Esquire marks coming-of-age and
Celebrations are in order for Esquire Technologies as they celebrate their 18th birthday.
Riding the waves of change in the country, their commitment to “be the change” has helped them reinvent themselves over the years and stay relevant. This is the joint story of two brothers who serve as champions for SMMEs (small, medium and micro enterprises) in South Africa. The company has grown in leaps and bounds, and aims to help emerging entrepreneurs embrace the digital age that the world has transitioned into, and also serves as one of the largest IT and digital lifestyle resellers in southern Africa.
Esquire Technologies is an award-winning company that caters to the reselling of IT, security and digital lifestyle products in southern Africa. The company started in 1999 and currently has its headquarters in Samrand, Gauteng. Their footprint extends well into the Western Cape, KwaZuluNatal and beyond our borders into Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Swaziland, with plans to expand into more regions.
Roots
Mahomed Cassim, chief executive, and Asgar Mahomed, managing director, started the company in 1999 with three employees. Today the company employs over 165 people on a full-time basis and an extra 40 external contractors. Serving the nation through their work has remained top on their agenda, enabling technology to reach distant corners while empowering employees, clients and stakeholders. The family-orientated business has grown alongside its employees, many of whom started out with the company and are still there.
Cassim grew up in Pretoria and studied computer programming, graduating with a diploma in Advanced Micro Computing at the Computer Academy of South Africa at the age of 20. His first job was as an IT developer in Johannesburg, a post he outgrew within two years.
Mahomed enrolled in the same course as his older brother, and entered the banking sector with Standard Bank, working in the foreign exchange division.
The brothers would embark on hitchhiking expeditions to travel to college from Pretoria to Johannesburg and back together on a daily basis, earning the nickname “the computer guys” as they could fix any computer problem. Word soon spread and their clientele grew over the next three years.
The brothers had learnt about running a business from their parents, who operated a general dealer. They sold toys in school to earn pocket money and while at college, they sold audio cassettes and floppy disks to students. They managed to save R4 000 which served as their start-up capital upon starting their first business venture.
With big dreams, self-determination, resilience and faith, the brothers formed Micro-Matrix in 1988. The model of the company was simple. Instead of buying whole computers from others, the brothers would source and buy parts, assemble and sell their own versions, operating from the dining room table — a table Cassim still eats at to this day.
As the company expanded, they soon bought their first car, a Toyota 1.6GL. This car soon doubled up as office space as they connected with clients, trading and delivering. This was a major milestone as it ensured mobility for the brothers.
The company was expanding at a rapid rate and new premises were opened in Pretoria North. MicroMatrix moved into the city CBD in 1992 in Sunnyside to gain access to students within the surrounding areas, a move that saw the company’s sales soar.
Roles were evenly distributed amongst the dynamic duo. Mahomed was in charge of the assembly line while Cassim focused on the selling aspects, as the company expanded rapidly. Seventeen stores were opened countrywide as the business continued to expand between 1991 and 1995.
The Casey PC
Around this time, their own computer brand called the Casey PC proved to be a hit. This computer mimicked the American PC brands in terms of operating but offered customers a more personalised look and feel, including the option of a wooden, granite or marble finish. The Casey PC brand, in high demand, grew rapidly alongside Micro-Matrix. The growth of the legendary PC soon surpassed their other business.
Building over 300 Casey PCs a day, in 1996 Casey Electronics was officially opened in their Centurion premises. Chain and retail stores soon opened nationwide, attracting both government and private clients. The access to government tenders helped the company grow exponentially and the Casey PC brand soon became a big player in the ICT space.
The company started building over 2 000 Casey PCs a week! Casey Electronics became a fully fledged PC distributing company. The turnover was well over R150-million.
Challenging times
In context of the South African market and world market dynamics, 1997 was the “dotcom boom” and many people were listing initial public offerings and investing in the stock exchange.
Riding the waves of change was not always easy for the brothers who experienced many challenges along the way. Operating as a previously disadvantaged company, business became tough during the country’s transition period into democracy.
Entering a highly monopolised and new field, having to work extra hard to gain suppliers’ trust and respect required a lot of energy, focus and resilience. Establishing a commitment to changing perceptions and mind-sets was needed across the board. Credit facilities entrusting them with financial aid also proved to be a huge barrier to entry, but the brothers soldiered on in spite of this and continued to prosper.
They decided to list Casey Electronics on the JSE in September 1998, becoming one of the first black empowerment companies to list on the stock exchange. Mahomed Cassim was 31 at the time and Asgar Mahomed had just turned 29.
Towards the first half of the year in 1999, a black empowerment group made an offer to purchase the holding company Casey Investment Holdings, which consisted of Micromatrix, Casey Electronics and a few other company divisions. Upon agreement, the brothers accepted a five-year restraint of trade.
The brothers decided to rest and enjoyed a sabbatical for an entire year, in which time they would relax, travel, and explore the world. This only lasted for three months — they soon got bored and the entrepreneurial itch resurfaced!
Birth of Esquire Technologies
With a wealth of business wisdom, they decided to help emerging entrepreneurs enter the industry and overcome challenges they faced when starting up. This was the birth of Esquire Technologies, which emerged in June 1999. It became the champion for SMMEs — a core of Esquire’s business model still evident today. It has become one of South Africa’s leading, award-winning distributors, with a strong focus on IT and digital lifestyle products. To date, the company works alongside 19 000 SMME customers that buy directly from the Esquire.
Loyalty as key character trait has come to serve the company well over the years, as they continue to create an entrusted buying group type for SMMEs. This comes about through their JIT (Just in Time) system, which the business follows to maintain the flow of inventory. The company has you covered in terms other technical divisions too by providing technical support, availing various assembly services and providing marketing support and access to a national distribution network, which their SMMEs benefit from directly, upholding standards of timely delivery.
2010 World Cup
As the saying goes, change is the only constant, and no stranger to such, the brothers were ready to innovate yet again. The spirit of the world cup caught the nation by storm as South Africa won the bid to host the Fifa World Cup in 2010. Negotiations for Fifa-branded IT products were underway for the brothers too. They wanted to create IT products branded under the official Fifa logo for Fifa — a concept unheard of back then.
Their tenacity paid off and after months of negotiations, they soon manufactured the first Fifa IT-branded licensed products in South Africa. Products ranging from mouse pads, to CD wallets and CD case holders soon flooded stores across the country and
Building over 300 Casey PCs a day, in 1996 Casey Electronics was officially opened in their Centurion premises.