Growing with every boundary and six
The Willowton Group, a company founded in the 1950s, has found a natural fit in its sponsorship of cricket, writes Edward West
THE children of the Moosa family used to play cricket on summer Sunday afternoons in Pietermaritzburg. It fostered a lifelong interest that has seen them become national sponsors of the game through their cooking oil brand, Sunfoil.
What benefit could there be for a company that is already a market leader in its primary brand? Abdul Razak Moosa is CEO of Willowton Group, SA’s biggest manufacturer of cooking oil. Willowton employs about 1,600 people who work in factories in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pietermaritzburg making cooking oil, margarine, soap and candles.
The family-owned business grew out of a general wholesale dealership in the 1950s that sold basics such as sugar, cigarettes, cooking oil and rice. Initially Willowton Oil & Cake Mills was owned by his father, uncles, brothers and cousins.
At present, three of Moosa’s brothers and two nephews hold key executive positions.
Necessity put the fat in the fire for the Moosas in 1968, when their cooking oil supply was cut off by a multinational company with a monopoly on the local market. An alternative supplier from the Free State was found. The multinational company then threatened to enter the Free State and destroy that company.
Moosa is reluctant to name the competitor even after all these years. His father’s and uncle’s wholesale business had its supply of cooking oil cut off because a quarterly sales target was missed by 0.5%.
Court cases, price wars, private investigators, brand name and packaging disputes, factory fires and tough negotiations with the erstwhile Oilseed Control Board and monopolistic competitors are just some of the challenges Willowton has overcome.
“Through the years our competitors tried every angle to restrict our growth and even to kick us out of the market by putting pressure on our bankers to cancel bank facilities. We took it in our stride, we pray daily to the Almighty and we relied on the support of our customers,” says Moosa.
Willowton’s competitors have included Unilever, Premier, Tiger Brands and Senwes, all of which have left the cooking-oil manufacturing business.
Willowton entered the market in 1970 by negotiating with the board, which gave it a tiny 0.67% quota of the national oilseed market. Once Willowton started marketing its oil, it found it could not increase the quota, so it began importing crude vegetable oil. By 1985, Willowton had slowly accrued 12% of the national oilseed quota in addition to its imports: “Where there is a will there is a way,” says Moosa.
From the mid-1990s, Willowton’s competitors began to sell their factories, which the family bought when the opportunity arose.
In 2006, Willowton’s management adopted a more aggressive brand strategy for its cooking oil in the hope it could obtain a small price premium in what was traditionally a low-margin business.
Cricket and football, especially the English Premier League and the Spanish La Liga, had been a lifelong passion of the family. Sport was identified as an avenue of brand building and their love of cricket saw them approach officials at the KwaZulu-Natal Cricket Union.
“We asked what we could do. They said they needed a sponsor for youths in the township to play cricket.”
The Sunfoil Development Cricket Project was launched and, in 2008, the first township cricket tournament, the Sunfoil Cricket Tournament, was played.
Willowton took its sponsorship further in 2009 with the launch of the Sunfoil Night Cricket Tournament, which featured players from the private schools of KwaZulu-Natal and from the townships.
I saw by the look on his face that he was not happy, so I immediately doubled the figure
“By this time, we were starting to see the benefits of our sponsorships, not only for our brand, but also by bringing cricket to youths. Cricket gives the youngsters a healthy pastime. Boredom is a problem with the youth in the townships, with the resultant crime.”
In 2010, Willowton became the sponsor of the KwaZuluNatal-based Dolphins. In 2011, the development cricket initiative was grown to include Soweto and other parts of the country. “Then Cricket SA (CSA) hit the skids,” says Moosa. With the CSA’s problems, sponsors were pulling out.
“In October 2011, we invited AK Khan, the acting president of CSA, to our suite for a braai at Kingsmead during a one-day game between SA and Australia. On my inquiry, he mentioned they had no sponsors for their Test matches.
“We asked if we could step in. My nephew, Shoaib, on the spur of the moment, offered him a low figure.
“I saw by the look on his face that he was not happy, so I immediately doubled the figure.” Within an hour, a deal to sponsor the two-Test series was struck. That sponsorship was extended to the three Tests and the five one-day matches against Sri Lanka.
Moosa says the sponsorship is a small price for the brandbuilding opportunities cricket provides. There are opportunities through product giveaways, banners and other means at the field. There are media and TV opportunities, as well as the international exposure TV provides.
Moosa says the sponsorships also sow opportunities for socially responsible investing. For example, the 2011 SAAustralia and the SA-Sri Lanka Tests saw Willowton paying R1,000 for a boundary and R2,000 for a six into the Sunfoil Education Trust, which provides bursaries and education fees for youngsters from the development cricket programme to study at schools with a strong sport ethos.
Later, negotiations were started with CSA for a long-term sponsorship and Willowton now sponsors the home Test series until 2016, with a further twoyear option, which includes sponsorship of development cricket in all provinces. The Sunfoil Education Trust will continue to grow with the R1,000 for a boundary and R2,000 for a six for the duration of its sponsorship.
Moosa says a regret in the present cricket season is a decision by the SABC to screen only one or two hours of Test cricket, whereas it was previously televised live for the full duration. Test cricket in all the cricket-playing nations is carried live by those countries’ “free-to-air” broadcasters.
“The Proteas are the number one team in the world. Hashim Amla is the world number one batter. Dale Steyn is the world’s best bowler. The SABC is depriving the public of these icons and also of the potential impact they could have on promoting sport.”
Moosa says Willowton is what some might call a mediashy company, but it is not afraid to communicate publicly when it is called upon to do so.
He also says Willowton continues to grow and has major capital expenditure plans at all of its plants.
The company also supports a range of welfare and relief organisations, an aspect of the business that is part of the family’s religious ethos.