AIRVENT GROUP
Airvent Group Grows From
Strength to Strength PRODUCTION: Manelesi Dumasi
Cape Town’s Airvent Group, one of the country’s leading HVAC businesses, is continuing to realise progress as it aims to build its footprint around South Africa. Having recently opened a new branch in George to attack the southern market, the group is now well positioned to offer a one-stop shop solution for domestic and commercial clients of any size.
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In September 2016, Enterprise Africa learned more about Cape Town-based Airvent Cape, one of the country’s leading HVAC organisations. Back then, Airvent was realising tremendous success, despite being forced to operate in a flat market brought about by recessionary pressure and economic instability. 12-months on, the economic environment remains uncertain but Airvent continues to grow at an unprecedented rate, achieving success that others could only dream of. Having recently completed a number of high-profile projects, with more to come online soon, and with a strong pipeline for the future, the Airvent management is thinking about its next move in expanding the business across the entire nation. “Ideally, we want to be recognised as one of the top players in South Africa,” says Airvent Group CEO, Mark Rogers. “Right now, our turnover sits at around R220 million and in the next three years we want to get to R500 million. It’s a steep target but with everyone aligned, it’s completely possible.” Founded in 2001, Airvent has grown from a small team selling and installing
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air conditioning units for homes in Cape Town to a diversified group of companies offering a turnkey solution for both the domestic and commercial markets in all nine provinces. In order to tighten its grip on the national market and spread its footprint as widely as possible, Airvent recently opened a new branch in George. This new business will fit into the Airvent Group and will supply the widest range of air-conditioning products while delivering first-class service to the region. “At the beginning of September, we opened a branch in George called Airvent Southern Cape,” details Rogers. “The business is aimed at Port Elizabeth, Oudtshoorn, Mossel Bay, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, George and a radius of around 200km from George. It’s an individual business that’s part of the group and we’ve elevated one of our staff members to become a shareholder and Director in that business. It has potential to grow nicely as we need to be growing nationally, and we’re growing from Cape Town to George and then possibly up to Durban as we already have a presence in
Johannesburg. We want to expand up the coast first and then move inland. “We’ve met up with a lot of engineers in that area and its hugely helpful that they know our name in the industry and I look forward to our progress in that area.” BIG PROJECTS Last year, Airvent was busy with a number of big projects including installation of airconditioning units as part of the SKA build, a large shopping centre contract in George, a number of installations on Northern Cape solar farms, a large shopping centre in Nelspruit, and a number of prominent residential developments in Cape Town to name just a few. 2017 has seen the company continue in this vein with successful completion of last year’s projects creating an appetite for further success within the company. “We’re involved in a number of projects right now,” says Rogers. “We’re busy with quite a few upmarket apartment buildings in Cape Town; we’re busy with Bantry Hills Apartments which is along the Atlantic seaboard, we’re also busy with the AURUM apartments, which is also in that region.