COMPANY PROFILE
2015
Lowveld Bus Service
+27 (0) 14 763 2280/1 | www.lowveldbus.co.za
company profile
Number one in the region Editorial: Ajuanne Payne
Currently transporting 30,000 passengers a day in and around Lephalale in Waterberg, Lowveld Bus Service is a family-run transport business that has developed over the years to become number one in its region. We talk to the Frans Rossel about the success of the family business and the key steps that have got it to where it is today…
Lowveld Bus Service has been a steady presence in the Lephalale region for over 30 years, servicing the transport needs of state, corporate and private clients. Founded by Louis Rossel and Garnet van der Walt in 1983, 1989 saw the company win its first large corporate client, working for what was then an Iscor facility at the Grootegeluk Coal Mine – a contract it still holds today with current owners, Exxaro. With a 270 strong fleet of buses and over 450 employees, Lowveld Bus Service is the largest company of its type in the Waterberg region by a long way. Mr Rossel has successfully run the company ever since and still sits in the CEO chair today. Frans Rossel, Louis Rossel’s son and general manager for the company, tells us more about the
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background of business. “The company was started in 1983 by my father, Mr Louis Rossel and Garnet Van der Walt. In 1989 they built a bigger depot in Onverwacht and the mine started here in Lephalale, Ellisras. In 1998 Lowveld acquired a Department of Transport contract and then in 2001, Mr Rossel bought out the shares from Mr van der Walt, and sold 26% shares to Mr Godfrey Senoamadi, an employee. In 2012, Mr Senoamadi retired and sold his 26% shares to a group of black shareholders,” explains Frans.
A FAMILY BUSINESS It is rare indeed that you find a founder still running their company for as long as Lowveld Bus Service has been directed by CEO, Louis Rossel. For a man with over 30 years’ experience under his belt and a
Lowveld Bus Service
solid, successful company, you would think he might feel like his work is done. Not so in this case – an attitude of passion for the business he built with his own hands is one that has kept Rossel senior at the helm making the strategic decisions that have led the company so well. “The company is basically his legacy, and although LBS has developed from a company one-man show to a corporate environment with a strong management team, he is still involved on a daily basis.” says Frans. When a CEO has a real passion for their work this definitely reflects on their employees, and as such Rossel senior’s love for his company has bled into the good work ethic of his staff and is reflected in Frans Rossel’s early desire to join the family business. “I think because I grew up here as a child, running
around on the premises, it’s something that came naturally - I just knew I wanted to be involved,” says Frans of his early ambitions to get involved in the business. When Frans left university, after spending a year in England he returned to South Africa and Lowveld Bus Service to help run the business. “I went to university for four years and got my Honours degree in Logistics Management, then went to England for a year and worked there and when I came back my brother in-law, Dirk Heyns, was the general manager of the company. I was then fortunate enough to be working with someone who is more-or-less my age and it was easy for me to learn and to get to know how things go by working alongside him. His industrial engineering background and that same passion for the business
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company profile
was pivotal in reinventing the company through the rapid growth period.” “I’ve been here 10 years now and started off as the operational manager, but when Dirk Heyns moved to the United States in June last year, I took over the position of general manager.”
FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH What Frans is referring to is the decade of organic growth that has led Lowveld Bus Service to almost treble the size of its fleet in recent years – a further testament to the care with which the business continues to be run. “From 2001 onwards, we’ve just kept running smoothly,” Frans explains. In 2003 the bus company was awarded contracts for three different mines in the Thabazimbi area, which led to the establishment of sister company, ThabaTrans, with a fleet of over 65 buses. “We’ve grown a lot,” explains Frans, “more than three times in size in the past five to seven years - we currently have about 270 buses running and we serve basically the whole Waterberg area.”
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The acquisition of nearly 200 new vehicles is no small investment, and is a direct reflection on the increased demand for the company’s services locally. “In the past three to five years we acquired most of the contracts on the Medupi Power Station and that includes contracts with Hitachi, Murray and Roberts, Kentz - all those big construction companies that are currently busy on the power station.” On top of this fairly recent work for the huge Medupi project, Lowveld Bus Service has its 15-year contract for the Grootegeluk Exxaro mine – the first of its large contracts and a long-standing business relationship for the company. Aside from these corporate contracts, says Frans, “we have a contract with the Department of Transport to transport commuters from the various rural villages into town on a daily basis back and forth. “We also do private hire that goes nationally throughout South Africa, but it’s a very small part of our service. Our main service is local communities in the Lephalale area to and from work and private hires in the local area.”
Lowveld Bus Service LOOKING AHEAD Frans says that the company is very much of the opinion that “if we do a good job and we do what we do here, we don’t really need to go anywhere else,” and so far that has proved true, as it has long been the number one private bus company in the whole Waterberg area. Considering the buzz in Waterberg at the moment and some of the colliery and mining projects going on, Lowveld Bus Service can anticipate a continuation of their success as the go-to transport provider for large companies operating there. “There’s quite a lot of talk about starting up another power station when they have finished building Medupi Power Station in Lephalale and there’s new mines that’ve opened. Sasol bought some farms in the area with coal rich minerals that they possibly want to convert to fuel in the future,” says Frans. “So, we are in the right place at the right time as we have been and by the time that the Medupi Power Station project is completed, there will be new projects coming up. We’ll basically just be shifting our services form one project to the next project, if it all works out.”
Off the back of these predictions relating to the active industrial sector in the region, Frans sees further years of organic growth ahead for the family business. After the fleet investments in recent times, Lowveld Bus Services is ideally positioned for what should be a busy few years ahead. Aside from investments in equipment and facilities, Lowveld Bus Services has ensured to look after its staff over the years, and has invested a significant amount in staff-development. Rossel sees this care for the company’s employees as a key contributor to the company’s success over the years – as the business is family-run it treats its staff as extensions of that family. “The key factor for success is the fact that it’s a tight-knit run company,” says Frans. “Of course, as it’s a family-run business, people put a lot more effort into it - we’re getting a lot done with a small amount of people. If you compare us with different companies that are a similar fleet size, they’ve got a lot more staff per bus than we have, so we’re running it as quite a tight unit – which also keeps costs down. “Lastly, Mr Rossel has vast experience. He has seen this company grow from five buses to almost 300 buses and that speaks for itself,” concludes Frans
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DWFCOLL 518649
BRIDGESTONE SOUTH AFRICA ANNOUNCES CHANGES TO ITS COMMERCIAL TYRE OPERATIONS
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