and business support services, Tsebo Facilities Solutions cites experience from a wide-range of industry

sectors, reinforcing the idea that it can become a valuable partner to companies operating across all different areas.

“We’ve got experience form the last 40 years working across just about every industry – it’s probably easier to list the industries that we haven’t worked in,” says Wentzel.

“We have significant exposure in the facilities management space to financial services, leisure, healthcare, retail, government and the company is also involved in Public Private

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 45

BUSINESS PROFILE

TSEBO FACILITIES SOLUTIONS

Partnerships where we work with partners and governments to create infrastructure so that we can provide to governments in a public-private partnership over a 25-30 year deal term. There isn’t really an industry we haven’t had exposure to over the last 40 years but these are the ones in which we are most active right now.”

THE FUTURE As we discovered last month after speaking to Broll, facilities management does have a big future in Africa. As many big-name international brands are attracted to the continent for its growing populations, growing incomes, growing middle classes and important first mover advantages, facilities managers are seeing highprofile potential customers entering the market. Because of this, Africa forms a big part of the growth strategy for Tsebo Facilities Solutions.

“When we look at the growth we’ve achieved across the African continent, it’s primarily been acquisitive growth. The acquisition targets are identified by each of the individual divisions in the group. For example, the acquisitions we’ve made in West and East Africa were identified by our division. We would do the review, the initial inspection and then we would discuss with the group whether it was appropriate.

“At the facilities solutions division, our focus is on growing the business across the African continent. Whilst the market in Africa for FM is very much in its infancy compared to SA, there’s an opportunity for a major player to emerge and we believe that we are well positioned to be that major player. We have a number of global clients who still look at Africa as a place that growth will come from in the next 10-15 years and we want to position ourselves as a premier facilities management company across the whole continent that can deliver facilities management at global

standards and become the go to company when global companies look to expand here,” explains Wentzel.

Of course, there is also another big factor to consider when planning for growth and that is the ever-increasing influence of technology and its impact on the client. Obviously, it can make things smoother and cheaper from an operational perspective but it can also help to create new customer expectations. Wentzel says that this has been the most significant change in the industry in recent years and the true value of the portfolio of services offered by Tsebo are truly realised when the client engages with the facilities manager, aligning the strategies of both organisations.

“The rate of change and the impact of technology has moved faster than ever. Our clients want things faster, they know more, they have a better understanding of value, complexity in the business has risen exponentially, so clients want us to be more responsive and want innovation.

Because of this, the dynamic of the industry has changed and clients have migrated from viewing facilities management as an off the shelf commodity to understanding that facilities is probably the second most expensive item that a company runs.

If your facilities manager doesn’t understand your strategy then it’s always going to be a weak point.

Our best projects come when we sit with the c-suite of a company and understand their strategy and they understand ours and they learn how we can contribute to their strategy,” he concludes.

TSEBO FACILITIES SOLUTIONS +27 11 441 5300 southafrica@tsebo.com www.tsebo.com

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 47

EDCON

Fresh Strategy Brings Renewed Hope

to Retail Giant PRODUCTION: Manelesi Dumasi

Following a rough few years, the fortunes of Edcon are starting to look up and the company is now implementing a new strategy that will see new stores, new partnerships and new hope for the largest nonfood retailer in South Africa. www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 49

BUSINESS PROFILE

//

Retailing and fashion – two industries that are hugely popular in Africa but two that are rarely fully understood and appreciated. Combining the two is an even more challenging task and it’s something that only a handful of companies have achieved on a mass scale over the years.

Manufacturing fashion items has been a declining sector over the past decade but there are South African manufacturers that have the capacity and capability to produce to international quality standards - in 2013, the Clothing, Textiles, Footwear and Leather (CTFL) industry accounted for about 14% of manufacturing employment and represented South Africa’s second

50 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

largest source of tax revenue.

Of course, Africa and South Africa has had to deal with the rise of the Eastern economies in the clothing sector – places like China, India, Vietnam and Bangladesh can offer products cheaper and often quicker. This has contributed to the downfall of the industry but on the retail side, demand for branded goods has risen, up until 2011/12 when the global financial slowdown caught up with South Africa after the economy’s surge from the FIFA World Cup came to an end.

Overall, the retail sector remains a challenging environment.

The economic conditions are not conducive to strong business growth, the influx of international

brands (across all sectors) has led to more competition and pressure on price and margins, and many of the established players are now looking to Africa for real growth.

Around the world, many recognised brands have fallen thanks to difficult conditions made worse by an inability to stay up with trends and a lack of a digital presence. BHS in the UK, American Apparel in the US and Vroom an d Dressman in the Netherlands have all faced serious financial troubles in the past 12 months.

In 2012, South Africa reported a boom in the retail environment thanks to the development of new shopping malls and retail space and a relatively stable environment and

EDCON

//GROWING WORLD-CLASS SUPPLY CHAINS ADAM ORLIN, HEAD OF INVESTEC IMPORT SOLUTIONS The importance of continually innovating in business is now more important than ever. In fact, companies, irrespective of industry, cannot afford to fall into a routine when it comes to the latest market developments. As a result, unlocking the value chain has become critical as businesses start to view their supply chain processes as real assets, rather than just a means to an end.

For Edcon, unlocking this value has been a significant pillar to their business and Investec Import Solutions is proud to have been a partner of choice since 2012. With over R3 billion of apparel imported from foreign ports to warehouse, Investec Import Solutions provides financial and logistic services to the group.

One of the unique offerings we brought to the table was the ability to localise foreign imports – streamlining processes, mitigating risk and alleviating logistical pain-points. To do so, we import and warehouse stock for up to 3 months, allowing Edcon to replenish stores quickly if sales ramp up, and delay take-up when demand has slowed.

This has been pivotal in maintaining optimal in-store inventory while saving on multiple same-stock imports. In addition, our forex products have provided the ability to commit to a fixed unit price at the time of placing the order, which means hedging the supplier cost and customs duty, along with providing fixed freight rates.

There are many steps involved in importing goods and large retailers cannot afford to get any aspect wrong. Greater visibility for the strategic management of the import supply chain opens up massive growth possibilities – where more visibility means less risk and better forecasting to reduce costs and increase control - something that is very much needed in the current business landscape.

Y&R1505767

We look forward to growing world class supply chain solutions together with one of South Africa’s largest retailers!

Our import division has something to declare Since 2012, Investec Import Solutions has partnered with Edcon to provide financial and logistic services. As with all our import clients, we’re committed to growing world-class supply chain solutions that build long-term relationships and superior companies. We believe we can do the same for you.

Investec Import Solutions – import and working capital specialists.

Visit investec.co.za/importsolutions

Import Solutions

Import Solutions The information contained in this communication is for informative purposes and is not intended to constitute advice in any form, including but not limited to investment, accounting, tax, legal or regulatory advice. The information therefore has no regard to the specific recipient. The material is based upon information that we consider to be reliable, but we do not represent that it is accurate or complete, and it should not be relied upon as such. All illustrations, forecasts or hypothetical data are for illustrative purposes only and are not guaranteed. The sender accepts no liability whatsoever for any loss or damage of any kind arising out of the use of all or any part of this communication. Investec does not make representation that the information provided is appropriate for use in all jurisdictions or by all investors or other potential clients. Parties are therefore responsible for compliance with applicable local laws and regulations. Investec Import Solutions (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of Investec Bank Limited. Reg. No. 2000/022631/07. An Authorised Financial Services Provider. A member of the Investec Group.

1505767B Repro Investec Import Edcon 100x144.indd 1

2016/07/04 11:12 AM

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 51

BUSINESS PROFILE

Edcon, perhaps one of the most recognised portfolios in SA, looked to take advantage. The company is the largest clothing, footwear and textiles (CFT ) retailing group in South Africa and in 2012 had an estimated 31% of market share.

With around 1400 stores operating in South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Swaziland and Lesotho, Edcon has, through its acquisitions, a dded top stationery and houseware brands as well as general merchandise to its CFT portfolio.

The company also provides credit facilities and financial service products to a robust client base of over four million card holders.

Under the Edcon stable, you’ll find household names such as Edgars, Red Square, Boardmans, Edgars Active, Jet, Legit, CNA and top international brands including Topshop Topman, Dune London, T.M. Lewin, Lipsy and MAC. But since 2012, the group registered some results that caused concern amongst stakeholders.

After losing market share following the entrance of international players to the sub-Saharan Africa markets, credit sales (traditionally Edcons strength) began to fall and the company’s debt increased.

Its American owners, Bain Capital Partners, looked for a turnaround in fortunes in 2015 and installed Bernard Brookes at the helm, replacing Jurgen Schreiber, and the former CEO of Australia’s department store Myer quickly set about developing a turnaround strategy.

“We are very pleased to have Bernie joining the team. He has

//HE HAS SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCE NOT ONLY IN APPAREL RETAILING IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE BUT ALSO SPECIFICALLY DEPARTMENT STORES AND EMERGING MARKETS// significant experience not only in apparel retailing in the southern hemisphere but also specifically department stores and emerging markets,” said Edcon Chairman, Dwight Poler.

FRESH STRATEGY One of the first areas that Brookes addressed was the credit offering.

“Customers at the lower LSM level don’t have an interest in taking credit as they are worried about the state of the economy and the influence on them. Then we have customers in the higher LSM segment that are not using all the credit that is available to them.

At some of our stores, up to 40% of credit that is available to them they are not using,” he told Moneyweb earlier this year.

“Future growth is going to come from cash sales, as we cannot rely on credit sales to drive top-line growth,” he added.

And his strategy was successful with Edcon growing retail cash sales by 4% and cash sales contributing 62% to total sales. The company also managed to make a R2.9 billion profit for the three months to December 26 2015.

“As we continue the journey of recalibrating our business model, management roles and reporting responsibilities

//WE HAVE INITIATED A PROCESS OF IMPROVING EFFICIENCIES, ELIMINATING COMPLEXITIES AND REFLECTING A SIMPLER MORE AGILE STRUCTURE THAT POSITIONS US FOR GROWTH// 52 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

have already been improved at our head office to ensure the successful delivery of our strategic objectives,” explained Brookes.

“Linked to this, we have initiated a process of improving efficiencies, eliminating complexities and reflecting a simpler more agile structure that positions us for growth. The restructuring and new operating model will allow us to be more agile, with less layers and allows the various Group teams to be responsible for their overall success. We are embarking on a differentiated customer service proposition, a focus on omni-Channel, our vast loyalty membership (which exceeds 12 million loyalty customers) and a far more efficient sourcing strategy.

“Our ultimate objective is to ensure a far simpler business focus across the Group, to enable us to enhance the focus on customers.”

Brookes focus on the small details was enhanced further in June when Richard Vaughan was appointed Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Edcon Holdings and Edcon Limited boards. Having previously served as deputy group CFO for four years, Vaughan is well qualified.

A Chartered Accountant and a veteran of roles in positions at Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, the company sees Vaughan as the ‘logical choice’.

AGENCY APPOINTMENTS In a customer-focused move, Edcon has made a number of significant agency appointments in the past few months as it looks to solidify

EDCON

its image and reputation both internally and externally while controlling costs.

Just last month, Edcon announced the appointment of Young and Rubicam (Y&R), Promise Brand Specialists (Promise) and The Publishing Partnership (TPP) as its new advertising partners for Edgars Division, Specialty Division and Edgars & Jet Club Magazine publishing, respectively.

The company also announced the appointment of Joe Public as the advertising partner for Edcon’s Discount Division.

Making better use of marketing technology and data at its disposal will be a new focus for the Edcon group. “We have used customer data to build new strategies and target markets for each brand. This is a

TR

UE

EDCON +27 (0)13 758 1015 customerrelations@edcon.co.za www.edcon.co.za

TRUVAL MANUFACTURER’S

RU

RT

FO

AL EV

GROWTH PLANS Edcon’s strategy is growth through four key identified pillars: comparable store growth, new space growth, margin expansion and credit. The company is reportedly targeting 60 new store opening across SA and Africa in the next two years and is also hopes to launch new websites and partner with more local brands.

The company’s vision is to ensure that Edcon’s stores remain ‘The Places to Go’ in chosen markets and to entrench its position as southern Africa’s largest nonfood retailer will come one step closer when these investments are realised.

It’s important for the excellence of this true South African success story to continue. Home to 20,000 permanent and 25,000 temporary employees, this is a business that has been around for almost 90 years. Thankfully, with the new strategy from Brooks and key appointments at both senior management level and with external agencies, it looks like Edcon can continue planning for a successful future.

Manufacturer, Wholesaler & Distributor of ladies, men’s girls & boy’s casual and formal wear

299C

1

313C

AL V U

multifaceted change, repositioning most of our brands.” said Brookes.

2

231C 213C 225C

4

232C

3

Also specializing in lingerie and footwear. Our sourcing offices in the east ensures prompt & reliable imports at very competitive prices. We have refocused our local capacity to ensure a local product offering. By bolstering our local production we have maximized our local footprint ensuring a quick response in meeting local market demands. Truval offers a “one stop shop” in terms of an in house design department, sample set, production team, quality assurance & quality control with complete warehouse and distribution capabilities.

340C

5

327C 334C 347C

2

+27 11 353 3500 www.truval.co.za

16 Bosman Road Ophirton, Booysens Johannesburg 2015

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 53

OSMOND LANGE

Connection

by Design

PRODUCTION: Colin Chinery

With origins dating back to 1929, South African architects and planners Osmond Lange combines maturity of reputation with 21st century style and a striking understanding of contemporary needs and aspirations. “We are still a very unequal society, so it’s incumbent on us as architects to try and contribute to the public good,” says Group Managing Director, Jonathan Manning.

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 55

BUSINESS PROFILE

//

If the falling Rand is a key issue for leading South African architects and planners Osmond Lange, the order book of the Johannesburgheadquartered group is delivering a notable buoyancy. “We are very busy – yet to see much of impact of the much talked about economic doom and gloom supposedly gripping South Africa,” says Group Managing Director Jonathan Manning.

87 years and several titles in the making, Osmond Lange has grown an impressive portfolio ranging from airports and stadiums to residential; education and healthcare to industrial. “With just

56 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

about any building type that has been built we have a history and a strong track record.”

Melrose Arch – voted ‘The place to see and be seen’ for eight consecutive years by Leisure Options Readers Choice – is one high profile Osmond Lange project. And in the same city, Johannesburg’s Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) is another.

“Among the larger practices I would say we are fairly unique in that we have close to a 50-50 split between private and state sector work,” says Manning.

NEEDS AND ASPIRATIONS It’s a mix that not only provides a compensatory balance in a time

of economic uncertainty, but also a synthesis of inter-sectoral needs and aspirations.

“It gives us an understanding of the dynamics of each, a product that is marketable and fits the client’s financial parameters, and blending it with a strong sense of social responsibility.

“And this is particularly important in the social and political context of this country and continent. We are still a very unequal society, so it’s incumbent on us as architects to try and contribute - even when working for a private client worried about the bottom line - to the public good, creating public spaces in

OSMOND LANGE

South African cities and towns that ordinary people can use; spaces that are more open and more appealing and integrated than they were in the past.”

Jonathan Manning took over as Group Managing Director in March 2013 with three strategies in place; transforming the team profile to one better fitting the country’s demographic profile and an increasingly diverse client base, and secondly to upskill and upgrade Osmond Lange’s technological capabilities.

The third was broadening the Group’s geographic footprint. This year it opened a Cape Town office (besides the Johannesburg head

office, there others in Durban and East London) and associations have been established with synergycompliant practices in seven African countries; Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mauritius.

“Kenya and Ghana in particular are yielding a lot of leads for us at the moment, with some very large potential projects we are actively pursuing. I think this is the future,” explains Manning.

“And it’s not necessarily about copying and pasting what we have done in South Africa. You have an increasingly intelligent and informed market across sub-Saharan Africa with high

expectations around quality. It’s also about local knowledge, which is why we have opted to build relationships with local practices that can spot opportunities and bring them to us.”

Some of the mega projects around the continent, says Manning, “can be smoke and mirrors; a master plan launch and a website and colourful brochures before there is a business model.

“This is often where we’ve come in and try to inject a degree of sanity, and say ‘let’s run a cost and financial model on this and identify which are your low-hanging fruits we can push early to get critical mass and momentum’.”

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 57

BUSINESS PROFILE

//WE ARE FAIRLY UNIQUE IN THAT WE HAVE CLOSE TO A 50-50 SPLIT BETWEEN PRIVATE AND STATE SECTOR WORK//

Among its biggest private sector clients, Osmond Lange has noticed a more tentative approach. “We do a lot of work for Mercedes Benz in the Eastern Cape for example, and there we have suddenly seen a lot of projects being put on hold, further rounds of investment are being delayed but – interestingly - not often cancelled.

“So a lot of the bigger multinationals are playing a game of Wait and See. They are also looking to see if the rating agencies are going to downgrade South Africa to junk status, which may affect how the big international funds use South Africa’s investment destination, and ultimately affect how easy it is for some of the big companies to source debt.”

But on the state sector side, the Group is experiencing what Manning describes as “a real push.” Examples include two major

58 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

hospitals in Johannesburg - a city with which it has a long-standing relationship including the BRT project – while a sister company, Ikemeleng Architects, is currently undertaking a R1.1 billion mixed use development in Rustenburg in the Bojanala Platinum District Municipality, North West Province.

“So there’s quite a lot of exciting stuff happening in the State sector.”

Airports are another dynamic niche, with Osmond Lange the architects for Durban’s greenfield King Shaka International, and in the last round of major upgrades for Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International new central terminal.

The group has also been shortlisted with Kenyan partners, Waweru and Associates, for a bid for an airport city development at Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. “This would be a very interesting project to be involved in,” says Manning.

STYLE WITH RESPONSIBILITY Combining modernism and green design innovation, Melrose Arch, the stylish urban precinct in Johannesburg’s northern suburb, is the Group’s flagship project, typifying the blending of architectural approach with social responsibility.

“It’s been a bit of a game changer in South Africa over the last 20 years, more aligned to the kind of project you can see in Europe where there’s far more of a drive to integrate retail, office and residential in a single or holistic environment.

“The typical typology here in South Africa is to have a retail mall on one site and a fenced-off office park next to it with a further fenced-off residential development down the road, compelling you to drive out through a security gate to get to each component.”

OSMOND LANGE

With smaller versions now across the country now, integrated mixed-in developments with livework-play environments, Manning describes Melrose Arch as “semiunique.

“I think we’ve got the most expensive square metre residential property prices in the country, maybe number two to the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town but certainly in Johannesburg - and that’s on the back of being a very desirable place to live, with all the amenities.

“Likewise with the offices; I think for a long time they were getting the best rental rates per square metre in Johannesburg. And it gets us a lot of business. People are walking in the door saying they love Melrose and want something like it in their project.”

As a result Osmond Lange is now talking to two project developers, one in Cape Town and another in Ghana, where the promoter enthused “I love this; I want you to come and build a Melrose Arch in Ghana.”

But with the economy stuttering says Manning, it’s “quite difficult to punt mega projects.

It’s all about patience because the demand will pick up eventually.

ENEMY NUMBER ONE “Often it’s the very common Afro-pessimism that’s our biggest enemy. And it’s especially a problem here in South Africa where we have an incredible capacity to talk ourselves down and force ourselves into panic, even though the fundamentals remain sound. In Asian countries I visit, the glass is

always half full; here it’s half empty.

“If we project a pessimistic and disbelieving outlook to those outside the country we can’t blame them for not wanting to put money here.

“The political situation will sort itself out. After the ANC Electoral Conference next year, we will know where we stand, and I think the market will adjust to that.”

OSMOND LANGE +27 11 994 4300 @OsmondLange www.osmondlange.co.za

Proudly Supplied by

Tel: 011 027 5718 Architectural Tile Consultants

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 59

KIT KAT CASH AND CARRY

Unparalleled Range for Consumers

PRODUCTION: David Napier

From its humble beginnings as Kit Kat Café back in 1953, then located in South Africa’s old Asiatic Bazaar, today Kit Kat Cash and Carry spans some 20,000 square meters and comprises three floors, offering goods ranging from groceries and crockery to electrical and sports equipment.

BUSINESS PROFILE

//

The story behind Kit Kat Cash and Carry’s success has been a gradual evolution from its café beginnings into the stores it possesses today. The first Kit Kat Wholesalers opened in 1983 in the Asiatic complex, and quickly required expansion into a Hyperstore in Schubert Street in 1989. In 1992, meanwhile, came the first incarnation of the Cash and Carry itself, a 1500 square meter plot equipped only to stock non-food items. The opening in 1999 of the Kit Kat Cash and Carry in Pretoria West spelled the culmination of generations of focussed hard work, with its basement, mezzanine and sales floor each laden with an everwidening array of goods.

Among the principal aims of the company is to maintain the unparalleled value for money it can

62 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

currently offer, while continuing to expand the range of products available to its customers in a cost and time-effective shopping experience. To this end, the store’s many sales assistants and cuttingedge computer points serve to deal with all manner of customer queries and thus make the experience all the more customer friendly and easily completed. The first of Kit Kat Cash Carry’s new era of locations has since been joined by a further two in Silverton and Kliptown, and the company has also looked to further develop the concept of ‘one stop shopping’. Fast food outlets, shoe shops, fruit and vegetable and interior decorating shops have all been added, as Kit Kat Cash and Carry seeks to best cater to the ever increasing needs of the public it serves.

A big development for the Kit Kat Cash & Carry group came in August of last year, as it announced its decision to change warehouse equipment supplier to Goscor Lift Truck Company, part of Imperial’s Goscor group, having been with another leading supplier for more than the last decade. This is in line with what is a never ending quest for reinvention, and a maximising of the effectiveness of its operations.

There is a total of 28 Goscor units in the Kit Kat group’s arsenal, including reach trucks and pallet trucks, and Kevin Fry, GM Kit Kat Pretoria West, says that in the end, the decision to change suppliers came fairly easily.

“We have always admired the quality of Goscor’s range of warehouse equipment,” he states.

“Crown in particular is absolutely top draw in terms of its technology,

KIT KAT CASH AND CARRY

reliability, innovation and durability and we have had our eyes on this brand for some time, and their pricing and overall cost-structure is very competitive, which will help us achieve a very efficient life-time cost on the machines.”

What has grown to become a world-wide popularity of the Crown ESR 5000 Series of reach trucks is down to a combination of first class design couple with superior operator comfort and exceptionally practical features. The ESR 5000 Series of reach trucks was developed in Europe and is manufactured at the company’s Roding plant in Bavaria, Germany. Having experienced phenomenal success with many major customers in Europe, the ESR 5000 is now winning over South African customers, and Zeyn Alli, Regional Sales Manager, explained

that: “I have worked with Kit Kat for several years now and they are a most professional group. I am proud that they have chosen to continue working with me at Goscor.”

The most recent report by PwC on the South African retail and consumer products outlook held much positive news for the sector as a whole. The perception of Africa has been buoyed by a strong decade, with the continent’s collective GDP expected to grow by US$1tr by 2020, a rise from US$1.6tr in 2010. Furthermore, the Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts real GDP growth of 4.9% from 2012-16, which is well above average world growth. South Africa is leading the way in this turnaround, already the biggest retail market in sub-Saharan Africa and the 20th largest in the world, with a wide array of shopping

malls and retail developments contributing alongside a significant food and non-food manufacturing sector. Measured by volume, sales are expected to rise by an average of 2.9%, and by value sales will expand at an average of 7.85% in nominal terms. The emergence of a middle class with modest, but rapidly increasing disposable income, accounts for a growing proportion of this uptick, and is now generating substantial consumer demand for retailers and consumer goods companies across the board.

KITKAT CASH AND CARRY +0861 548 528 info@kitkatgroup.com www.kitkatgroup.com

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 63

NHLS

Taking

SA Healthcare to new Heights

PRODUCTION: Manelesi Dumasi

Thanks to brilliant innovations, international awards and strong and tested management, the NHLS is building a reputation as an organisation that achieves its goals and helps to build and maintain a long and healthy life for all South Africans.

//

The National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) was established in 2001 as a government institution with the aim of providing leading diagnostic pathology services to the public sector healthcare industry in South Africa.

The organisation was created following the merging of the South African Institute for Medical Research (SAIMR), the National Centre for Occupational Health and the National Institute for Virology. At the same time, the NHLS also took on various provincial health department and university-run pathology laboratories.

Today, the NHLS has over 300 laboratories across the nine provinces of South Africa and serves approximately 80% of the South African population.

Working closely with the Department of Health, the NHLS is working tirelessly towards its vision of building a healthy

nation through early detection, diagnosis and monitoring to prevent, manage and treat diseases to reduce the disease burden, and promote health and wellness, thereby ensuring a ‘long and healthy life for all South Africans’.

The healthcare industry is not an easy one in which to operate – especially in South Africa where the public health system is under-funded and there is a big price to pay for private healthcare. In Deloitte’s 2015 outlook for healthcare in South Africa, the professional services company detailed issues facing the healthcare sector including funding, retaining skilled staff, improving quality, lacking technology and disparity between private and public offerings.

Valter Adão, Life Sciences and Healthcare Industry Leader at Deloitte said: “South Africa’s most pressing health care challenge - one which spans

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 65

BUSINESS PROFILE

funders, administrators and providers - is how to lower costs across the value chain while also improving health care outcomes for patients.

“There are currently more than 400 public hospitals and around 215 private hospitals in South Africa. The government has acknowledged the need to significantly improve the quality of care in public hospitals.”

But despite the conditions, worsened by the current economic climate, the NHLS has proven itself resilient and, after installing new management and investing in new technologies, it has been internationally recognised for its endeavours.

NEW CEO In September, after long-serving former CEO Sagie Pillay had left the business a year earlier, the NHLS announced that Ms Joyce Mogale would take over, following a yearlong period as Interim CEO. “This appointment is extra special for the organisation as Ms Mogale is the first black woman to be appointed

66 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

in this role since the organisation’s inception in 2001,” the company announced.

Professor Barry Schoub, Chairperson of the NHLS Board said: “I trust that all members of our NHLS family will join me and the Board in offering our fullest support to Ms Mogale in her new role, in order to ensure that our organisation continues to provide quality, affordable and sustainable health laboratory services and related public health services to all citizens in our country.”

Mogale said she was proud and honoured to take the role and, considering her experience, it is easy to see why she was chosen. She holds a Master’s in Business Management (MBA), Postgraduate Diploma in Health Management, BSc (Hons) status in Medical Sciences, Higher National and a National Diplomas in Medical Laboratory Technology. She has previously worked as Regional Executive Manager of the NHLS and Deputy Director: Laboratory Services in the Department of Health and Welfare

in Limpopo. She has experience as a Director of various SMMEs and is a NonExecutive Director or Board Trustee on a number of boards across a range of industries.

In the organisations 2014/15 annual report, Mogale reiterated the NHLS’s position as a n industry leader and paid tribute to the on-going hard work of staff.

“The NHLS remains a significant player in realising Government’s aim of ensuring that all South Africans have equitable access to healthcare. We are known in many circles to be leaders in our field and I have every confidence that this will continue... As an organisation, we have remained resilient through our challenges and have not deviated from placing patient care first. I would like to extend my gratitude to the staff of the NHLS for their commitment, dedication and hard work,” she said.

E-JUBA In October, the NHLS and its Wits Emeritus Professor, Barry Mendelow announced that they had developed a

NHLS

drone for the transportation of medical cargoes between rural clinics and urban centres.

Named e-Juba and based on the principles of using carrier pigeons, the system involves a hand-launched, SA designed drone capable of carrying cargo for more than 30 km. Developed

by Jaco Davel of Somerset West, the system can carry disinfected sputum samples for DNA-based molecular diagnosis of TB and identification of sequences indicative of drug resistance. Mendelow, who presented the innovative idea at the AJ Orenstein Memorial Lecture at Wits University, said: “When we started our project several years ago, the average wait was six weeks for a diagnosis of tuberculosis.

Now it can be done with this mobility in one day.”

Having already clocked up more than 300 test flights, e-Juba has proven its reliability and has also demonstrated significant cost savings compared to land-based carrier solutions. iJuba is the Zulu word for pigeon so, logically, e-Juba is the electronic pigeon and it looks like you can expect this NHLS innovation to gain more traction in the near future. “We’re confident that in the next five years we’ll see a dramatic use of drones as carrying medical cargoes, which is most exciting and viable,” said Mendelow.

NHLS’ position as a leader in pathology and diagnostic services on the African continent and Mogale said: “It is with great honour and pride for the NHLS to be nominated for this prestigious award, as it not only represents the organisation, but depicts the great strides and continuous improvements, which the South African healthcare landscape has made over the years, and also attributes to the overwhelming dedication and commitment of the NHLS staff.”

Following its nomination, the NHLS went on to win the award in Montreux, Switzerland and was officially recognised for safe and effective treatment methods, highly professional medical staff and service quality in accordance to European standards.

“For the NHLS, the award serves as affirmation of its position as a

leader in the practice of pathology and the rendering of laboratory-based diagnostic services to South Africa and increasingly to the African continent and beyond,” the company said.

If the organisation can continue with success at this rate, it will undoubtedly achieve the aim of Chairman Schoub who said last year that he hoped to “create a NHLS that will be one of the flagships in the coming NHI dispensation, by supplying life-saving laboratory support to the maintenance of a healthy South Africa”.

NHLS (011) 386-6000 enquiries@nhls.ac.za www.nhls.ac.za

AWARD WINNING Last year, just before the success of e-Juba was announced, the NHLS was also celebrating international commendation. The organisation was nominated by the Swiss Institute for Quality Standards (SIQS) and the Socrates Committee to receive the international award in ‘European Quality’ in the healthcare sphere category. After winning the 2013 Business Initiative Directions (BID) International Star Award for quality, the NHLS remains hungry for international recognition.

The nomination serves as recognition and affirmation of the

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 67

0271_IN_NHLS Ad100x70V01Repro.indd 1

2016/06/30 9:51 AM

SASRIA

SA’s Unique

Insurance Offering PRODUCTION: Karl Pietersen

Sasria’s vision is simple: “To protect the assets of all South Africans against extraordinary risks” and since 1979, this innovative organisation has been doing just that.

//

One of the pillars of strength behind the South African economy is its financial services sector. Widely regarded as some of the strongest and most advanced in the world, South Africa’s banks, insurance companies, credit companies, stock brokers and accountants are leading the way when it comes to developing innovative products and services to meet the ever-changing needs of an ever-changing client base.

In the insurance sector, one of the country’s most important, South Africa boasts some of the highest premium-toGDP ratios and a wide cross section of well-regulated and innovative insurers.

There are also huge opportunities for companies that can market through the correct channels as much of the country remains unbanked and either uninsured or underinsured. In the coming years, South Africa’s insurance sector is set to

develop exponentially, unlocking major prospects for the various different players.

“This presents significant opportunities for local and regional players, as they look to develop more inclusive products that meet the needs of low-income customers,” states the Oxford Business Group.

“South Africa accounts for almost 80% of all premiums in sub-Saharan Africa and the country has an insurance penetration rate — the total value of insurance premiums as a proportion of GDP — of about 13%, well above the developed world average,” explains the Financial Times’ John Aglionby.

And it’s not just South Africa where the opportunities are attractive. Across the borders, on the continent, the insurance industry is often described as a sleeping giant. “There’s a real buzz about the sector because opportunities are immense,” said KPMG’s East Africa insurance head, James

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 69

BUSINESS PROFILE

Norman. “There’s a young population, a growing middle class — most with smartphones — and an increasingly large diaspora coming back.”

“The insurance market is closely linked to economic growth. When incomes rise you have more insurable assets,” said Lukas Mueller, head of north and sub-Saharan Africa at reinsurer Swiss Re. So, the opportunities are large, the customer base is large and, if you can find a niche, you can carve out a space in the market where you become the ‘go-to’ organisation and that is exactly what Sasria has done. Unique in its model and approach, Sasria, a state-owned insurance specialist, offers protection against ‘extraordinary risks’. Obtaining car, home, life or corporate insurance is easy – that’s the bread and butter of today’s big, private insurance companies but what about in extraordinary circumstances? What happens if you are effected by an unruly strike, protest or rally? Or maybe a riot or even a terrorist attack? This is where Sasria steps in.

“Sasria is the only short-term insurer that provides cover to all the people and businesses that have assets in South Africa, as well as to government entities, against special risks such as civil commotion, public disorder, strikes,

70 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

riots and terrorism, which all have the potential to lead to possible catastrophic financial losses,” the company states.

In a model which is unusual in the market, but perfectly suited to the nature of the company’s mandate, Sasria does not deal directly with the end user and operates through non-mandated intermediaries (NMIs).

“We have a unique business model, since we do not sell Sasria’s products directly to the end-customer. We enter into agreements with other short-term insurance companies who, as NMIs, then represent and sell Sasria’s products to the end-customer, by attaching a coupon related to Sasria’s cover to their own policies. This coupon outlines the Sasria cover that the customer enjoys and incorporates Sasria’s terms and conditions,” the company explains.

Considering the opportunities north of the border, in other African nations, where the industry is still ‘awakening’, could Sasria expand its offering internationally?

When I spoke to Managing Director, Cedric Masondo two years ago he said that geographical expansion would come from partnering with South African companies who want to expand in Africa. When these ambitious companies expand, Sasria will make sure they are protected, he said. Of

course, expansion like this would have to be run by the company’s shareholder, the SA government.

RIDING THE WAVE As with all companies, including those that are state-owned, with the current economic climate, you have to be prepared to operate in a cyclical manner, growing quickly when times are good and consolidating and preparing for the upturn when times are more difficult.

The last 18 months have been difficult from an economic perspective for all in South Africa but Sasria was hit hard in 2015 following a spike in the number of strike and service delivery protest-related claims it had to pay out. Interestingly, the number of claims climbed from 1525 to 2349 in the 12 months ending March 15 but the total amount paid out was around R300 million, significantly less than the R507 million paid out in 2013-14.

The annual report for the year ending March 15 contained positive news including the fact that Sasria reduced its expense ratio by 4.7% and increased its solvency ratio by 9%. It has R5.8bn in assets under management and earned R390m in investment income during the year on a return of 7.1%. This

SASRIA

caused former Finance Minister, Nhlanhla Nene to name the company ‘one of SA’s top-performing state-owned entities’.

In recent months, the company has seen more growth in claims and Sasria’s Executive Manager: Insurance Operations, Keith Fick says that this highlights the importance of the correct protection.

“Insurance against special events is a vital aspect of any short-term insurance policy,” he told IOL. “Sasria has seen a 54% increase in claims related to events such as protests and strikes in the past year alone, as well as a 25% increase in the severity of these claims.

“We received 1211 claims for the sixmonth period to the end of September 31, 2015. These originated from events such as service delivery protests, xenophobic attacks, the actions of disgruntled commuters and taxi industry violence. Damage related to the recent student protests is yet to be assessed, but

it already amounts to millions.”

“Claims in our latest financial year [to March 2016] will exceed those in the previous year,” Masondo said recently.

A big chunk of the claims will come from the company’s largest every university file. In February two buildings at North-West University were gutted by fire and vehicles were destroyed.

According to the higher education & training department, ‘protest-related damage on the Mahikeng campus amounted to R151m bringing total damage at 14 universities to R300m, with a further four yet to tally up their losses’.

Thanks to its carefully planned and well-thought out business model, Sasria is well-positioned to deal with the fallout - in its year to March 2015 the stateowned insurer reported net premium income of R1.38bn and investment income of R390m but Masondo was quick to point out that the company

would not be able to weather the storm forever saying: “If the trend continues we may have to raise tariffs.”

All things considered, Sasria is in a strong place. Its position in the market is unmatched and thanks to backing from the government, it is likely to maintain its strong position for some time to come.

As the company searches for expansion opportunities, both geographically and with new types of customer, it is likely that the experience and security that the company has built over the years will result in Sasria being very much a part of the growing African industry.

SASRIA 086 172 7329 contactus@sasria.co.za www.sasria.co.za

www.enterprise-africa.net / July 2016 / 71

EXHIBITION CALENDAR

Our regular update to help you keep track of important events and exhibitions taking place across the spectrum of industry sectors. year will be a defining moment to establish a clear path toward guaranteeing that no one is left behind in the AIDS response.

Ò

DISTRIBUTECH JHB 19 – 21 JULY 2016 | JOHANNESBURG This unique event will provide the opportunity for you to interact with over 75+ leading exhibiting companies from Africa and from across the globe. You will also have the chance to see first-hand equipment demonstrations, as well as the latest technology and service solutions.

21ST INTERNATIONAL AIDS CONFERENCE 2016 18 - 22 JULY 2016 | DURBAN The International AIDS Conference is the largest conference on any global health or development issues in the world. First convened during the peak of the epidemic in 1985, it continues to provide a unique forum for the intersection of science, advocacy, and human rights. Leaving behind lasting legacies in each host country.

Just as the 2000 International AIDS Conference in Durban served as a catalyst for global treatment advocacy and access, the return of the conference to Durban this

72 / July 2016 / www.enterprise-africa.net

OIL & GAS AFRICA 13 – 15 JULY 2016 | CAPE TOWN Oil and Gas Africa is an event dedicated to the fast-growing oil and gas industry in Africa enjoying the support and patronage of the South African Oil and Gas Alliance SAOGA. Hosted by the world famous Cape Town International Convention Centre, a multi-purpose conference and exhibition venue situated in the hub of Cape Town’s business and entertainment centre, this event is an important information and communication platform of the industry bringing together leading suppliers from different parts of the continent with prospective business partners in order to form alliances with their counterparts from the industry. Oil and Gas Africa is still the largest and only engineering supply chain exhibition in Africa. The exhibition is complemented Ò by a conference attended by industry stalwarts familiarising the visiting delegates with the latest technologies dominating the oil and gas industry of today. The focus is on the increased sustainable extraction of oil and gas and the organisers demonstrate how governments across Africa are encouraging foreign investors to meet energy needs.

EXPO TANZANIA Saba Trade Fair Grounds - Mwl. J. K. Nyerere, Tanzania 01-05 July MARKEX 2016 Sandton Convention Centre 06-07 July NIGERIA INTERNATIONAL POWER EXPO & CONFERENCE Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja, Nigeria 12-14 July EMPOWERTEC AFRICA Gallagher Convention Centre 13-15 July SISDAK CICES (Centre international du Commerce extérieur du Sénégal) 13-16 July POWER-GEN AFRICA Sandton Convention Centre 19-21 July AVIANA EXHIBITION Mulungushi International Conference Centre, Zambia 21-22 July AGRIWORKS EXPO The Trim Park, Potchefstroom 29-30 July

IMAGE COURTESY OF © SKA AFRICA

KEY UPCOMING EVENTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

//TABLE OF ALL EVENTS: