How one company’s transformation process is yielding dividends
South Africa’s history in some ways makes it a challenging place to do business. New legislation intended to address injustices of the past means that new approaches are required.
For some companies, this has involved looking at ways to meet the letter of the law without embracing its spirit, implementing policies that tick just enough boxes to allow compliance, while continuing to operate as they always have done.
Others, however, have embraced change as a vehicle for economic success and are reaping the benefits that transformation can bring.
One of these companies is Cape Town based coated abrasive converter – Ekamant.
WHO IS EKAMANT?
Ekamant is a manufacturer of some of the world’s best coated abrasives, indispensable tools for working with stainless steels. Founded in Sweden, its South African presence was born out of a local company’s desire to compete more effectively.
Elcarbo is a distributor of consumables to steel fabricators and Ekamant’s coated abrasives form part of their basket of goods. Elcarbo was passionate about the product but in a fiercely competitive market, they needed an edge to distribute it more effectively. With this in mind,
they approached Ekamant in Sweden about setting up shop in South Africa and brokered a deal that resulted in a new abrasives player being founded in 2009.
The collective experience of the South African team in the sanding and polishing of stainless steel, has been paramount in their success in the market. Not only do they share this knowledge through assessment and advice but they also offer extensive training to customers.
They continue to pride themselves in the awareness of the needs of their business partners, the quality of their products and services, and their responsibility towards the country and the world.
NEW COMPANY, NEW THINKING
Ekamant, as it exists in South Africa, is an unusual organisation. Strictly speaking, it’s a convertor – the abrasive products are imported in jumbo roll format and then prepped for market in a local factory. Those products are sold to suppliers like Elcarbo and then larger consumers can be served
directly.
Although Ekamant carries the product and branding of the Swedish manufacturer, that group is in fact a minority shareholder in the South African operation. But what makes Ekamant so unique is its internal culture and its empowerment strategies.
A UNIQUE TEAM
Although Ekamant is only 8 years old, it is founded and run by the same 3 business partners who started the Cape Town branch of Elcarbo: Andrew Doubell, Wendy Turton and Sonja Klopper, who currently serves as Ekamant’s managing director. Because of their long collaboration, their shared values and ideas have permeated the new company.
“When it came to BEE compliance, we didn’t want just a facade. We have always cared deeply about empowering people, so this couldn’t be a shortcut solution. A lot of work went into it.”
Once the decision to transform the company had been taken, the project was driven by Wendy Turton. It began in early 2015 and completed in August of 2016, almost 18 months later. Much of the work, says Klopper, went into researching how best to achieve the change, both in terms
of legislative compliance and effective operating structure. The Swedish partners also had to be sold on the idea, which, to their credit, they embraced.
EKAMANT REBORN
Ekamant is now 59% black owned and 30% black female owned, which makes it a level 2 BEE company. Part of how this was achieved was to take a look at how the shareholding was structured. Specifically, they decided to empower a staff member who they’d worked with for a long time.
“Megan Adams has been with us for 13 years,” says Klopper. “Her career has been remarkable. She began her career from very humble beginnings. When she came to us, she started in admin and then worked her way into the front office sales team.
While she was there, we noticed how effective she was in terms of her ability to run operations and she became operations manager. Now she’s operations director, and holds shares in both Ekamant and Elcarbo.”
TRANSFORMATIVE BENEFITS
Complying with BEE legislation to such an advanced degree could be argued as a moral position but there are significant economic benefits that also give a competitive edge in the marketplace. The procurement benefits for purchasers are not to be sneezed at: Ekamant is a Level 2 BEE company, which yields a 125% recognition level. Put more simply, every rand a customer spends at Ekamant can be claimed at R1.25. That’s huge value.
But it isn’t just about the bottom line, says Klopper.
“We don’t want to be the sort of people who complain about the law and the economic situation in the country. We would rather do our part to solve it.
“We’re not a huge corporate entity that can influence national legislation but if we work within the space we’re in, we can make a real impact on the lives of the people we work with and make a contribution to the country that way.”
PRODUCTIVITY
Over and above their shareholding structure, Ekamant have implemented a profit sharing scheme that benefits every single person in the company.
“You may have heard the idea that a butterfly flaps its wings and causes a hurricane on the other side of the world. Similarly, we believe that every action by every member of staff, no matter what their job description, contributes to the overall productivity of the company.
“Our scheme pays out quarterly based on individual targets. We’re incredibly transparent with our figures; most staff can check the numbers daily. Those staff members that don’t sit at computers get the data communicated to them verbally so they can track where we are for the month.
“We’ve worked hard to ensure that everyone sees the value of the incentives, including bringing in translators to help explain. Our education efforts go further than that; we also teach business principles so that each employee understands how they impact the overheads.”
Unsurprisingly, Ekamant has a low staff turnover, which Klopper believes is because people can see a clear path for growth.
LOOKING FORWARD
Embracing BEE has been extremely beneficial to Ekamant and the company continues to grow.
“It’s never been purely about the legislation. Empowerment is something we care about and has always been part of our business strategy, not just in Ekamant. It’s why we put so much effort into educating and developing our people. We’ve known them for a long time.
“It’s very personally satisfying to see how well this is working out.”
