By Larry Claasen
Woolworths’s Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) programme has given emerging businesses a much-needed boost by providing “procurement opportunities” to the value of over R850,1-million over the past two years.
The retailer supported 32 small to medium-sized businesses with “tailor-made support” to the value of R391,7 million in 2022 and R453,4-million in 2023.
This type of backing has helped businesses like the black female-owned and managed K9 Pet Food, which set up 3 600m² state-of-the-art factory in Montague Gardens, to become a successful enterprise in 2014.
The retailer said it provided K9 Pet Food with guidance in developing product ranges and innovation and also support in terms of food technology skills, upskilling staff, commercial guidance, and food quality and safety expertise.
“Today, K9 supplies over 30 products to Woolworths, employing 55 staff members, 49% of whom are women, who, in turn, support 165 dependents,” Woolworth said in a statement.
Comet Security is another one of the ESD programme’s successes. It became part of the programme in 2019 and, since then, has shown remarkable growth, surpassing their development plan targets. At present, Comet employs 296 individuals: 119 women and 107 youths.
De Fynne Nursery is also a beneficiary. Woolworths helped the black-owned wholesale nursery scale up its operations in 2013, and today, it employs 40 staff and produces around 600 000 plants per year.
Aside from those participating in its ESD programme, the type of support Woolworths is offering emerging businesses goes into the billions.
“We contributed over R2,8-billion towards revenues of all small and medium enterprises participating in our supplier base, and we contributed R7-billion towards the revenues of black- and black-women-owned suppliers in our supplier base, both big and small.”
Tailor-made
Woolworths says when it comes to offering support, it does not have a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach but rather offers “tailored support.” This sees it offering backing based on needs-based assessments and gap analysis, which is then backed up by ongoing mentoring and monitoring.
In addition, its procurement and buying teams also offer their skills in support of a vision of SME growth and sustainability.
The result is a business could have a mix of support, like an opportunity to be part of a sharing establishment, cash flow support, and linkages with other enablers such as partnering with established suppliers, SME financiers or other like-minded partners.
To get support through the programme, a company has to do business either directly or indirectly with Woolworths. The group says this so its enterprise development and supplier development initiatives are aligned with its supply chain requirements.
Those getting support from Woolworths are not subjected to exclusive supplier contracts. Woolworths says this ensures that the beneficiaries are not 100% dependent on it and that, as part of the beneficiaries’ growth strategy, they can attract other customers to improve their revenue.
For all the support Woolworths offers emerging businesses through its ESD programme, the retailer does not get much back from the state for its efforts. The group gets no tax incentives, and the only recognition it gets are points for its B-BBEE Scorecard.
