Africa

CG/LA Infrastructure Inc, which specialises in strategic infrastructure project identification, yesterday announced the recipients of its sought-after awards. The awards honour the leaders driving the next generation’s most transformative global infrastructure projects in five categories: strategic, finance, engineering, job creation, and green/new infrastructure.

“Across the business, we served 53 million meals in the financial year to June 2013,” states Chief Executive Officer, Pierre van Tonder. “That is almost one meal for every person in South Africa.” Such impressive numbers really speak for themselves and highlight just how iconic a brand Spur Steak Ranches has become in South Africa.

Plascon is a company with serious clout in South Africa, where it had its origins 125 years ago in 1889. Under his own name Herbert Evans, a new arrival to South Africa from Wales, set up a business in Johannesburg to produce polishes, varnish – and ready mixed tinted paints, a first for South Africa. During his lifetime, Evans, as well as the paint product introduced an excellent floor polish and a revolutionary Best Elastic carriage varnish that could accommodate the expansion and contraction of wood.

Aveng Trident Steel has its origins in a steel merchandising business founded in 1972 in the Germiston suburb of Wadeville. The company has grown steadily since then, making a number of acquisitions along the way and now covers all of South Africa. In 1998 Trident became part of the Aveng group, which listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange the following year.

Pedro Camacho is an entrepreneur with real vision. 16 years ago when he founded Blue Sky Satellite Communications, the industry was distinctly niche in character, though even then it was becoming obvious that it was going to be a key to growth in Africa. With very little in the way of fixed telecoms infrastructure on the continent, and that but poorly maintained and unreliable, cellphones quickly became the enabling technology, and Africa started to lead the innovative ways it is used today, famously making mobile finance mainstream.

Founded by current CEO, Clifford Elphick, in July 2005, Gem Diamonds has made significant strides in the years that followed to become a leading global producer of high value diamonds. The company is the majority owner of the well-known Letšeng mine in Lesotho and is also in the process of developing its 100 percent owned Ghaghoo mine in Botswana.

British American Tobacco has never been afraid to embrace change. This is a quality it shares with the most successful businesses throughout history and has been a major contributing factor in the Group’s success over the past 112 years since it was formed in 1902.

In the short space of five years since BevPak was established in Ibadan, Nigeria’s third largest city, the company has put down strong roots in Nigeria. In 2008, a group of entrepreneurs bought a small operation in the city and equipped it with modern machinery to produce the preforms from which PET bottles are blown. The Managing Director of this operation is Syd Carter, who has 18 years’ experience in the PET conversion industry in Africa.

In a little over ten years, South Africa based airborne geophysical company, Xcalibur Airborne Geophysics has successfully collected over three million line kilometres of low level data for its client base of major mining companies and junior exploration businesses.