I have a very particular set of interpersonal skills.. and quite an incredible story. For a brief overview of my character and personality traits please view the below courtesy of 16Personalities.
I was born in June 1991 and spent my formative years living in the farmland region of Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN), South Africa. My family have based much of their professional working life entrepreneurially in the service industry. My mother worked in Marketing, and my father in supermarket food Retail. The combination of these two professions layed the foundation for my interest and passion of the service industry.
Our entrepreneurial roots run even deeper. My grandfather opened the very first gas and automobile service station in Eshowe, Kwa-Zulu Natal. The company traded until___. This laid the foundation for my father to invest in the SPAR food retail franchise, opening his first grocery outlet in the same area in ___. The success of this store prompted my father to then invest in two more SPAR stores, one in Durban North, and the other in Richards Bay – both in South Africa. With the success and growth projections of the outlet in Durban North, our family decided to sell the two outlets in Eshowe and Richards Bay and inject investment into the Durban North store, evolving it into a SUPERSPAR store model format. We relocated to the area permanently in 1998.
I studied and completed my 3 year (BBA) Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Brand Building & Management in 2013 at Vega School of Brand Leadership – a division of the (IIE) Independent Institute of Education in South Africa. This opportunity gave me the privilege to explore differentiated markets and their relative brand experiences, gaining incredible insight whilst fuelling my desire to implement systemic business & marketing strategies. After completing my degree I travelled to Perth, Australia, where I worked in the FMCG industry for Steggles/Baiada Poultry helping with product procurement and processing of goods for leading retailers such as Coles and Woolworths. It was a good opportunity as it allowed me to further explore, experience and learn about the Australian culture(s) and market opportunities as my family were looking to move in the near future.
I then returned to Cape Town, South Africa; working for a leading South African production company in Tswelopele Productions as an Executive Assistant. I joined on a short term contract and was promised growth into the upper tier of the company. I assisted with all administration across their publicity, production and accounts departments for Top Billing, Expresso Show and Afternoon Express. However, I saw little growth opportunity and concluded that I had gained ample experience from the industries above and decided it was time for me to pursue my true passions with my value added skill-set.
In 2016, my family were in the midst of completing a ZAR 80m (USD $4m) retail development in Durban, South Africa in which my expertise were needed. I joined the family business as Floor, Marketing and Operations Manager on a 5 year project where I enjoyed an imperative role overseeing the Health, Produce and Gifting departments as well as helping manage the overall new-look store’s growth phase – and through the initial stages of the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic. My family made the move to Perth, Australia in December 2019 and were effectively locked in from leaving Australia from March 2020 onwards – leaving the responsibility of the family business & centre’s management up to myself and our Director, Garth Slater.
The Covid-19 pandemic brought with it many challenges whilst disrupting trade & finance globally. As confidence in global markets continued to be constrained throughout 2020, it was during this period I made the decision to pivot; opening a remote digital marketing services and consulting agency in EastBranding PTY Ltd. as well as a Linear Low-Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) manufacturing plant, in ARC – Africa Roto Compounds – a division of IPC – Innovative PVC Compounds. The idea here was to take advantage of the ever growing digital landscape as the world turned its focus predominantly toward automation and streamlined business practices, whilst also being able to offer an essential product to the African continent – Water Storage Tanks.
I oversaw the construction of the factory, installing of the production line machinery and started my role as Director and Sales Manager, introducing my definitive brand building strategies shortly thereafter. My focus was on trialing & perfecting the product formulae in the local market before exporting to the wider international markets. Thanks to this we enjoyed reasonable success in our first year recording sales of over +-ZAR 12m (USD $600k). 2022 saw us achieve average monthly orders of between +-70-100MT taking a significant share of the local market. I took this project on to assist my partner(s) in gaining access to this market segment as they did not have the capacity to do so whilst focusing on operating the holding company, IPC – Innovative PVC Compounds.
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I look forward to connecting with you.
