On the 24 August 2012 the Exporters Club of South Africa – Eastern Cape hosted their prestigious Exporter of the year banquet.
440 guests were entertained by Amor Vittone, at the “BRICS” themed event hosted at Running Waters.
Two new categories were introduced this year, being, the OEM award, and the SJM Flex Environment award, which was previously handed out at the business chamber banquet.
The judges for the SJM Flex Environmental award were Dr Anton de Wit (NMMU), Johnny Pitorino (SJM Flex), Phinda Xipula (SJM Flex), Sam Venter (NMBBC) and Quintin Levey (Exporters Club chairman).
The independent judges for the other awards were Zodwa Kepeye – ECDC, Steve Burgers – NMMU Business School, Sam Venter – NMBBC, Lance Schultz – AIDC, Neil Mattheus – ABSA Capital and Quintin Levey (Exporters Club chairman).
The significant contributions by the sponsors made this event possible. ABSA were once again the Platinum sponsor of the event. The other sponsors for the event were Transnet National Port Authorities (gold), the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (gold) ,Tradepoint Nelson Mandela Bay (gold), Credit Guarantee (silver), Industrial Development Corporation (Silver) SJM Flex (Bronze) and KPMG (bronze). The Weekend Post and Kingfisher FM were the media sponsors.
The guest speaker on the night was Dirk van den Berg, of ABSA Capital.
The winners on the evening were:
SJM Flex Environmental award – This is a new category this year for exporters who are ISO 14001 accredited and who pursue excellence in environmental management
- 2012 winner of this category was Volkswagen Group of South Africa
- A merit award to Shatterprufe for their significant water savings project
- A merit award to Eberspacher for their continuous improvements
Best provider of services to exporters – This category is for service providers to the export industry, usually forwarding and clearing agents, shipping lines and agents, other forms of transport including courier, insurance agents, underwriters, financial services providers
- 2012 winner of this category was Bidvest Panalpina Logistics
- A merit award to CMA CGM Shipping Agencies of South Africa for their significant growth in a short period
- A merit award to Jas Forwarding Worldwide for improvement in profitability
Best exporter – small business – This category is for direct and indirect exporters with export turnover up to R25 million
- 2012 winners was Eveready Diversified Products, trading as Kestrel Wind Turbines
Best exporter – medium enterprise – This category is for direct and indirect exporters with export turnover between R25 and R100 million. The judges did not award a winner in this category as entries of the desired standard were not received.
Best exporter – corporate – This category is for direct and indirect exporters with export turnover greater than R100 million
- 2012 winner was Eberspacher
- A merit award to Borbet South Africa for over-coming obstacles
- A merit award to Shatterprufe for innovation
- A merit award to SJM Flex SA (Pty) Ltd for continued profitable growth
Best exporter – OEM – This is a new category this year and is for manufacturers of original equipment for the automotive industry.
- 2012 winner was Volkswagen Group South Africa
Exporter of the year 2012 – The winner of this award is the entity that in the judge’s opinion achieved the most success in the period under review. The winner of the Exporter of the year is chosen from one of the relevant category winners.
- 2012 Exporter of the Year was Eberspacher
Alan Straton
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