Cape Town airport calls for retail tenders from its neighbours

CAPE TOWN International Airport (CTIA) has invited black retail businesses to bid for an outlet at the airport by submitting their tender documents in a bid to facilitate transformation.

The Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) hosted the retail summit on Friday, its third following others held at OR Tambo International Airport and King Shaka International Airport.

Currently the airport has 65 retail outlets and there are 23 new opportunities available at the CTIA in the food and beverage, fashion apparel, speciality and forex sectors.

Deon Cloete, CTIA general manager, said the airport had learned a lot from previous summits, including that tender documents were too expensive and complicated to understand.

“The told us they don’t understand what the airport is about, what’s driving the airport, so when you pitch, and when you bid you are doing it almost as if you are in a vacuum. We learnt from that. Our tender documents now are accessible and understandable (and) we don’t charge an arm and a leg for them anymore.”

He said he was mindful that as an airport “you cannot be successful if your business is based on a shaky social contract”. It was important to enable local communities around the airport, such as Delft, Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain and various other areas where there is a need to create opportunities for jobs and driving the economy, he said

“It is our responsibility to make sure we make our retail partners successful and that drove the process and decision to restructure the business and re-position it. The business is exciting; it’s growing,” he said.

Deidre Davids, communications manager at Acsa, said tenders would be put out to market this month with a period open for two months, as opposed to one, to provide ample opportunity for prospective entrepreneurs to participate.

Davids said the company was mindful of its responsibility to stimulate and grow self-sustaining and independently competitive black businesses, in line with its transformation agenda.

“These awareness summits are so important, as they provide an opportunity to explain the tender processes, potential pitfalls, as well as answer questions.” joseph.booysen@inl.co.za