For Kevin Whitaker, the ‘secret’ to his business success over 14 years is nothing mysterious. The co-owner of AKA Labels, a Gauteng-based specialist in self-adhesive label manufacturing, says it’s about building relationships, being fair, and keeping staff and customers happy.
To inspire others who run their own companies, we asked Kevin to share more about his journey of ups and downs, and what it takes to grow your business in South Africa.
My business partner Anthony Jarvis and I worked for a label company together in 2009. We had a little bit of money between us and bought our very first machine. Both of us had day jobs, but at night we would go to this little container in Anthony’s brother’s factory, where they repaired earth-moving equipment, and he would run the machine, and I would wind the rolls (for printing clients’ labels). We did that for about a year, just the two of us. Then we decided one of us had to leave and do it full time. When we got busier, we employed our first operator and grew from there. Now we have a unit in Kya Sands and an 800m2 unit in Centurion. We had about two years when we didn’t know where our next paycheque was coming from. It was really tough, but we didn’t give up.
Be prepared for the hard knocks that are coming ahead. They hit me harder than I expected. The bigger companies that we were dealing with were quite ruthless at the time. Everything was COD, so it was very difficult in that respect. We were always on the back foot, but then we hit that point where suddenly it all swung around.
I would say approximately five years ago things started getting better for us. We grew our client base quickly. We adopted a strategy to gain on high volumes and lower margins, which worked extremely well for us, and our growth shot up. Our customer base quadrupled in a space of six months. We always had a few key accounts, which we kept, but when the new, bigger ones with high-volume runs came on board, we realised it was time to go that one step forward, and we started buying more machinery. And we found that every year that we bought a machine, our turnover went up by a million for that year. That’s where Genfin got involved.
The production. We had to get equipment in. We didn’t have time to wait. If we landed a new client today, we couldn’t say, “You wait for us while we gear up”. When a machine becomes available, we need the capital to buy it cash.
The first thing is the willingness to bend over backwards. We’ll always do that. Secondly, I’m not here to make a quick buck. What’s fair is fair. We’ve always been fair with our clients. I will advise them directly: “This is what you should be paying. You don’t have to move to me, but that is the price you could be paying.” And I think that’s one of our strongest points.
If somebody wants something, we’ll make a plan. We’ve had times when we’ve produced, from new artwork to new plate to new label, within 24 hours, which is normally a two-week process. We believe very strongly that’s one of the ways we’ve kept a lot of our clients; we’ve got a very hands-on customer service policy. I would say we’ve got 80 percent of our first customers still on board. And we’ve never had a resignation in 14 years in this company. It’s an extremely happy company. No one wants to leave.
Our whole philosophy is built on customer service. I know each customer personally. I make a point of meeting with them.
I’d rather meet you in person, yeah. There’s nothing better than that.
Everybody’s battling nowadays. Cost of living, wages are going up, delivery expenses are high, the cost of paper. It’s a big challenge. We try not to do more than one price increase a year – and that’s only if we really have to. We regularly carry two, three of those costs during the year ourselves.
To me, Genfin is Huibré (one of Genfin’s business funding analysts). I don’t deal with anyone else. I consider her like a friend now. She understands our dynamic, the work we do. It must be going on for five or six years. And she’s always been the one dedicated to us.
Just don’t give up. You’re going to take a lot of knocks. We started seeing fruits after 10, 12 years. You know, your one big client that you’re waiting for is out there. You’re going to find them. Just stick to it. It’ll come. Do not give up. It’ll all come right for you.
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