Solutions
Using our services, we build customised solutions to meet your compliance and strategic objectives. We also offer off-the-shelf solutions when your time to verification has run out.
Having served big business by building SME portfolios to meet compliance, business and strategic requirements since 2004, our service capabilities are deep, robust and impactful.
We facilitate the development of Enterprise and Supplier, Preferential Procurement or Localisation strategy and policy within your organisation to meet desired and stated objectives, including:
We work with you to source and select SMEs to fulfil your strategy and meet your supply chain needs. We use extensive tool sets, channels and relationships to support our search to ensure we bring the best SMEs to your door.
Our widely recognised history of starting, building and growing businesses led to our ability to work with and support SMEs. Our business development and growth programmes support Start-Up, Early Stage, Growth Stage, Innovation and Transformation requirements, to build businesses that are reliable, competitive and scalable supporting increased procurement spend and ensure sustainable service delivery.
We offer the most cost-effective funded business development support programme in South Africa. Our fund management service includes:
We design programmes to implement your strategy, work with cross-functional teams and monitor progress towards stated objectives. Our reporting, both at an individual SME level and an SME portfolio level, addresses the needs of multiple stakeholders including trustees, directors, boards, corporate sub-committees, legislative stakeholders, etc.
The business: Initially in generalised courier services, Tania and Ashley Mulligan, founders of Kushesh identified a gap in the healthcare market. Medical products are highly specialised and transporting them needs very special care to avoid contamination. In 2010 they branched off into this niche market serving healthcare providers, suppliers and manufacturers.
The growth journey: Kushesh initially struggled with access to market, and after knocking on many doors they got a break with a hospital group, by solving an immediate crisis they were facing. They started with 5% of the group’s work and within a couple of years they grew it to 90% of the group’s work.
Since joining Aurik, Tania and Ashley have had a complete mindset change about how they view their business. Rather than putting all of their energy into working in it, they have embraced the Asset of Value concept and focus on building the systems that allow the business to run without their direct and constant involvement in everything.
Kushesh uses the indicators on the Aurik dashboard to monitor the maturity of these systems, and improve them constantly. They have managed to increase profitability significantly.
RESULTS:
Turnover growth: 57% in the last quarter on the Aurik programme.
Job creation: 5 additional jobs created on the programme, total 53 employees
Fundability: Kushesh has been approached by a number of funders interested in their business
VULEKA PLATFORM
The Business: Vuleka was born out of a need that Brian Makwaiba and his co-founder Oscar saw in their creative agency: They were promoting products in the townships, but discovered a need for these products to actually be made available to the spaza shops in those areas.
They started out trying to be an aggregator for the spaza shops – buying in bulk to enjoy discounts, to pass better prices on to the shops.
It was a great service to the shops but they realised the margins are terrible.
The growth journey: When Vuleka started working with Aurik they realised that in their value chain, the manufacturers of the products presented an opportunity to make money, rather than their primary client: the spaza shops.
They repositioned the business to provide the manufacturers a route to market in the informal economy, and to share data on the consumption patterns of those goods, neither of which had not been done before.
Together with Aurik they systematised the business, so that everything from procurement to invoicing and HR had a process that was documented.
This enabled Brian and Oscar to hire a team that could run the day to day of the business, leaving them to focus on growth.
The documenting of their finances enabled them to secure funding from Pfizer to purchase their own vehicles.
Their systematisation culminated in the development of an app, which makes it simple and consistent to record information for the youth marketers who track consumption in the spaza shops. It is also the key to the scalability of Vuleka, which is already active in Alexandra, Thembisa and Soweto, but is in discussions to expand to other parts of the country.
Results:
Turnover: 983% increase
Job creation: Employ 6 permanent and 18 youth marketers in townships
Time: Systems & processes have allowed Vuleka to hire and train people to take over various aspects of the business.
Funding: Through the financial analysis work they did, they were able to secure funding from Pfizer for the purchase of delivery vehicles.
Scale: Through the development of an app, they are now ready to expand countrywide.
The business: A graphic designer by training and passion, Vuyani Maxambele started Q99 more as a freelance designer than as a business. But as his clients requested more turnkey solutions – design, printing, branding, campaign identity, so his service offering grew. And as the offering grew, so did the complexity of the business, and the drain on Vuyani as the business owner.
The growth journey: When Vuyani was introduced to Aurik via Pfizer, he was exhausted from doing everything in his business from sales, to design to delivering of the final product! But he was the only one who knew how everything worked, he was at the centre of everything – he needed to be removed. Since joining Aurik, he has unpacked the business from his head, into systems that are documented.
With these systems in process, Vuyani trusts that everyone around him knows what they need to be doing, and he checks the processes with his team on a regular basis to constantly improve the systems.
This has released his time to focus on growth, and early this year he was able to realise a longstanding goal, of taking printing in-house. Thanks to a grant from Pfizer and the business needs analysis done with Aurik, Q99 bought printing equipment, which arrived during lockdown level 4.
Q99 has already secured a tender for a three year printing contract, and Vuyani is in a position where he has the time to give this new part of his business his full attention.
Results:
New revenue stream: Funding secured a printer which has created a new revenue stream and reduced cost of sales on existing projects.
Time: The business owner has released himself from the day to day operations of the existing business functions, allowing him to focus on the new printing operation.
REV COLLISION
Initially, Renika Rungan was only superficially involved in the Rev Collision autobody operation. But in October 2015 her husband Raven was killed and in addition to dealing with this loss, Renika had to take over the daunting task of running the business.
She soon discovered that the business had some fundamental issues: Rev Collision had been terminated from the panels of most insurance companies.
THE GROWTH JOURNEY
When Renika took the Helm of the business, She had no idea of the financial standing of the business.
She says that there were many tearful days, when she didn’t think she could run the business herself. But the support she received from her Aurik facilitators marked a turning point in an emotional journey that saw her start to turn things around.
Through the programme she learnt the importance of solid financials – she can now understand the statements and their relevance. She learnt about funding and is now in the process of acquiring funding to expand her business.
THE RESULTS
The right people doing the right things: Renika re-organised her team and ensured all staff members have clear KPIs.
Job creation: She realised there was a gap in the team and hired 2 new marketers to penetrate the fleet vehicle market & brokers.
Client diversification: She has had the workshop audited and is now accredited with
all the major insurance firms. She is a Platinum supplier for Santam’s Assessment Centre and has the top ranking for an autobody service provider with OUTsurance. She has grown Rev Collision’s client base to 18 clients.
Operational & Turnover Growth: From working on 6 vehicles per week, Rev Collision now works on average 21 vehicles per week. This has contributed to a growth in turnover of 150%.
ZABELE ENGINEERING
These technical experts ran their projects with confidence, but benefited immediately from the business support they received from Aurik.
GETTING STARTED
In 2012 Wiseman Duma and Xolani Malindi decided to start their own business, trading on their extensive experience in engineering projects. Wiseman describes how he always knew he had capacity to do more when he was working a desk job – with Zabele he is always busy and loves it. It wasn’t easy to start a business in this space – 2012 to 2016 were tough as companies wanted experience, and they had none. So they moved beyond their core offering, going as far as suppling cooldrinks and water. They finally got accepted into a Supplier Enterprise Development project for a major steel manufacturer, and joined the Aurik programme in 2016.
THE GROWTH JOURNEY
Wiseman says that through the Aurik sessions, he realised how little he really knew about running a business. There were things he had overlooked, such as the importance of compliance, which could so easily have tripped them up. Together with Aurik, Wiseman and Xolani built a strong foundation for Zabele – across marketing, sales and processes. They also diversified their target market from corporate services to online sealing, and have maintained their big contracts as a supplier to minimise the risk of depending solely on being in a single supply chain.
THE RESULTS
TURNOVER GROWTH: Turnover increased by 297% and profitability by 206% during the programme.
JOB CREATION: The Zabele team grew from 6 to 18 people during the Aurik programme and has swelled to 35 at their busiest times.
DIVERSIFICATION: Implemented a fabrication service via a joint venture during the programme enabling reduced dependency on single supply chain.
For customised, impactful Enterprise Supplier Development Solutions, contact us.
The uncertain economy coupled with the need for good BEE scores left this industrial client in a conundrum. How can they preserve cashflow in these uncertain times whilst ensuring that they secure their ESD points?
It was a busy and frustrating year. The politics of the day impacted the economy and our client was frustrated. Time had gone by and suddenly, 2 days before their annual BEE verification, they realised that they had not met their ESD obligations.
Our client secured a tender but it carried massive localisation obligations. A localised supply chain had to be delivered within 3 years at a 60% target. Over the period, a fund was established and capitalised to the value of R200m.
Industrial Sector Client needed to increase its performance on its ESD score. The full ESD budget was being spent each year earning the full 15 points. It was preferential procurement that was the challenge.
A tech client wanted to identify and build 30 rock-star youth based tech enterprises. Aurik ran a source and search activity which yielded 918 applicants within 2 weeks.
After receiving a call from our client regarding protest action around their mine site, Aurik was on a plane. The local community were protesting the lack of opportunity provided by the mine.
Using our services, we build customised solutions to meet your compliance and strategic objectives. We also offer off-the-shelf solutions when your time to verification has run out.