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Feedem Pitseng is South Africa’s largest privately owned caterer, which prides itself on its innovative and client centred approach to business. By Jane McCallion
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Feedem Pitseng FEATURE
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eedem Pitseng is largest independently owned contract catering company in South Africa and it continues to show consistent growth. The firm has 2,200 employees - cooks, chefs, dieticians and hygiene experts - who are located across the country, operating canteens and providing meal services in a range of settings, from factories to educational institutions to hospitals. What makes Feedem Pitseng different, Johannes Wessels CEO says, is that it was the first catering company to embrace the principles of black empowerment, which it did by entering into partnerships and profit-share schemes with employees and entrepreneurs. It is also a company where all the shareholders have remained active members of the management team. “The company was founded in 1975 by Jeremy Webb,” says Wessels. “For the first 12 years of operations, Feedem Pitseng was a delivered meal company, rather than an industrial catering company, taking cooked food to construction sites around Edenvale in Johannesburg. In 1987, Webb was joined by Andrew Constandakis, Mike Maree and William Bolton, who helped to steer Feedem Pitseng in the direction of industrial catering, where it really began to bloom.” Wessels initially joined Feedem Pitseng in 2003 and
took his current role in 2010. “Being privately owned is what sets Feedem Pitseng apart from the rest of its field. Being a self-funded enterprise allows us to focus on our customers: we do not exist merely to create shareholder value. At the same time, we’re fairly big, which allow us to afford the necessary infrastructure to support larger contracts.” All the food served in Feedem Pitseng-run kitchens is prepared fresh on site, he says. “We buy from close to 200 suppliers around the country. These are all specialist wholesale companies that deliver the ingredients to our kitchens, from which our catering staff prepare the meals. However, we do sometimes use local suppliers, such as dairy farms, as well.” Over recent years, there has also been a change in the demand for what customers in their meals. “The middle class of South Africa is expected to double by 2020, so there’s been a change in the eating patterns over the past few years as people become more health conscious. However it has also been found that South Africa has the fastest growing BMI in the world. Although there’s a big drive towards healthier food, more than 50 percent of South Africans are overweight, which is rather high compared to the rest of the world and is on the rise.” Wessels says that while there’s a certain part of the
Being privately owned is what sets Feedem Pitseng apart from the rest of its field. Being a self-funded enterprise allows us to focus on our customers
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South African population that is becoming more health conscious, a large proportion of the people who previously did not have the money to buy a lot of food are now able to buy takeaways and other unhealthy meals. “It is almost moving in two directions – one part of the population is eating more and getting fatter, the other part is becoming more health conscious. There’s a definite need for the ingredients and whatever is in the food to be displayed where people buy food. In most of our canteens we always give the healthier option and try to have programmes to drive healthier eating.” One of the major challenges facing Feedem Pitseng are the redundancies caused by the economic downturn – not within Feedem itself, but at the organisations it provides catering for. “South Africa has lost about a million jobs since 2008 and most of our customers are employees of other companies, so our market has shrunk by almost one million people,” says Wessels. “The other challenge we have, and it’s our biggest challenge, is controlling costs when inflation is on the rise and fuel prices in particular are going through the roof. Add to that the fact that in certain areas of South Africa they’ve put in toll roads, which also adds to the cost of our product. So the challenge is to control costs and to recover the cost of higher prices from our customers, who are already decreasing and at the same time whose disposable income is down from what it was a few years ago.” 4
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While these are major challenges, Wessels is not disheartened. “The South African economy seems to have turned and the employment figures are on the rise, so hopefully we will overcome that in the years to come.” Feedem Pitseng is in a strong position and has a close relationship with its staff – a vital ingredient in business success. One example of this is the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme, whereby employees help to choose which organisations will benefit: “We have started a programme where we invite our staff to introduce to us social organisations that are in need that they are physically involved in. For example, if someone is working in a soup kitchen or at an orphanage and they can prove their involvement, we will allocate funds from our R140,000 CSR budget to help those organisations. In doing so we try to do two things; firstly, showing our commitment to the community, but also involving our staff and help build teamwork. We also provide for our staff in more traditional ways, through employee training and payment towards medical aid, as well as having in place pension funds for all employees.”
Feedem Pitseng FEATURE
We use bacterial cleaning, which is harmless to the environment, rather than chemical cleaning
Feedem Pitseng’s immediate future goal is to double the size of the company in the next five years. Remarkably, there are certain provinces of South Africa in which it has little or no representation. “Although we’re a national company, we’re not well presented in all geographical areas. The main two areas like this are Eastern Cape, which we have started to grow over the last two years – we weren’t there at all three years ago – and in the year to come we hope to move into Free State, including Bloemfontein, and Northern Cape, particularly Kimberly. After that we will probably move to areas like Mpumalanga and Limpopo.” He says that, in the longer term, the firm will look at moving into the rest of Africa, where it is “currently not represented at all”. To learn more www.feedempitseng.co.za. END
Feedem Pitseng has always had a great taste for success. Feedem Pitseng’s fresh and progressive approach has helped them become South Africa’s largest independent catering company. FNB is proud of their growing achievement.
To speak to a Commercial Banker who specialises in your industry, email newbus@fnb.co.za or visit www.fnb.co.za
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First National Bank – a division of FirstRand Bank Limited. An Authorised Financial Services and Credit Provider (NCRCP20).
Wessels says it has taken an innovative approach to its environmental commitments too, with a focus on its cleaning and waste activities. However, rather than just working on the ‘reduction’ template that many businesses do, Feedem Pitseng has elected instead to make a real change. “We use bacterial cleaning, which is harmless to the environment, rather than chemical cleaning. It’s far more natural than your normal cleaning products.” While the idea of bacterial cleaning may sound slightly alarming in a catering context, the microorganisms and enzymes used in this type of product are harmless to humans. Indeed, this type of cleaning is so effective and so environmentally neutral that it was used to help clean up after the Deep Sea Horizon oil spill. “Some waste is inevitable in catering, however,” Wessels says. “We have chosen to repurpose leftovers and peelings, rather than put them in landfill, and all the food that is not used is recycled as fertiliser.”
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