Boidus Feature Page 16
BOIDUS FOCUS December 2014
Inside the Building Materials Supply Industry by Keeletsang P. Dipheko
CONTINUED FROM THE FRONT PAGE
Jamal Trading Founder Optimistic About Botswana Prospects Ahmed explains that business is like a child: it takes nine months before the child is born, then the child starts sitting, then crawling and then takes its first step. In business the concept comes, one step is taken, the funds are secured to start it and the company starts trading, but she warns that the most common mistake is for people to start too small or too big:
Jamal Trading is the only major building material supplier in Botswana owned and run by a woman and since its creation in 1982 it has grown to open several branches across the country, including those under the subsidiary brands of Nata Timbers and Eezi Build. Boidus Focus met with the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Jamal Trading Company Mrs. Jamal Ahmed. Ahmed says what drives their organisation are their services, their prices and the good relationship they maintain with their customers. She insists that each customer is treated equally, whether it is a one thebe customer or a P2 million customer, they are given the same level of respect and quality service. Jamal Trading has several branches in Bo-
tswana, located in Lobatse, Molepole, Tlokweng and Phakalane. Then there is Eezi Build which has branches in Tlokweng, Serowe, Palapye, Selibe Phikwe and at the back of PPC where there is a wholesale and the manufacturing subsidiary Nata Timbers. Ahmed says in making a decision to open a new branch, like any other business, they look for areas with higher populations and take into consideration the level of development as well as consumer buying patterns in order to try and predict whether people would be able to buy from the store. “Three things are important to keep in mind in business,” says Ahmed. “Number one is honesty: you give your word and you keep it; number two is your service and number three is your prices. If you don’t compromise on any of these you will be successful.”
“When you are small, until and unless you can compete on the prices, you are gone because your expenses are not covered. When you go big then it’s very difficult to sustain the expenses. That’s the main thing you need to have in business; there should be money in your pocket for you to spend on the first year. In the second year it starts coming back and then in the third year you start making a profit. If you can compromise on your expenses with the little profit you make, then you can make it; otherwise it is very difficult to sustain any business and that’s the reason many business close down.” The sister company Nata Timbers makes specialized doors which are not manufactured anywhere else in Botswana. They also manufacture a wide variety of other timber products. Ahmed says they established the company because they wanted to have their own in-house supply of products. In Botswana, these products are usually bought from South Africa or Zimbabwe and this is a very competitive industry.
“In the past there used to be peak times for business but now the pattern has changed,” says Ahmed. “There are no clear peaks and down times; one month business is very good and the next one business is down. Before, December and January were usually good times for business because everybody was taking the goods to the villages to build houses but now there is no peak time as such.” She says that when the business was concentrated in Gaborone there used to be peak times as they used to supply as far as Kasane but because they have spread to open many branches servicing different parts of the country there are no peak times. Ahmed believes that through a building materials suppliers association plenty of things can be achieved, especially if government could provide some financial support for the development of schools for skills training and other essential activities: “I think if we can work towards the future with honesty we can go far ahead and our country will be somewhere higher than where it is today. Botswana is a heaven; people here are so loving and caring. The country’s name is regarded highly all over the world and if we work hard we can bring more and do better.”