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APE TOWN – Altron is banking on a new strategy to take back market share in vehicle tracking and telematics. The group has also taken a strong position in financial technology (fintech), which is now a R1 billion business.
Altron has shifted its focus over the past few years, including selling ATM hardware and support business units in 2023 as part of a series of disposals to streamline operations, to growth areas such as the cloud, data analytics, the internet of things, and security.
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Its Netstar unit, a once-dominant player in its sector, has lost ground to competitors such as MiX Telematics and Cartrack (owned by Karooooo).
While Cartrack, founded in 2004, is gearing up to surpass two million customers in the current financial year, Netstar has lagged behind with 1.3 million subscribers, despite a feasibility study to expand Evander Mines’ 10MW solar PV renewable energy facility by an additional having entered the local market first.
To deal with Netstar’s headwinds, Grant Fraser — a former COO of MiX Telematics — was appointed MD on January 1 to implement a strategy to increase profit.
“Netstar lost focus on both our customers and our business, which has resulted in lost market share and margin erosion,” Fraser told investors on Monday as the group reported full-year earnings.
“We have an opportunity to claw back our market share by refocusing on the basics, making sure we put the customers at the centre of our operations and extracting efficiencies across Netstar’s business.”
The company has signed a number of deals, which it hopes will help increase growth.
“In our OEM (manufacturer) segment the partnership we launched with WeTaxi has the potential to reach 48 000 connected taxis, on which we make revenue on the ads and also when we fit a device,” he said.
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In 2019, Altron signed a separate deal to have all new Toyota and Lexus models sold in SA fitted with in-car Wi-Fi connectivity, with Vodacom. Altron would provide the Wi-Fi device and vehicle monitoring would be done via Vodacom’s data network, helping to boosting sales.
By consolidating the customer’s onboarding and fitment planning process, the Netstar has pushed up the number of devices fitted to vehicles.