Construction World June 2018

PROPERTY

INCUBATING SMEs 2018 marks a decade of impact for Property Point, which has been a driver of transformation and small business growth within the property industry over the 10 years since it was founded by Growthpoint in 2008.

their staff and nurture the career aspirations of their people. Rewarding excellence, Property Point gave three outstanding graduates and four runners-up a combined R360 000 boost for their businesses – R70 000 for each winner and R50 000 for the runner-up position in each intake. The top achiever among the five Attacq enterprise and supplier development grad- uates was TMT Cleaning and the runner-up was Makasela Air. The top performer of the nine Growth- point enterprise development graduates was Kusile Hygiene and Industrial Services, and sharing the award for the runner-up position were Arebone Building and Cleaning Enter- prise and Kgoane Infrastructure Solutions. Top out of the the seven Growthpoint supplier development graduates was Mila Cleaning Services, and the runner-up was Ndabendala Trading Enterprise.  Together these successful graduating small and growing businesses have created 1 122 jobs, gained 135 new clients and accessed contracts valued at over R271-million.

I n this time, it has created 2 066 full-time jobs and R865,6-million in procurement opportunities generated for the 130 SMEs that have participated in its two-year incuba- tion programmes. These small businesses have reported 43% growth in revenue. Shawn Theunissen, head of Property Point and Corporate Social Responsibility at Growthpoint, says: “We are incredibly proud of the achievements of the small business- es in the graduating class of 2018 and we celebrate their fundamental and exceptional growth. Property Point is also delighted to celebrate a decade of impact, during which we have become a leading partnership plat- form for both public and private participa- tion in enterprise and supplier development for the property sector. From the start of our journey building sustainable small business- es, we have focused on the need to see and measure our impacts. As we say in property, we need to understand what the yield will be for our investment in small business. Just doing something isn’t enough, we want to achieve real growth and impact.” Property Point’s graduating class of small businesses was celebrated at an inspiring ceremony where keynote speaker, musician and Mi Casa frontman, J Some- thing, who has recently opened a restaurant,

launched a book and appeared as a judge on My Kitchen Rules SA , inspired the gradu- ates with the story of his own entrepreneur- ship journey. The event was also attended by CEO of Growthpoint South Africa Estienne de Klerk and interim CEO and CFO of Attacq Melt Hamman, and representatives of both companies. De Klerk, congratulated the entrepreneurs on graduating from the intense Property Point incubation programme. He pointed out that Growthpoint itself started small. In 2001, it owned only nine properties worth R100-million. Today, 17 years later, Growth- point is the largest South African primary JSE-listed REIT and provides space to thrive in a diversified portfolio of 559 property as- sets, locally and internationally, with a total value approaching R130-billion. Hamman praised the entrepreneurs for the hard work they had put into building their businesses. As a relatively young business itself, Attacq has grown from no employees to 128 in a few years. Hamman believes that success in business is all about people, and how you manage and develop your employ- ees. He encouraged the small businesses to create a community among themselves, their clients and suppliers, and to look after

Twenty-one thriving small businesses have graduated from the rigorous two-year incubation programme offered by Property Point as part of the enterprise and supplier development initia- tives of South African real estate leaders Growthpoint Properties and Attacq. Together these successful graduating small and growing businesses have created 1 122 jobs, gained 135 new clients and accessed contracts valued at over R271-million.

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD JUNE 2018 JUNE 2018