Dear Sapphire Staff
The past year has been one that has included its fair share of challenges both internally and externally, while at the same time presenting some worthwhile opportunities.
As the global recession continues to bite, there are not many areas in commerce that have remained untouched, and this includes our areas of operation and our customer base across all disciplines. As procurement costs have risen, along with consistent and repeated budget cuts by many of our customers, we have found increasing downward pressure brought to bear on our margins as we operate in an increasingly crowded and competitive marketplace. This has brought sharp focus to our procurement methodology, and the neon sign that now lights up the corporate foyer is PRICE. Quality and service are now assumed, and price has become king. This has encouraged us to look at new avenues for possible revenue streams, and we are having on-going success within this parameter as we have unlocked a number of new initiatives this year alone. Coupled to looking for cost savings on the product side we have also done so internally as this also represents the tough financial year faced and what is to come. With this in mind the Directors decided to cancel the year end parties in both regions. We felt these resources could be better utilised internally.
The biggest internal challenge has been the discovery of a crime network within our staff. Last month this resulted in items to the value of R 101484.00 been stolen. Apart from the cash flow implications this obviously creates great concern over trust and loyalty ‒ the reason why we have managers and levels of authority in place. I want to take this opportunity to remind and stress to everyone that this loss affects all of us. The results of the polygraph tests not only assisted us in finding the truth but rather shockingly showed that there were a number staff implicated in knowing that this criminal activity was taking place ‒ these are as guilty as the one doing the stealing. Please know Sapphire is made up of individuals and thus all such activities affect all of us.
Internally we have successfully launched our own intranet and rolled out newsletters, email flyers and brochures with ease. All of our web sites have been upgraded and now include live stock on hand facilities.
Our relationship with SASOL continues to grow. In July we went live with the Sasol Secunda retail and mining outlets. This account offers continued growth and opportunity and we look forward to growing this account.
This year has also seen us activate the SARU contract for Tier 2 merchandise, along with Tier 2 for Stormers, Western Province and Sharks Rugby too. The success in landing these top clients speaks to the continuing strength of the Sapphire brand offering in the South African Corporate market. These successes are all the more significant when considered against the competition and the methods that some of our competitors are prepared to engage in, in order to negatively affect our business. We will continue to strive for excellence in every way, while never compromising our core values of honesty, integrity and transparency with our client base. In October we successfully ran the internal retail merchandising at the Soweto Rugby test between the Springboks and New Zealand All Blacks.
Our successful tender with Chevron has brought a Blue Chip client on board with a rich heritage both in South Africa and the USA, and we foresee a strong relationship being built with the Chevron and Caltex brands. Our new relationship with FORD and MAZDA Motor Company looks to be bearing fruit in the near term, and we have added both these new clients into our already developed service platforms in the Fuel and Motor Industries, which we know deliver well in terms of the demands of these commercial sectors.
A BIG thanks to all staff that sacrificed their time and in some cases “temporarily relocated” to ensure any project attempted was successfully and professionally launched on time. With the loss of some long standing accounts, we faced uncertainty, but all staff welcomed placement in alternative positions and acquired invaluable skills in accepting new responsibilities and challenges.
The Audi/VW account has grown in leaps and bounds this year achieving some milestones during the year. The team handling this account continues to self-motivate to beat their own internal targets.
As we grow, so we will have growing pains along the way. Right now we are busy with our technical server upgrades which will solve the issues of Disaster Recovery, Scalability and connection speeds, especially between our Cape Town and Johannesburg offices. These changes have been essential for us to grow, and there will be small teething issues along the way, but the result will ensure that we can continue to grow at our current pace along with new clients.
As we look towards next year, there remains much to do for us to keep improving and raising the bar as an industry leader, which will require all hands on deck, working in team, to keep achieving the goals that we set ourselves. Some highlights to look forward to is rolling out the Sapphire Solution into the new accounts and getting ready for JIMS 2013.
Please take time over the festive season to reflect on what we did well, on what we can do better, and set personal and team goals for us to reach in 2013!
