When it comes to enterprise development and empowerment benchmarks, Atterbury is committed to meaningful projects that will make a lasting difference in South Africa; and a brand-new collaborative venture, ATTBUILD, is poised to do just that. We spoke to one of the founding partners, Lood Bester from Startup Club, to get the full story.

Tell us more about the idea and the team behind ATTBUILD.
On the one hand, we became aware that there was a real need among corporate building contractors for assistance in the allocation of their enterprise/skills development and procurement spend, in order to achieve their required B-BBEE ratings. ATTBUILD was created with Ascension Capital, a black-owned private equity group as the majority shareholder with 51% ownership, providing ATTBUILD’s level 2 B-BBEE rating.  The other shareholders are Startup Club, a venture capital company of which Louis van der Watt is a founding member; the Vibro Group, a major supplier of building materials in Pretoria; and Die Amper Alles Groep, a group of hardware and building-supplies retailers.

We realised that with our respective industry networks and the required B-BBEE rating, we are perfectly positioned to assist building contractors in optimizing their B-BBEE rating through their procurement. On the other hand, and maybe even more significantly, any construction business or project needs to carefully consider its impact on the local community to be continuously successful.  More than our B-BBEE rating, it is our commitment to supporting the local networks that guarantees our success, and of course, those of our partnering businesses.

What does Atterbury’s involvement in ATTBUILD entail?
We have successfully partnered with Atterbury to make a lasting difference in the local communities.  Atterbury will contribute some of their enterprise-development funds through ATTBUILD for the next financial year.  We will be specifically using these funds to develop emerging businesses in the construction industry.

How would you summarise the services that ATTBUILD provides?
We facilitate diverse transactions, although mostly dealing with procurement of construction companies by supplying building materials.  We also facilitate enterprise-development funds and the administration of skills-development funds.  Our collective networks give us access on ground level to a wide range of suppliers in informal and disadvantaged areas, so we are able to help construction companies to do business with some of these local suppliers.  The ATTBUILD name is already known and trusted, and we have established good relationships with the local communities.

When was the first project launched and who was the first client?
We initially conceptualised the idea, created the structure and assembled our business plan in November 2017, and was fully launched by February 2018. The first project was the purchasing of steel for a contractor who needed procurement spend points for their B-BBEE scorecard. We successfully facilitated the transaction and our client got the best product at the best price, earning the points they needed.

You certainly don’t drag your heels! How has business grown in the last five months?
We have various transactions in progress with a variety of suppliers – for instance we are currently facilitating the procurement of filling material on a massive building project in the north of Pretoria. Site establishment is already underway, and 15 000 cubic metres of filling is required. We sourced the filling while negotiating the best price for our client.  We also negotiated, as part of the procurement, funds benefitting the local community.  We’re also busy with a number of municipality transactions; in one case assisting the contractor who won a tender for an R85 million local housing project in Polokwane. We’re helping them to find the appropriate supplier at the right price, and we’re managing the procurement process on their behalf.

How do you procure business?
At this stage it is by word of mouth, mainly due to our solid network in the industry. Essentially, our approach is twofold – we’re committed to the established construction companies who need to comply with procurement requirements; but we’re also servicing a network of local suppliers in historically disadvantaged communities. So far, because of this, business finds us.

What does the future hold for ATTBUILD?
Our purpose is to serve and empower communities and the construction industry with the most convenient and price-competitive build-ware solutions. We are not interested in quick fixes, we want to deliver the best service by delivering the best product at the right price for our customers.  We believe that we bring a unique approach to the construction industry and in a short time we hope to have expanded our impact on a national level.

We are excited to announce that we’ve recently appointed Albert Blignaut as the Managing Director of ATTBUILD – all enquiries can be directed to him. His email address is albert@attbuild.co.za.