Big Biz boost for two PE firms
IT IS money for jam and a foot in the door for two Nelson Mandela Bay enterprises which have earned a rare opportunity to do business in the big leagues. Port Elizabeth’s Sage Kitchen in Central and RV Footwear in North End emerged winners in Pick n Pay’s Boost your Biz competition which, among other benefits, will give them the opportunity to supply their products to Pick n Pay and its network of some 1 500 stores around South Africa.
Launched earlier this year, the competition was open to established small businesses, with winners to receive a national listing for their companies and products and preferential trading terms.
With The Herald’s sister publication, the Sunday Times, as a co-sponsor, the competition attracted 540 entries, 50 of which were selected to participate in intensive training.
After the training, the 50 were whittled down to 24, all of which were given listings as suppliers, and a laptop from another co-sponsor, Absa.
Sage Kitchen director Colin Lyall, who owns the business with his wife, Brenda Addison, said they were ecstatic.
The company, which manufactures ranges of pestos, jams, chutneys and jellies for both the national market and export, also enjoys a strong presence in the Eastern Cape and the hospitality industry, among other markets, with its products being stocked in hotels.
“This is a major boost for our company and a fantastic opportunity,” Lyall said.
“We will sit down soon to work out the volumes and how we will begin to supply and to which stores first.”
He said their entry in the competition had been a “lastminute thing” after he spotted a poster in a Pick n Pay store.
“We are thrilled to be able to repay the good faith organisations like the DTI and others have had in our company, and to be able to grow our business through a respected retailer such as Pick n Pay is more than the cherry on top,” he said.
The new business will allow the company to expand its workforce and production.
Roxane Titus, co-owner of RV Footwear with her sister VidaAnne Smith, said they were delighted to be winners. “Our family has always been involved in footwear,” she said.
“The business, which employs 110 people, has been op- as a “cut, make and trim” operation, meaning we supplied the upper part of the shoes to another enterprise, which completed the product.
“Now, we will have the opportunity to make the entire shoe.”
Titus said the company would be making bedroom slippers for Pick n Pay, and more importantly a range of school shoes – which she had always dreamed of creating for pupils in the northern areas.
As part of her participation in the competition, Titus smartly created a school shoe which carried a Pick n Pay logo on the sole, the effect of which is that the shoe will leave the retailer’s logo imprinted in the sand.
“This was a winner for the retailer – they loved that their logo would be left like a footprint,” she said.
“This means expanding our staff, production and the business significantly.
“We certainly support locals in terms of our materials, so everyone will be a winner as a result of this competition.”