PROFILE

espAfrika is a cutting-edge global competitor in events management. Over the past decade, the Company has staged international music festivals throughout Africa and under their leadership; The Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF) is positioned as “Africa’s Grandest Gathering” and continues to grow and maintain its rating in the top 10 Jazz Festivals in the world and has been named the Best Festival in Cape Town in the OFLOCAL 2015 poll and in 2016 was voted one of the World’s Best Festivals by FEST 300. The CTIJF contributes more than R0.9bn to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the South African economy and creates over 3 000 jobs.

espAfrika’s highly skilled team of professionals produces and hosts a range of events, from festivals to corporate functions, gala dinners and conferences. This innovative events management Company thrives on challenges and their collective energy produces dynamic results. espAfrika’s primary strategy is to use indigenous resources and they collaborate with local businesses and the public to ensure that all stakeholders benefit from this collaboration.

espAfrika consistently aspires and inspires new business within the events and entertainment sector throughout Africa. Having diligently established trustworthy relationships in the international music industry, espAfrika ensures a lucrative flow of artists and expertise between Africa, Europe, Asia and the United States.

2018 OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE

Despite the challenging economic climate, the impact of the “Day Zero” (the dreaded day when most of the water taps will be turned off) water restrictions announcement to visitors to Cape Town and its direct impact on the CTIJF, espAfrika managed to deliver a successful and profitable Jazz Festival and funded all its operations. The Company contributes positively to all its stakeholders, and with its projected growth plan it will continue to strengthen its sustainability and returns to all its stakeholders.

VISION 2020 VISION – ESPAFRIKA’S CONTRIBUTION

In line with the Vision 2020 Vision, espAfrika is on track to meet its strategic objectives listed below.

2018 Achievements:

• Built a sustainable, respected and profitable Company that provides adequate returns to all its stakeholders – espAfrika has built a successful track record and has been profitable for the past three financial years, and is projected to continue to be profitable and sustainable for the foreseeable future thus achieving its strategic focus area and providing adequate return to all its stakeholders.
• Maintained a minimum 30% ROI for the Cape Town International Jazz Festival and expanded the footprint of the festival – During the current financial year maintaining the 30% ROI for the Jazz Festival was not attainable due to the impact of the Day Zero water announcement for Cape Town. This had an adverse effect on visitors to Cape Town and in turn affected the Jazz Festival. Moving forward, espAfrika expects the water crisis to be lifted. Additional events are being planned to expand the Jazz Festival’s footprint. The “Royal Escape” was added to the compliment of events offered by espAfrika. The Limpopo International Jazz Festival is a new event scheduled for the latter part of 2019.
  • Third-party events – tendering for events, producing and managing events on behalf of clients and acquiring own venue to further expand the business – espAfrika continuously tenders for new events and recently won a tender from the City of Cape Town to produce and manage the “Cape Town Festival of Lights” celebration which was attended by over 100 000 people. This is an ongoing process and is continually being assessed.

PROSPECTS AND FUTURE OUTLOOK

With the establishment of the new annual event in Limpopo, espAfrika will now have three annual company-owned events. This will allow the Company to maximise the use of its existing resources throughout the year and as a result further improve on its profitability and sustainability while creating more employment and a socio-economic impact.

In addition to the company-owned events, espAfrika is working on securing events both in South Africa and the African continent where espAfrika intends to produce and manage events on behalf of clients, and establish the Company as the leader in events production and management in Africa.

Through their existing and new business initiatives, social development programmes and innovative leadership the previously disadvantaged communities will be able to have more access and opportunities to this industry.

FOOTPRINT

espAfrika now operates in the Western Cape, North West Province and Limpopo.

PROFILE

Tripos has been in existence since 1970 and has two distinct operating divisions: Travel Management Services and Inbound Tours and Events. While they are specialists in corporate travel, they provide a service in both the corporate and leisure markets. In the Tours and Events department, they focus on inbound tours to Southern Africa for groups and independent travellers.

Tripos has long-term contracts with corporate clients and independent (on and off-site) travel consultants.

Tripos aims to:

• deliver a superior service while actively contributing to the development of people in the travel industry;
• invest in leading-edge technology to service clients online and in person;
• develop their employees;
• build strong relationships and leverage its membership in the Sure Group to provide clients with the best prices;
• grow the inbound tourism business; and
• deliver good sustainable returns to their stakeholders.

OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE

The challenging economic conditions had a negative impact on corporate travel margins, with companies looking to cut costs and creating a very competitive arena for travel companies. Tripos managed to increase their revenue by increasing the number of clientele, but was unable to improve the margin from corporate travel due to the downward pressure on pricing resulting from the competitive market and the continued growth of online booking tools and the sharing economy. Tripos managed to increase its outbound leisure sales considerably albeit from a low base, but was unable to get traction in the inbound tourism market which declined. Since greater margins were achieved in the leisure and inbound tourism side of the business, the ultimate effect has been a lower profit margin than originally planned. To address this, the Company is investing more resources into the growth of its leisure and inbound tourism departments.

The cash flow management has improved with a complete overhaul of the back-office administration department. The efficiency in debt collection has improved and the Company can meet its day-to-day obligations through better working capital management.

VISION 2020 VISION – TRIPOS’ CONTRIBUTION

A detailed analysis of the business was done in 2015 with the primary objective to have focused and aligned efforts across the business to deliver on its long-term goals. A five-year strategic plan was implemented with clear deliverable, strategic actions for each strategic lever and clear time frames.

Below is a high-level outline of their progress of the Vision 2020 Vision strategic goals:

• Tripos continues to grow by:
  • growing its share of the corporate market through concentrated efforts to increase the number of corporate clients, NGOs and government business;
  • concentrating more of its resources for the outbound leisure market to a senior consultant and has employed an additional person, with targets and incentives to grow this part of the business; and
  • investing resources to promote Southern Africa and niche tours to grow its share of the inbound market and remain open to partnering with established businesses in this sector.
• Tripos’ relationship with the Sure Group has strengthened in that they continue to provide support in all aspects of their business from client acquisition to supplier contract negotiation.
• Tripos was elected as the official Travel Partner by espAfrika, the owner and producer of the 19th Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
• A key value of Tripos is to put the customer first and this is entrenched in its values, employee coaching and training, incentives and allocation of resources.

PROSPECTS AND FUTURE OUTLOOK

Tripos is planning to grow the corporate part of its business to exploit the increase in tourism revenue and better margins available from this income stream.

The outbound leisure business is growing and Tripos will continue to pursue growth in this market.

Tripos’ overall objective is to grow the leisure and inbound tours part of the business more aggressively than the corporate side of the business, thereby changing the sales mix to attain better margins.

The actions in progress to achieve this are listed below:

• Develop, promote and sell inbound packages for Southern Africa
• Evaluate prospects for acquisition in the inbound tourism sector
• Sell niche packages for the Cape Town International Jazz Festival as the official Travel Partner on a long-term basis
• Sell niche packages for The Harley Davidson Tours
• Promote and sell outbound leisure packages
• Work closely with its suppliers to provide the best deals to its customers
• Sell the service to arrange meetings, incentive travel, conferences and corporate events for corporate clients
• Arrange customer service and sales training for all employees
• Improve the systems and efficiency

OPERATIONAL FOOTPRINT

Tripos is located in Woodstock, Cape Town. Its corporate client list is predominantly Cape Town based with a small percentage (less than 5%) based in Gauteng.

Their inbound tours department specialises in providing tours in Southern Africa.

COMPANY BRANDS

PROFILE

Magic828 is a Medium Wave (AM/MW) independent commercial music radio station, broadcasting throughout the Western Cape and streaming worldwide. The studios are situated in Golf Park, Mowbray, Cape Town with a transmitter sited at the centre of a geographic triangle with Paarl, Durbanville and Malmesbury as the three corner points.

The station radiates a 25 000 watt (25kw) signal to all areas of the Western Cape, unrestricted by mountainous terrain. The transmitter is five generations up on existing MW transmitters in South Africa. Magic828 also broadcasts in digital/stereo streaming via their website, mobile applications on both iOS and Android platforms, and other radio applications.

Magic828’s music format is defined as adult contemporary hits with a touch of rock and a taste of Golden Oldies, broadcasting hits from the 1960s to 2000s. Magic828 believes that their music format has no colour lines as these hits are easily recognised by listeners, constantly entertaining them through more music and less talk, thus invoking memories of past experiences.

Magic828’s listenership has grown by 42% to 187 000 listeners in 2018 (research privately done by Freshly Ground Insights) and has over 10 000 unique streaming listeners via its digital platforms.

A detailed analysis of Magic828 was done during the 2018 financial year with the primary objective to focus and align efforts across the business to deliver on its long-term goals. A short-term plan has been put in place in relation to programming, sales and marketing and establishing clear reporting channels to all employees whereby they understand their role and responsibility. A five-year strategic plan to the year 2020 was implemented in 2015 with clear deliverables, strategic actions for each strategic lever as well as clear time frames.

2018 OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE

Magic828’s core focus was and currently is to create awareness to increase listenership, generate high-quality programming to retain existing listeners, ultimately to generate more revenue and create a sustainable business which is profitable.

The radio station is built on an advertising revenue model, split between agencies and direct advertising, which is driven primarily by listenership. This relationship of listenership vs advertising revenue is evident by both increasing by more than 40%. With the base costs now established and stabilised, its focus has moved to implementing an aggressive marketing strategy to create awareness and exploring new opportunities and partnerships to achieve its overall objectives.

Magic828 understands that listenership figures from the Broadcasting Research Council is predominately used by customers to assess a potential return on investment. However, as this has been a challenge and a new relationship is being established with all stakeholders, including the Broadcasting Research Council allowing the Company to appear on their research as having listenership figures.

A strategy session took place with all employees during the 2018 financial year; members of the Board of Magic828 and the executive team were present. Action items have been identified and all employees have committed to collectively create a plan for each action point, which was summarised and presented to the Board. These plans are currently being actioned and will be monitored regularly in the 2019 financial year.

The Board of Magic828 relies on the executive team to work with management to implement the plans during the next 12 to 18 months.

VISION 2020 VISION – MAGIC828’S CONTRIBUTION

The following prospects have been identified in reaching Magic828’s Vision 2020 Vision:

• Further increasing brand awareness and increasing listenership
• Perform at various community events encouraging the underprivileged to participate
• Extending its broadcasting via programming from Magic828 AM on FM community stations
• Protecting its industry to create more employment
• Further advertising opportunities arising due to the exposure of the radio station
• Further growth in listenership
• Continue to look at joint ventures in marketing and advertising
• In conjunction with another entity create an e-Entertainment magazine realising further advertising and income
• Employing more people on an equal employment basis, as well as obtaining the HDP levels of 70% as per the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) licence agreement
• Increase its broadcast area by going digital

PROSPECTS AND FUTURE OUTLOOK

Magic828 has adjusted its business model to ensure that the business structure, processes and objectives are aligned to the requirements of the ICASA radio licence to ensure compliance. Magic828 has embarked on a digital journey, allowing it to become the first Western Cape radio station broadcasting on Digital Audio Broadcasting, resulting in Magic828 becoming a competitor with other FM broadcasting stations. An application has been submitted to ICASA to allow the Company to start digital trials from December 2018 within the limits of trial licences allowed by ICASA.

The main opportunity that exists is the agency business through its sales house, The Media Connection, which has shown significant advertising revenue growth since inception. This advertising revenue from its sales house is to significantly grow compared to previous years with an overall significant commitment received by The Media Connection in line with the Company’s 2019 revenue target set out to be achieved. Management adopted a 50|50 business model whereby local direct sales will increase steadily throughout the years leading up to 2020.

The following prospects have been identified in reaching Vision 2020 Vision:

• Increasing its broadcast area
• Further increasing brand awareness and increasing listenership with aggressive marketing
• Explore opportunities to obtain government business with the assistance of its partners
• Construct a road show to visit agencies in three centres, namely Gauteng, Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal; this has been proven by other stations to be exceedingly successful
• Perform at various community events encouraging the underprivileged to participate
• Extending its broadcasting via programming from Magic828 AM online for digital presence
• Protecting the industry to create more employment
• Further advertising opportunities arising due to the exposure of its station
• Further growth in listenership
• Continue to look at joint ventures in marketing and advertising
• In conjunction with another entity create an e-Entertainment magazine realising further advertising and income
• Employing more people on an equal employment basis, as well as obtaining the HDP levels of 70% as per the ICASA licence agreement

FOOTPRINT

Magic828’s footprint includes the Cape Town region and Simon’s Town, extending to Vredendal, Clanwilliam, Sutherland, Prince Albert up to and including Still Bay.

COMPANY BRAND