Ford the belle of exporters ball in the Bay

Ford SA was the big winner at the glittering 2022 Eastern Cape Exporter of the Year Xevxexnxtxixn. –GXQXEXBCERREHDAITON Friday night.

Recognising innovation, transformation and strides towards a more eco-friendly footprint, the province’s leading exporters and service providers were given the nod in eight categories for their successes over the last year. For managing to increase its direct export turnover by 58% and indirect export turnover by 42% over the year, Ford SA scooped the coveted EC Exporter of the Year award.

It is the first time Ford has won overall, after claiming the accolade for best exporter in the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) category four times.

Ford has a level 2 BBBEE accreditation, improving from a level 8 in 2018, and exports directly to Argentina, Thailand, Turkey, Russia, Uruguay, Itawly,:f6ra4n.c9e8, 9pt Germany and the UK and indirectly to more than 100 global markets.

This year, the Best Exporter category was separated into: OEM, corporate for exporters with direct and indirect export turnover greater than R200m, medium enterprise for turnover between R25m and R200m and small business for turnover below R25m. The SJM Flex Environmental Award, a merit award, was also complemented by the SJM Flex Environmental Practice Award.

The winner of the IDC Job Creation Award was SAM Engineering and the merit awards went to Isuzu and Micro Care Solar.

The best Provider of Services to Exporters overall was DG Capital Incentives and the merit recognitions went to OM & Baker and Toyota Industry Equipment.

Micro Care was the winner of the Best Exporter: Small Business category and the merit awards went to OPM Tooling.

For Best Exporter, Medium Enterprises, Acoustex Group took the overall prize and the merit award went to S4 Development Services.