BRIGHTS HARDWARE
BRIGHTS HARDWARE
Doing More Than Ever
For Local Building Trade PRODUCTION: Manelesi Dumasi
Brights Hardware continues to buck the trends in the retail and building industries by achieving ongoing growth and investing in expansion that sees the company expanding across the Western Cape. CEO Orlando Luis updates to Enterprise Africa on fantastic progress over the past 12-months. www.enterprise-africa.net / 3
INDUSTRY FOCUS: CONSTRUCTION
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Brights Hardware has grown to become one of the leading hardware, DIY and building suppliers in the Western Cape. Starting as an individual family owned DIY store specialising in electrical goods, the business grew steadily and started to build a product range that now sits as one of the largest and most diverse in the industry. This is a success story like no other, that has benefitted the community, the industry, and the country as a whole. Delfino Luis established the first Bright Hardware store in Boston, Cape Town in 1971 alongside his wife. Today, the company is run by their son, CEO Orlando Luis. Like his mother and father, Orlando is exceptionally ambitious and has a desire to develop the communities in which Brights operates. In December 2018, Orlando Luis told Enterprise Africa that the company was busy with a five-year strategic growth plan which would see the expansion of the product range,
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store network, and employee base. At the time, the company was busy with the opening of its eighth and newest store in Mitchells Plain and relocating its Stikland branch to an impressive new site. While expansion and upheaval of this nature could be disruptive and challenging for many organisations, Brights is comfortable with change and embraces growth. “We have completed the move of our 25 year old Head Office in the Stikland industrial area to our new 6000 m2 Brackengate store, located on the eastern growth corridor called Bottelary Road, which comprises of a new industrial zone and residential components,” Luis tells Enterprise Africa. “This single building consolidates three buildings operations, retail, admin and building yards into one plot. Previously, this was spread across three smaller plots. This should help to improve operations, reduce expenditure, and increase turnover and profit in the coming months.”
Luis has always followed a careful and considered growth strategy, encompassing steady geographic expansion outwards from the centre of Cape Town. While he is not yet ready to consider expanding beyond the borders of the Western Cape, he always has the next phase in the back of his mind. The next stage will be retail store number nine, and further expansion along the coast in the north of the province. “We are busy with preparations
// WE HAVE COMPLETED THE MOVE OF OUR 25 YEAR OLD HEAD OFFICE IN THE STIKLAND INDUSTRIAL AREA TO OUR NEW 6000 M2 BRACKENGATE STORE //
BRIGHTS HARDWARE
// WE ARE CONFIDENT THAT TRADING WILL IMPROVE IN THE COMING MONTHS TO REALISE A GROWTH IN EXCESS OF 5% // for the possibility of the ninth branch opening in the northern growth corridor along the R27 Highway by the west coast. We will also be implementing expansion of our Uitzicht branch in 2020 which is located on the north-eastern growth corridor of the Cape Peninsula.” Traditionally, the company has taken the strategy of growing in an area of 100km surrounding the city,
and installing stores in increments of approximately 10km from each other. This way, anyone working on any project will always be in easy reach of a Brights outlet. The sustainable expansion of Brights continues internally with the development of people and clients. As the company’s reach grows across the Western Cape, the brand has become entrenched in the mind of builders and DIYers but Luis has always been keen to diversify and modernise the make-up of his customer base. In February 2016, he told Enterprise Africa that bringing more women into the industry was important, and last year he confirmed that progress in this regard had been positive. “We have increased our female client base of Card Holders from 19% to 27% and will continue to influence
females and the youth in the hardware retail space,” he says. “We have been influencing many schools and social development partners with training programs to assist females and the youth to use their hands to build hardware projects and to provide practical solutions for them to learn from and to become acquainted with tools and power tools.” With young people now often choosing technology-based pursuits over working with their hands, being able to demonstrate the advantages of skill with tools is valuable for a business like Brights. Of course, the more than 850 Brights people are key in delivering any message to the client base, and so the company continues to invest heavily in its human capital. “We have managed to provide
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INDUSTRY FOCUS: CONSTRUCTION
// WE ARE ALSO NOW IMPORTING OUR OWN RANGE OF TOOLS, WELDING AND INDUSTRIAL MACHINERY UNDER A STALLION BRAND TO SERVICE THIS MARKET AND TO PROVIDE COST SAVING SOLUTIONS TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS // development for more than 150 management and staff with some form of certification in various courses and internally promoted over 100 management and staff members
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along their career paths throughout the company. We will continue to focus on skills courses in the hardware industry,” says Luis. The market is tough for retail, and for hardware retail in particular. This could be down to economic performance (locally and globally), investor confidence, unemployment, changing consumer patterns or a host of other issues. Stats SA reported in 2017 that more than R30,000 was spent every second in retail stores. However, there was a decline of 0.7% in the hardware sector. For this reason, Brights continues to invest in its digital presence, promoting its online store and making more and more products available for online purchase. By 2022, the company hopes to have a range of more than 20,000 products available online. Another effort to stay ahead of the changing market comes in the form of a drive to supply into
independent hardware retailers, building the industry and growing the Brights Hardware impact further. “We have connected with more than 10 independent hardware stores to influence them to source products from us to grow their range of products in their stores and sustain some growth during these difficult trading times with a lack of customer confidence,” says Luis. This is a fantastic opportunity for those independent retailers and allows them access to a fantastic range, at reasonable prices, and within quick and easy reach. “We are a proud member of EST Africa, our independent procurement partner, that has grown from 100 independent stores in 2012 to around 700 in 2019 of which we are the largest contributor of in the Western Cape. Our influence ensures that all independent hardware stores, including ourselves, benefits from
BRIGHTS HARDWARE
// WE ARE BUSY WITH PREPARATIONS FOR THE POSSIBILITY OF THE NINTH BRANCH OPENING IN THE NORTHERN GROWTH CORRIDOR ALONG THE R27 HIGHWAY BY THE WEST COAST // best possible rebates the group obtains from our common suppliers,” details Luis. As well as building relationships with end users, Brights has been busy growing its commercial relationships with business clients, helping to drive demand across its product offering. “We have also amalgamated
our wholesale division with an independent industrial wholesaler called Cape Engineering Supplies who added an additional 200 member trade-account customers to our books, and provided these customers with a comprehensive hardware and technical product offering at wholesale price. “We are also now importing our own range of tools, welding and industrial machinery under a Stallion brand to service this market and to provide cost saving solutions to all our customers,” explains Luis. “We have also increased our support with our strategic BBBEE partners to provide tender possibilities at our stores and have shared our systems and resources to grow their business in the hardware retail sector,” he adds. While the Brights brand continues to grow, expanding quickly but sustainably across the Western Cape,
the family feel and the community dedication that saw the business succeed in the early days remains. This focus is proving fruitful for the company, and Luis is cautiously optimistic about the future. “Growth has been hard to come by in 2019 especially during the winter months and an election year where customers and investors are not willing to commit in the construction and hardware sector, but we are confident that trading will improve in the coming months to realise a growth in excess of 5%,” he concludes.
WWW.BRIGHTS.CO.ZA
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November 2019
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Forefront of Innovation Exclusive interview with CG Holdings CEO Jason English ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
Logicalis South Africa / Momsen Bikes / Brights Hardware / Singita
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ENTERPRISE AFRICA
NOVEMBER 2019