South African Business 2024
Welcome to the 12th edition of the South African Business journal. First published in 2011, the publication has established itself as the premier business and investment guide to South Africa, supported by an e-book edition at www.southafricanbusiness.co.za. A special feature in this journal focusses on the relationship between tertiary education, training and the jobs market. The youth unemployment rate is referenced in a discussion of the various measures that are being taken in the public and private sectors to help prepare young people for work, or to encourage them to start businesses. The role of the country’s Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) is highlighted. Regular pages cover all the main economic sectors of the South African economy. This includes tracking the rapidly evolving renewable energy landscape and reporting on the progress of exploration and discoveries of oil and gas off the coast and on land. Landmarks such as BMW’s 50-year celebration of making cars in South Africa are noted and a snapshot of each of the country’s provinces is provided. South African Business is complemented by nine regional publications covering the business and investment environment in each of South Africa’s provinces. The e-book editions can be viewed online at www.globalafricanetwork.com and www.southafricanbusiness.co.za. These unique titles are supported by monthly business e-newsletters. The Journal of African Business joined the Global African Network stable of publications as an annual in 2020 and is now published quarterly.
Welcome to the 12th edition of the South African Business journal. First published in 2011, the publication has established itself as the premier business and investment guide to South Africa, supported by an e-book edition at www.southafricanbusiness.co.za.
A special feature in this journal focusses on the relationship between tertiary education, training and the jobs market. The youth unemployment rate is referenced in a discussion of the various measures that are being taken in the public and private sectors to help prepare young people for work, or to encourage them to start businesses. The role of the country’s Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) is highlighted.
Regular pages cover all the main economic sectors of the South African economy. This includes tracking the rapidly evolving renewable energy landscape and reporting on the progress of exploration and discoveries of oil and gas off the coast and on land. Landmarks such as BMW’s 50-year celebration of making cars in South Africa are noted and a snapshot of each of the country’s provinces is provided.
South African Business is complemented by nine regional publications covering the business and investment environment in each of South Africa’s provinces. The e-book editions can be viewed online at www.globalafricanetwork.com and www.southafricanbusiness.co.za. These unique titles are supported by monthly business e-newsletters. The Journal of African Business joined the Global African Network stable of publications as an annual in 2020 and is now published quarterly.
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OVERVIEW<br />
Manufacturing<br />
Glass group expansion creates 300 jobs.<br />
SECTOR INSIGHT<br />
Manufacturers are responding<br />
to global trends.<br />
Ardagh Group is a large multinational with 63 metal and<br />
glass-production facilities in 16 countries, with more<br />
than 20 000 employees. The group’s 2022 acquisition<br />
of Consol Glass created Ardagh Glass Packaging –<br />
Africa, and led to immediate investment in an expansion of the<br />
glass-container plant in Nigel, Gauteng.<br />
The two new furnaces that have been added to the facility, at<br />
a cost of R3-billion, are expected to create 300 new jobs and have<br />
made it the biggest of its kind in Africa. Other Gauteng facilities of the<br />
group are located at Wadeville and Clayville and there is a Western<br />
Cape factory in Bellville. The group’s other continental assets are in<br />
Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria.<br />
Another company to make an investment in Gauteng is TFG,<br />
with the opening of a clothing manufacturing facility in downtown<br />
Johannesburg. Workers at the Nugget Street factory are making<br />
T-shirts for the Jet brand and blankets and bags for various CSI<br />
projects. Up to 40 hearing-impaired students from the St Vincent<br />
School for the Deaf are being trained and employed at the factory.<br />
TFG, which counts Foschini, TotalSports and Markhams among its<br />
brands, has been buying up clothing factories for nearly a decade<br />
and is now in a position to respond more quickly to fashion trends<br />
than when it was more dependent on imports. Among TFG’s<br />
acquisitions were Prestige Clothing Maitland and Prestige Clothing<br />
Caledon. The group plans to increase the percentage of locally made<br />
clothing items from the current level of 35% to 55%.<br />
Two stockwatchers in the Financial Mail (FM) have referenced<br />
trends that are worth watching, and noted that certain companies are<br />
gearing up to respond. Marc Hasenfuss noted a “vibrant sprawl of niche<br />
packaging operations” in supporting Caxton, previously a company<br />
ONLINE RESOURCES<br />
Chemical and Allied Industries’ Association: www.caia.co.za<br />
Manufacturing Circle: www.manufacturingcircle.co.za<br />
<strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> Textile Federation: www.texfed.co.za<br />
associated with printing and<br />
publishing only, as a stock<br />
pick. Niches include flexible<br />
packaging (for wine bladders)<br />
and cups for takeaway drinks.<br />
The growing home delivery<br />
market post-Covid is driving<br />
the need for more containers.<br />
Another FM correspondent,<br />
Anthony Clark, praised Omnia<br />
Holdings for its focus on “future<br />
farming”, and predicted a good<br />
year for agriculture in <strong>2024</strong>.<br />
Sappi has spent R7.7-billion<br />
on expanding its dissolving<br />
pulp plant in KwaZulu-Natal. The<br />
project aims to boost the annual<br />
production capacity of dissolving<br />
pulp (DP) at Saiccor Mill by an<br />
additional 110 000 tons annually,<br />
taking production to 890 000<br />
tons a year and reinforcing the<br />
company’s position as the world<br />
leader in the manufacture of<br />
Lyocell, a cutting-edge material<br />
of the future. Lyocell is a form<br />
of rayon consisting of cellulose<br />
fibres made from dissolving<br />
pulp that is reconstituted by<br />
dry jet-wet spinning. The fully<br />
biodegradable and compostable<br />
fibre is used to make textiles. ■<br />
SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS <strong>2024</strong><br />
42<br />
PHOTO: Ardagh Glass Packaging – Africa
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