Putting a lock on crime
RUNNING a cellphone store about eight years ago was a dangerous business to be in. Robberies were a daily occurrence, with heavily armed robbers striking almost with impunity. For serial entrepreneur Michael Gewer, who was managing a division at a large cellular dealer at the time, there had to be a better way.
On his way home one day, Gewer had his “Eureka moment”. What if he were to build a secure locker with separate compartments, each with its own time delay? No robber would wait around to get one phone every five minutes.
“If you think about a robbery, the thieves have everything on their side: inside information, the fear factor, the element of surprise. The one thing they don’t have is time. So we set out to create a product that builds time into the process,” said Gewer.
His lifelong friend, technology entrepreneur Lance Baum, was the right engineer to help design and build the kit.
Gewer and Baum patented the idea, and started working on various designs and technologies. After several months, they had built their first working product, aptly named CellVault™. Their breakthrough came when one of the pilot retail stores was hit by robbers. The store lost nearly R1 million in high-end cellphones from its standard safe; zero from its Cellvault. Today, the CellVault product can be found in more than 1 500 high-end stores.
While CellVault was the product that launched the VaultGroup’s entrepreneurial journey, the company has barely scratched the surface of the growing demand for secure storage solutions in the country from retailers, banks, commercial and residential property owners, courier and logistics companies.
Gewer believes the company’s new PackVault product is ideally placed to capitalise on the “next big thing” in retail, Click & Collect. Consumers order and pay for their goods online, then collect them from a secure locker using a one-time pin or a QR code.
“Retailers are in a tough place right now. The cost of acquisitions and getting products into clients’ hands is too high. Covid-19 is keeping people out of the malls. Most of all, consumers want a different experience. Click & Collect gives consumers the convenience they want, while still offering mall owners and retailers the opportunity to get people into the malls, and do a potential upsell,” said Gewer.
For Baum, it’s all about the power of using technology to drive real innovation and realworld solutions for the problems facing businesses and consumers alike. What makes VaultGroup unique, says Baum, is the fact that it understands the South African environment and specific challenges better than anyone else, and meets those challenges with home-grown solutions.