Flying a flag for the ENVIRONMENT

Don Bailey is a pilot and a businessman on a conservation mission to rescue penguins, wild dogs and more, writes Shirley le Guern

saved a seal recently,” says Don Bailey, CEO of Expand A Sign who is also a passionate pilot, ardent conservationist and a board member of the legendary “environmental air force” known as The Bateleurs.

Two penguins had washed up way off course on local beaches. Bailey was at the controls when they were airlifted back to Port Elizabeth. His passenger on the way back was a tiny dwarf seal that had lost a flipper to a shark and could not be rehabilitated and returned to the wild. Instead, Bailey flew her back to Durban and her new home at uShaka Marine World.

Bailey has many a tale to tell of the exploits of his fellow pilots, many of whom are, like him, trying to navigate the choppy waters of a post-Covid economy without necessarily being able to guess the next challenge coming their way.

“We flew some wild dogs a while ago and the guys unfortunately crashed. A call went out. Thirty minutes later, someone had put up his hand and a plane was in the air to pick up the dogs.”

He believes the flexibility that is key to The Bateleurs’ operations and enables them to turn a near tragedy into an opportunity could be a lesson for businesses going forward.

“It takes a while to mature. When you are young, you believe money is going to make you happy. But you have to ask yourself if that is true fulfilment,

especially as a pilot. When doing this, you meet people who are paid almost nothing but work for conservation out of love. That reminds you what a real job is,” he says, referring to three young Green Scorpions who he flew out to capture some poachers in a Zululand game reserve.

Bailey was called out of a sales meeting to help. “We rushed up and caught these guys. On the way back, they asked me to fly up a river to check on a large forestry company that was moving too close to the river. These guys were worrying about every element of the environment. They work long hours for very little pay. That’s inspiring and means far more than listening to a wealthy man talking about his latest investment on the stock market.”

Since school, Bailey had always wanted to be a pilot. His father had other ideas and sent him to university

Twenty-one years and thousands of missions later, our pilots have put nearly R50-million in time and resources into conservation to become an accountant.

“So I bit the bullet and when I had finished I told my Dad I was going to become a pilot. He said I could now earn my own money to become a pilot,

so I got a job, saved, did my training and got my private pilot’s licence.”

Getting a commercial licence proved much more expensive. To fund this, Bailey headed to London in 1995 where he worked for two years at a sports marketing company. On his return, he spent seven months at a flight school for his commercial rating and went on to fly for the United Nations in war-torn Angola.

During a short break at home in 1998, he heard that two of their planes had been shot down in just two days.

ABOVE: FOR BUSINESSMAN AND PILOT DON BAILEY, A GOOD DAY AT THE OFFICE IS ALL ABOUT GIVING BACK TO CONSERVATION.

“I knew those guys, and felt I couldn’t go back there. My father had started Expand A Sign and wanted to start exporting, and suggested that I use my contacts from my time in London to start a business in Europe.”

He set up an operation in London and appointed agents in Germany, Spain and Portugal, and by 2001 the business was booming and his father asked him to return to South Africa to help run it. He and wife Tanya wanted to bring up their children here so gladly complied.

“As soon as I got back I bought a plane. But I felt I needed to give back, do more. That’s when I heard about The Bateleurs.

Bailey admits that it is often difficult for those who own planes to justify the expense. The Bateleurs offer an opportunity for them to give back while still embracing their passion for flying.

“Twenty-one years and thousands of missions later, our pilots have put nearly R50-million in time and resources into conservation. In a year we probably do more flights and missions than the South African Air Force. But, while most of the

At Expand A Sign, Expand A Brand and Uzwelo Bags, we realised that South Africa was going to need huge volumes of face masks to help reduce the risk of transmission of the coronavirus. So, we turned our production over to that, which has also helped us keep our employees in jobs and the collective which works for Uzwelo Bags still stitching.” To date, they have made around one million masks

money given to charities goes to administration and very little reaches the actual charity, we have the reverse. For every rand you give us, we put R4 into conservation. We are one of the very few organisations that has achieved that,” he says.

Bailey’s love for flying and conservation has become closely entwined with his business over the years.

Expand A Sign – which has evolved from a small producer of tents and beach shelters to a global leader in portable branding solutions such as teardrop, pop-up and folding banners, roll-ups, gazebos, tents and inflatables – now operates in Africa, Europe, America and the Middle East and can boast that its products have been spotted everywhere from the North Pole to the Dakar Rally, the Comrades Marathon and beyond.

“We’ve created banners for everyone from the Durban North Chihuahua Club to Rolls Royce,” he laughs.

But the division of which he is particularly proud is Uzwelo. Created three years ago, it employs women from local communities to sew everything from school bags to laptop bags, pencil cases and beach bags using waste fabric from Expand A Sign’s manufacturing process.

Proceeds from the sales pay the seamstresses and costs with the remainder going to The Bateleurs. Over the past three years, Uzwelo has donated R220 000 to the organisation.

Now, as the cancellation of events and various levels of lockdown have impacted the business, Bailey and his team have approached the decline in demand for their primary product as an opportunity to rapidly re-engineer their enterprise to deliver something the market needs.

“In our case, at Expand A Sign, Expand A Brand and Uzwelo Bags, we realised that South Africa was going to need huge volumes of face masks to help reduce the risk of transmission of the coronavirus. So, we turned our production over to that, which has also helped us keep our employees in jobs and the collective which works for Uzwelo Bags still stitching.” To date, they have made around one million masks.

They have also launched The Buro, the company’s in-house design, marketing and strategy agency as an independent operation that is already working with small businesses and helping to develop their brands at a much lower cost than larger agencies.