Mossel Bay: It’s not business as usual
TYREMART AND OLIVER TREADS
Lorette Grobbelaar, managing director of two vehicle tyre fitment companies and manager of a third, said the biggest challenge is cash flow. "It is under great pressure. Our turnover was zero and we had to pay our debtors. The lockdown came quickly." Grobbelaar, who has partners in the business, said she had R3- to R4-million worth of stock - a necessity to maintain the momentum of the business - that she could not sell.
She is the managing director of Tyremart in Mossel Bay and Commercial Tyre Centre (CTC) in George and has been the manager of Oliver Treads in Mossel Bay for 22 years.
Reduced salaries
"We have 51 staff to look after," said Grobbelaar. "They're currently on 50% of their salaries. We tried to pay them as much as we can, but had to reduce their salaries."
It was hard to keep personnel motivated, as sales always dip in winter, lockdown or not. The mood of staff, suppliers and customers was not good.
She was grateful to have been able to continue with business on 1 May, because tyre fitment was listed as an essential service, but it was too late. The businesses were only making 50% of their winter turnover, which was low anyway.
"There have been some difficulties with clients. Some are extremely strict about the Covid-19 precautions, while others are lax."
The nature of the tyre fitment business makes it difficult for their staff to speak with masks on. "The compressors are noisy. The personal protection equipment is awkward." She pointed out that her businesses are not admin and office jobs where people can sit behind a perspex screen all day. "It's hugely difficult to follow this new abnormal procedures in our businesses."
Return to normal
"Maybe for other trades doing things online is the 'new normal', but for our trade, if we don't return to normal as soon as possible, we will have big problems. We can't be an online business. Fine, you can buy tyres online, but someone must fit and do wheel alignment and balancing. If we don't return to 'normal' normal now, we have big problems in trade. We work on small margins – 10% to 15%. This doesn't cover our expenses and overheads."
Her opinion is that small businesses with one or two staff have less to lose. "Large businesses usually have money behind them, but medium businesses such as ours have a massive dilemma."