Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards ......Mpho Booysen, Pierre Boshoff,...
Transcript of Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards ......Mpho Booysen, Pierre Boshoff,...
Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship
Recognition Awards
2015
Recognising and showcasing the Western Cape’s entrepreneurial achievers
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OVERVIEW
The Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards is sponsored by:
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FINALIST PROFILES
BEST EMERGING BUSINESS
072 728 7954
When the owner of an electrical contracting firm started designing
the odd LED lighting product for a few of his existing customers,
a new passion was uncovered. As word got out about these
custom-designed lighting solutions, the demand grew to the
extent that fulfilling his passion left insufficient time to devote to
managing the electrical contracting business, and a new business,
Techtrend, was born.
Techtrend focuses on LED product design – mainly problem-
solving designs. Potential customers approach the company for a
product where a solution is not available on the market, or where
the available solution is too expensive or unsuitable. In contrast
to other LED companies that import and assemble lighting
components, Techtrend now designs and manufactures unique
lighting for the industrial, commercial and agricultural industries
from its premises in Atlantis.
TECHTREND
Eckehard Sixt
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Phyto Pro was started when its owner, a medical doctor in
search of an anti-inflammatory, non-allergenic protein solution to
recommend to patients as part of their healing plans, came across
pea protein. The first customers were the patients in the doctor’s
clinic and, based on their positive reception, food and nutrition
products made with pea protein were then introduced to a wider
market, and a business was born.
This emerging business now provides consumers who are looking
to replace part or all of their animal protein-based foods (for
PHYTO PRO
Yesheen Singh
health, ethical or environmental reasons) with a clean, green, complete protein solution.
The product is manufactured and packaged in Cape Town and distributed nationally
through health shops and select retail outlets.
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084 742 7567
LEARNING LAB APPS
Adrian Marnewick, Dereck Marnewick, Mike Schulz
021 558 2523
Learning Lab Apps develops web- and mobile-based educational apps to make learning
and teaching easier. Its first app, WorksheetCloud, which was launched in November
2014, provides learners, parents and teachers with access to thousands of CAPS-based
school worksheets for revision purposes. WorksheetCloud also allows parents to keep
track of their child’s progress and the app suggests areas where the child should focus
his/her attention. The company has subsequently launched a free Maths app called
MyMathsApp, which helps learners practise addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division. The current focus of Learning Lab Apps is on the South African primary and
high school market, with plans to integrate curricula from other countries in the near
future.
BEST EMERGING REGIONAL BUSINESS
HERMANUS CLOTHING MANUFACTURING
Mpho Booysen, Pierre Boshoff, Zweli Kula
FINALIST PROFILES
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082 802 7549
Founded in 2014, this CMT (Cut, Make
and Trim) operation based in a Greenfield
location has already succeeded in securing
orders for ladies’ garments from some of
South Africa’s biggest fashion retailers.
In setting up the business, every effort
has been made to provide not only job
opportunities, but also skills training for
poorly educated and unemployed people
from the local community. Consequently,
as many as 73 people are already employed
in the business. The business is run on
participative management principles
and every effort is made to ensure that
all employees are engaged in driving the
success and future growth of the company.
BEST EMERGING AGRO-PROCESSING BUSINESS
FINALIST PROFILES
GREEN HEALTH INNOVATIONS (ESPINACA INNOVATIONS)
Lufefe Nomjana
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021 836 6940
Espinaca Innovations produces a range of items, primarily baked
goods incorporating spinach, and sells them from a container
shop alongside a busy intersection in Khayelitsha. To keep up
with demand, the company has recently increased production
to also supply a few external retail outlets.
The owner sources his vegetables from organic micro-farmers
through the Abalimi Bezekhaya Harvest of Hope, ensuring
that the agricultural produce is sourced locally. Apart from his
business ambitions, the ‘Spinach King’ hopes to inspire township
residents to develop healthier lifestyles by incorporating more
vegetables in their diets and where possible, by encouraging
them to start their own food gardens.
021 300 0501
BEST EMERGING TOURISM BUSINESS
CAPE CANOPY TOURRyan Larkman
FINALIST PROFILES
Sometimes a young business can be years in the making! After
10 years of scouting for the perfect nature location in which to
set up a canopy experience, the owners’ eyes were opened to
the majesty of the Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve. After a
few more years of discussion with CapeNature in order to get the
necessary permissions, construction of this engineering feat took
a year to complete.
Cape Canopy Tour now takes clients by 4x4 high into the
Hottentots Holland Mountains. Here it makes use of a series of
cables to slide guests between the cliffs and past waterfalls on
an exciting tourism adventure. The whole tour is fully guided and
showcases the awe-inspiring Western Cape natural environment.
The tour has gained rapid popularity and the Lonely Planet travel
guide has named the Cape Canopy Tour second in its list of
hottest new experiences for 2015.
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BEST ESTABLISHED BUSINESS
FINALIST PROFILES
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TRACTOR OUTDOOR
Murray McWilliams
086 999 0226
Established in 2001, Tractor Outdoor (TO) offers brands out-
of-home advertising opportunities across South Africa. The
advertising mediums offered include iconic and traditional
billboards, beach media, transit advertising and innovative projects
and activations. These bespoke, out-of-home media solutions not
only provide unique advertising opportunities to brands, but also
provide non-traditional revenue streams to commercial property
owners, schools and NGOs. TO has done numerous international
projects and services for some of the globe’s largest brands.
In order to keep up with demand for its bespoke advertising
opportunities and growing portfolio of advertisers and agencies,
TO operates from offices in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape
and Gauteng and is currently planning on opening an office in
KwaZulu-Natal.
NCC ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES
Linden Rhoda
BERGENDAL ROOIBOS
Liezl Jantjies, Ronel van Zyl, Mark Hendricks
Bergendal Rooibos, a rooibos processing
plant and a joint venture between the
Bergendal Workers’ Trust, Carmien Tea
and the Bergendal Farming Operations,
started in 2006. Based near Citrusdal on the
Piekenierskloof escarpment, in an area where
many people only have the option of obtaining
seasonal work or ad hoc jobs, Bergendal
Rooibos (a 53.2% black-owned company)
strives to provide sustainable jobs and wealth
creation for the Bergendal farm workers.
The company has a custom-built facility where it processes and packages large volumes of
Rooibos procured from Bergendal and other farms in the surrounding areas. The tea is then
either supplied in bulk to selected clients or as part of the extensive range of rooibos tea, which
is marketed under the Carmien brand and distributed through various retail outlets locally and
internationally.
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021 702 2884
022 921 8811
Founded in 2003, NCC is an environmental consultancy that
focuses on the provision of conservation and biodiversity services,
environmental management, health and safety consulting services
and training and development programmes. The organisation is a
trusted partner to major engineering and construction firms, mines,
parastatals, film and event production companies, municipalities,
provincial and national government, NGOs and conservation bodies.
NCC has designed or participated in some fascinating interventions
including the well-known Shark Spotting initiative along the False
Bay Coast, the Baboon Monitoring project around the Cape Peninsula and in ensuring the
Absa Cape Epic mountain bike race stays green. Work undertaken in other provinces has
been varied, but includes mitigation of environmental risks at Medupi and rehabilitating the
area of the Wild Coast that was used as a film set during the shooting of Blood Diamond.
BEST INNOVATIVE BUSINESS
FINALIST PROFILES
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MANMAKEMACHINE
Ian Duvenage
083 628 7736
The concept for this business, which focuses on the ideation,
prototyping and development of leading-edge hardware
technologies, started four years ago at UCT.
Initially doing once-off consulting for a few local clients,
ManMakeMachine now works with multiple large corporate clients
in South Africa and Kenya in designing, developing and supplying
innovative hardware solutions. While the business started as
an attempt to understand the interplay between software and
hardware, and connecting that to the cloud, the company now
enables the development of technology products in Africa, for
Africa, through using the creative and engineering skills that are
available locally. It takes pride in the fact that some of its home-
grown hardware designs have been featured on CNN and BBC.
STEEPLE
David de Waal
021 100 0025
Steeple was started in the Bandwidth Barn technology incubator
in Cape Town in 2012 with the aim of using technology to make
the real estate sales process more efficient and cost effective for
sellers.
The company now offers a service that allows it to sell properties
throughout South Africa from a single office in Cape Town.
Steeple’s small staff complement provides the critical estate
agency services online and by phone (assistance with valuation,
marketing, negotiation and taking care of the paperwork) whilst
allowing the seller to do the simple task of showing potential
buyers around his or her home. The cost saving is then passed on
to sellers in the form of very low commissions (generally around
1.5% in comparison to 5-7% usually charged by traditional agents).
AGRIPROTEIN
David Drew
021 422 1887
AgriProtein diverts hundreds of tons of organic waste from
landfill every week, using the nutrients to grow flies and their
larvae – maggots – the natural feed for chickens and fish.
Each ton of its product thereby allows up to three tons of fish
(ground up into fishmeal and used in agricultural feed) to be
left in our seas.
This Western Cape business is at the cutting edge of agri-
technology as it makes use of robots in its locally designed
manufacturing plant to facilitate fly and larvae growth in biotech
conditions. Ultimately, AgriProtein aims to redefine the protein
supply chains globally and create a nutrient recycling industry
with the potential to eliminate organics to landfill completely.
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BEST JOB-CREATING BUSINESS
FINALIST PROFILES
askOsca
Clint Crowster
021 705 0653
Operating from the owner’s home in Grassy Park, askOsca
provides recruitment and business process outsourcing services
to local, US and UK companies. The business was started when
the owner decided to transfer the skills he had acquired during
16 years of working in the contact centre industry to unemployed
youth in Cape Town.
OSCA (Online Sales Coaching Application) allows for people to
be coached online and once the trainees have developed the
necessary skills, they are assisted in compiling a professional CV
and are placed in a live call centre environment so that they can
apply their skills and be taken through a mock interview process.
After two years, the business employs 30 people who work with
clients in the UK, US and locally and who make calls to people in
all the Nordic countries, Germany, Italy and Spain. Some of these
locally trained staff are now top agents for their respective clients.
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MPOWER WASTE
Peter Petersen
Started in 2007, this waste collection and recycled plastics
manufacturing business initially operated from Blackheath near
Cape Town as a purely manufacturing business. When reviewing
sites that would enable the business to reduce its rental and
operating costs, the owner undertook to take the impact of job
creation on the surrounding community into consideration.
Today Mpower Waste is based in Van Rhynsdorp, approximately
300 km from Cape Town, in a local community where up to
80% of the population were previously unemployed. When
the business was started, it employed 14 full-time and 40 part-
time employees. Today the business employs 89 full-time and
55 part-time employees – one person from every household in
the surrounding community. Ensuring that every household in
the immediate vicinity now has at least one income has had a
wider socio-economic impact as crime and substance abuse have
decreased in the area.
027 213 1416
OT JOINERS
Burger Kraemer, Vincent den Ouden
OT Joiners was founded in 2012 when the owners identified a
gap in the Western Cape market for the supply of laminated
timber beams. Setting up a manufacturing operation is a capital-
intensive business, but the company has not only managed to
generate a profit from the first year, but also created 26 full-
time jobs. It focuses on continuous skills training for employees
and plans to create an additional 16 jobs within the next couple
of years.
The management team is also focusing on improving the
environmental sustainability of the business through the
installation of a 60kW PV solar plant and by implementing zero
waste programmes focusing on reuse of by-products from its timber business. [email protected]
021 931 1240
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BUSINESS WITH GLOBAL REACH
FINALIST PROFILES
TRIGGERFISH ANIMATION
Stuart Forrest
Started in 1996 as a boutique stop-frame studio servicing the
pre-school education and commercials market, the company
relaunched as a computer-generated animation facility in 2006.
Today Triggerfish Animation conceives, develops, produces and
distributes original animated feature films that are translated into
over 27 languages and licensed in around 150 countries around
the world.
Previous feature films have collectively generated more than $75
million in gross revenues across box office and home entertainment
and, having collaborated with Disney on its Africa-wide Story Lab
initiative in order to unearth African stories, it plans to develop at
least six new scripts based on the best entries received. Triggerfish
has recently produced a BBC Christmas special and is extremely
busy with a number of other exciting, yet confidential, projects.
021 713 4008
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RARITY HANDBAGS
Jaqueline Burge
Initially a manufacturer of ostrich leather products, the owner of
Rarity was approached by a farmer’s wife who explained that
farmers usually burnt springbok skins as there was no commercial
use for them. The woman then enquired whether it would be
possible to make handbags from the skins instead.
Intrigued by the idea, Jaqueline bravely set up a small factory
to manufacture these handbags after discovering that no local
manufacturer was willing to work with the hides. With a limited
budget and little knowledge of international business, she set out
to develop a new line of business. Today, African-inspired Rarity
Handbags are exported to over 14 countries and have even been
proudly carried by royals attending royal events in Europe!
021 448 1934
Ti-TaMED
Debbie Katz
021 510 8382
Ti-TaMED is a manufacturing company that specialises in the
development and manufacture of a spinal implant system as
well as high-precision OEM items, mostly out of titanium, highly
specialised stainless steels, and other exotic materials.
The first deformity correction surgery using the Ti-TaMED system
was done in Cape Town in 1998. One of the components in its
spinal system has been internationally patented and the company
holds international certifications to manufacture a range of highly
specialised, precision-engineered products, for example, medical,
aerospace, satellite and marine components that are sold locally
as well as exported to the USA, Sri Lanka, Romania, the Middle
East, Europe, the UK and New Zealand.
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FANCAM
Tinus le Roux
Tinus le Roux, Schalk van der Merwe and James Taylor met
as first-year students at the University of Stellenbosch and
after completing their respective studies, they soon started
collaborating on a number of projects and ventures. In 2009,
they started experimenting with gigapixel imaging. Within
weeks of creating a highly successful 4 gigapixel image of Cape
Town, plans were being made to extract commercial value out
of this new trend in composite imaging, and so Fancam was
born.
Today Fancam captures the crowd at large events in one single
high-definition image, which is made available online for fans
to tag themselves and share via social media. The 360-degree
interactive image ("Fancam") is then used as a platform on
which the sponsor's brand is seamlessly integrated to serve as
a digital advertising medium. Currently 96% of the company’s
revenue is derived from advertising sales to clients in the US,
Asia and Europe. [email protected]
021 913 9297
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BEST SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
FINALIST PROFILES
TOWNSHIP PATTERNS
Nicole Iresch
When the founder of Township Patterns first visited the homes
of women in Khayelitsha in the early 1990s, she was amazed at
the colour and vibrant patterns on display (in combinations that
she found surprising). To create the township® range some years
later, a group of Paris-based designers interpreted and translated
recurring township colours, patterns, shapes and textures into
distinctive print designs.
To date more than 120 local women have received sewing skills
and business training and there are now eight autonomous co-
operatives (employing 60+ women in total) that earn an income
sewing Fair Trade bags and fashion accessories for the company.
The Township Patterns items are not only popular with South
Africans and visiting tourists, but are exported to a number of
international stockists. In an exciting development, an order of
25 000 bags was recently supplied to the biggest medical
congress in Europe.
021 534 8558
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TSiBA CAREER CENTRE
Graham Moore
021 532 2750
Focusing on the recruitment and placement of unemployed
youth and early career professionals into employment, TSiBA
Career Centre was started as a means of generating scholarship
revenue for TSiBA students. As a private education institution
for youth from disadvantaged communities, TSiBA Education
NPC had traditionally been donor dependent. In order to improve
its sustainability, TSiBA is actively building additional revenue
streams to support its mission.
TSiBA Career Centre not only places people in employment, but
also provides workplace preparation and readiness interventions
for unemployed youth and graduates. In operation for a little over
a year, the Centre has already attracted international funding for
a work readiness programme and has secured a contract with
one of South Africa’s largest retailers to provide entry-level and
trainee-management staff to all branches in the Western Cape.
VULA MOBILE (MAFAMI)
William Mapham
072 330 2441
Inspired while volunteering for 10 months at the Vula Amehlo
Eye Clinic in Swaziland, a Cape Town ophthalmologist decided
to develop an app to assist health workers in rural areas access
specialist medical advice on eye conditions. Launched in June
2014, the Vula Mobile App connects health workers in remote and
underserved areas directly with specialists who are able to assist
in diagnosis and recommend treatment options or provide urgent
referrals in the case of serious conditions.
In the short time that the app has been available, it has not only
assisted patients to obtain better treatment, but has empowered health workers to
recognise less common eye conditions and better understand which conditions warrant
referral to a specialist. Although the bulk of the app users are in South Africa currently,
there has been a demand from a number of other African countries and from health
workers as far afield as Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
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BEST GREEN BUSINESS
FINALIST PROFILES
BRIGHTHOUSE SOLAR
Gabriella Garnett, Devin Race, Nicholas Bestbier, Leigh de Decker, Mark Bleloch, Jenna Bleloch
021 794 4953
When a couple in Constantia became the first home owners to sign an individual power
purchase agreement with the City of Cape Town (for generating power in a residential
area and exporting the surplus back to the City’s grid for credit), they were unprepared
for the ensuing media interest. Having been inundated with enquiries from people who
sought to understand more about residential power generation, they realised there was
a gap in the market for the design and installation of rooftop solar photovoltaic systems,
and a business was born.
Still operating from their house in Constantia, the owners of BrightHouse Solar are
promoting the grid-tied model, in an industry where most players are pushing self-
generation and on-site battery storage, without feedback to the city. Education on
renewable energy and energy efficiency now goes hand in hand with product sales.
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COLD GOLD ARTISAN ICE CREAM
Janine van Zyl
074 182 5510
In late 2011, a trained chef decided to introduce 100% natural ice
cream and sorbet to the Western Cape. Using local, sustainable
ingredients and practices and catering for those with specific dietary
requirements, Cold Gold Artisan ice cream is not only delicious, but
free from preservatives, artificial additives and chemicals.
Initially the ice cream was made in the owner’s flat, but when word
got out and orders from markets, delis and restaurants started rolling
in, she secured premises in Stellenbosch and hired assistants.
POSTWINK RECYCLING SOLUTIONS
Berenice Westmore
Postwink’s wide range of recycling bins encourages separation of
waste at source, looks good even in sophisticated offices and educates
staff, patrons and students about sustainable living.
When the owner left her position as an actuarial analyst to start her
own business, she initially focused on importing the large European
recycling containers into South Africa. However, when it became
apparent that only a few recycling collectors in South Africa had
trucks that were suitable for lifting the European containers, she was
forced to innovate. Postwink subsequently developed a recycling
021 447 8783
igloo suited to the South African context – one that all collectors can empty by using manual
labour and a small vehicle. This innovation allowed Postwink to get involved in the initiation of
numerous recycling projects, for example the Woolworths-Engen forecourt recycling initiative
and the Bitou Municipality kerbside recycling project.
The company has continued to innovate and now supplies a large range of recycling bins,
varied recycling services and signage, as well as a new planet-friendly enzyme cleaner called
the Bacterrorist.
Although the business has grown and there are now over 800 different flavours of ice cream,
the owner has stayed true to her intention to produce products that are completely natural.
The business makes every effort to recycle, minimise waste and source from local, ethical and
where possible, fully organic suppliers.
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BEST INNOVATIVE STUDENT BUSINESS IDEA
FINALIST PROFILES
CUPPA CAMPUS
Dewald Müller
The idea for Cuppa Campus started in 2013 when the owner,
then a first-year student at Stellenbosch University, realised that
walking around campus with a cup as if you were having a coffee
on-the-go had become a status symbol. He then installed Nescafe
Coffee vending machines at different spots on campus to provide
students with hot beverages at affordable prices.
By the time that 5 000 cups per month were in circulation on
campus, the owner saw that these cups could be used to advertise
those businesses that target the student market.
Cuppa Campus approached selected companies and offered
them the opportunity to advertise their logo on the coffee cups.
QR codes were also printed on the cups and the Cuppa Campus
website provided further information on the profiled companies.
Applying the principle of cross-subsidisation, the company
subsequently used some of the marketing income to enable
it to sell the beverages at below competitive prices, thereby
increasing the number of cups sold per month. When the sale of
hot beverages dropped during the summer months, it launched a
line of bottled water by using a similar concept.
076 842 5486
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GROWTH OP
Bianca Vernes
The Grow Up Garden is a concept aimed at making micro-farming
affordable, accessible and efficient by providing consumers with
an all-inclusive vertical food growing system.
The first pilot of the latest design is being conducted and a low-
run manufacturer has been identified. The plan is that an initial
launch would be made on Kickstarter and the first run of products
would enable further market testing. The longer-term plan is that
the Grow Up Garden will be sold online and at selected retailers,
and will be delivered initially to all major cities in South Africa.
Customers would be able to order customised soil as well as
organic seed strips as part of their package. The website will be
interactive and comprehensive with easy-to-follow video tutorials
on how to assemble and utilise the Grow Up Garden as well as
gardening tips. [email protected]
084 269 6444
TutorX
Adrian Peter Bunge
TutorX aims to provide a personalised and interactive education
solution through online video calling together with a shared white
board. The plan is to link learners to a national database of student
tutors attending South Africa universities. The online facilitation
of tutoring overcomes a significant logistical barrier between the
learner and tutor. This increases the number of tutors available to
learners, which would enable better learner-tutor matching and
substantially reduces the cost of tutoring. By recommending the
most contextually compatible tutors, it is more likely that the tutor
will be able to understand the challenges that the learner is facing.
A working prototype of the voice calling and shared whiteboard
forms part of the app/website and has already been developed
in partnership with another company. Work is currently being
done on the sign-up, tutor browsing interface and the payment
gateway components of the website/app, which will be launched
before the end of 2015. [email protected]
074 102 6646
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BEST SCHOOL BUSINESS IDEA
FINALIST PROFILES
Hoër Meisieskool Bloemhof (Stellenbosch)
Entrants: Jana de Villiers, Louise Buhrmann (Smart Alarm)
The idea of the Smart Alarm is that a means of security could be
offered to people in low-income houses at an affordable cost. After a
Smart Alarm is installed, the home owner/occupier would nominate
a number of people living in close proximity to his/her house to be
“guardian angels” and these guardians would be notified via cellphone
if the alarm is triggered. In this way, the monitoring and response
costs associated with traditional alarms could be eliminated.
As the alarm would be built using cellphone technology, the power
requirements for setup and operation would also be minimised.
[email protected] (Headmistress)
021 887 3044 (school)
Hugenote Hoërskool (Wellington)
Entrant: Karel van Niekerk (Karel’s Hockey Shop)
When he was in Grade 8 at Hugenote Hoërskool, Karel who is the
youngest of three brothers, noticed that his mother always had to
travel to Cape Town to buy hockey equipment as there was little
available in Wellington, the town where he lives.
He made an arrangement with a supplier to supply a range of hockey
goods on consignment, which Karel then sold to people in the Boland
town. Now in Grade 11, Karel’s Hockey Shop is a thriving business, so
much so that he is one of the sponsors of his school’s first hockey
team and his equipment is also sold in other towns in the Boland.
021 873 2111 (school)
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Bernie BerkowitzBernie is the provincial manager for Absa Enterprise Development. His
area of responsibility is driving the enterprise development agenda
for the group in the region. He played a key part in the rollout of the
successful market linkages platform for SMEs (an Absa procurement
portal). Bernie has 19 years’ service with Absa Bank, mostly in frontline
sales and relationship banking.
Erica ElkErica is the executive director of the Cape Craft and Design Institute
and has been with the institute since it was founded in 2001. Prior to
that, she worked as a project manager for the Cradle of Humankind
and the Rapid Phase Group and as a press officer for a national
government minister. More recently, she was a member of the World
Design Capital 2014 board.
Jeanne Groenewald Jeanne, founder of Elgin Free Range Chickens, was the overall winner
of PERA in 2014. A gifted entrepreneur, Jeanne started modestly in
1997 by rearing chickens in her backyard and has, over the years,
grown her chicken farming endeavours to a formidable company that
today provides employment to about 300 people.
Judi SandrockJudi is the co-founder and joint CEO of MEDO, an organisation that
focuses on enterprise and supplier development. Judi has long been
involved in various aspects of enterprise development having been
the CEO of the Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship and the head of
small business hubs for Anglo Zimele.
Mike HerringtonMike is the executive director of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
(GEM), regarded as the world’s largest study on entrepreneurship. He
is also the Team Leader of GEM South Africa and is currently based
at the Faculty of Commerce, University of Cape Town. His extensive
business experience includes senior management positions at a
number of companies both in South Africa and New Zealand, as well
as founding and selling two entrepreneurial ventures of his own.
PERA 2015JUDGES
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Philip MaraisPhilip is the CEO of LaunchLab, a mixed-use incubator based at
Stellenbosch University. Prior to joining LaunchLab, Philip founded
Heirheads, a business coaching and mentoring company that is still
operational. His varied background includes software development,
venture capital investment and business consulting.
Rob GilmourRob is the co-founder and managing director of RSAWEB, an internet
services provider and web-hosting company. He founded the popular
Net Prophet conferences for start-ups and is currently a board
member of numerous organisations.
Simon MantellA born and bred Capetonian, Simon started his working career in 1976
as a 13-year-old door-to-door salesman marketing mirrors after hours
to home owners in the newly built Mitchells Plain. A mixture of fate
and opportunity in 1988 provided him with the seed capital to be able
to establish Mantelli’s, which evolved from a pasta and ice cream retail
business into a biscuit factory that manufactures premium biscuits
and supplies major national retailers, private label clients as well as
large corporates in the food service channel.
Tessa PhilpTessa leads the business development and marketing function for
Deloitte in the Western Cape and has also worked for PWC and KPMG
in senior business development and marketing positions. She loves
meeting entrepreneurs and has been actively involved in the Western
Cape Funding Fair.
Chris LouwChris is the Western Cape regional manager of the National
Empowerment Fund (NEF). Prior to that, he worked in banking for
many years and was employed by both Nedbank and Standard
Chartered Bank.
Sedick JappieAn entrepreneur with decades of experience, Sedick is the founder
and director of Superior Cabinet Doors, a manufacturing company
that employs 65 people. A winner of the Rapport/WECBOF
Businessperson of the Year (1997), Sedick has been a board member
of Wesgro, WECBOF, TABEISA and the Cape Town Regional Chamber
of Commerce and Industry. He has also served as the chief adjudicator
for both the Santam Schools Entrepreneurial Programme and the
WECBOF Businessperson of the Year Competition.
26 | Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards 2015
Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards 2015 | 2726 | Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards 2015
The Premier’s Entrepreneurship Awards is hosted by:
Department of Economic Development and TourismDirectorate: Enterprise Development10th Floor, NBS Waldorf Building80 St George’s MallCape TownTel: 021 483 8768
www.westerncape.gov.za
28 | Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards 2015