Sources supplies from local companies
Braintec Cleaning Services, the integrated cleaning and chemicals manufacturing company, strongly supports the government’s citizen economic empowerment initiatives, which stakeholders believe is key to sustainable economic growth and prosperity.
As a show of gallantry, Braintec has taken a bold decision to source their supplies from local companies. “Some of the services and products that we source, include but are not limited to branding services, staff uniform, marketing, promotional among others. We continue to adhere to that policy because we believe that by growing the local demand, this will grow the economy as more businesses will exist, and demand for cleaning and cleaning consumables will be high, which will benefit our business in the long run,” said General Manager, Brian Ketshabile.
Braintec is among the leading integrated cleaning companies locally, which has, albeit coming from humble beginnings, managed to transition from just a cleaning company to laundry services and manufacturers of cleaning chemicals as well as selling hygiene consumables such as brooms, mops, cleaning trolleys, mop caps, toilet paper among others. The company, which was financed from savings by founder, Ketshabile, is just over ten years, but its success story is inspiring.
“Reflecting on the 10 years of existence, I would say our major achievement is growing from operations in a room at home to Braintec having its own office, growing from having my wife and I as the only employees to having 80 plus employees. Creating employment that 80 plus families are benefiting is also an achievement worth noting,” Ketshabile told Botswana Guardian. The Braintec owner has spoken fondly of how human capital has lifted the company to where it is today. “Human Capital is a key component or driver of our business. It is by far the most important of our internal operations. As a business, we ensure that we build a team with relevant skills, experience, health and training. This has ensured that we have a valuable and productive human capital that will drive the business objectives with absolute efficiency.”
Braintec continues to invest in human capital by recruiting the right skills and experience, training employees on the right skills and knowledge for continuous improvement, promoting and rewarding performance and successes and placing skills where they are best suited for optimum performance.
“And because of the industry that we serve it’s key that we have the requisite skill set so that we can be able to evaluate and identify the best hygiene requirements for our clients.
The Gaborone based operation, which also has running contracts outside Gaborone, has acknowledged that, while they have managed to scale up challenges and competition still forms part of their existence. In every sector, there is always competition and cleaning industry is no exception. It has always been our belief that while there are many cleaning companies locally which will present themselves as competition, we will continue to differentiate ourselves in terms of how we service our customers. In this industry, quality service is of paramount importance,” explained Ketshabile, who has managed to transform from being a communications professional to a business owner, away from the sector he was trained on.
He told Botswana Guardian recently that, strategic relationships in business are key. This explains why they have a strong relationship with Geochem, a manufacturer of specialized chemicals. Braintec is agent to GeoChem products which further widens their ( Briantec) products offerings.
“This relationship helps us to be able to serve markets such as hospitality, healthcare, food processing industries such as abattoirs, bakeries, butcheries, industrial kitchens, restaurants and industrial and commercial laundries. This partnership further enables our sales staff to be trained by Geochem on Client servicing process to ensure high levels of customer satisfaction,” he disclosed. Braintec, like peers, has been derailed by COVID - 19.
“I envision Braintec being recognised as the leading and most trusted hygiene supplies and cleaning services provider who consistently caters for customers’ personalised needs. Our continued professional and quality service provision will guarantee us client satisfaction. Some of our major plans in the pipeline include brand awareness building, efficiency, increasing client satisfaction, employee growth and community engagement. All these fall within our five- year strategic plan. Having seen the swift expansion of our business in the past few years, there is absolutely no reason to doubt the possibility of our goal becoming true. We look forward to the next ten years of sustained growth and success,” he concluded.