A small business owner who has been selected to join the recently launched Wild Coast Sun Academy which provides training and skills development for the hospitality and food services sectors, has also landed a supplier contract with the resort.
L’aQua Joyce, owned and run by Thumeka Mcobothi from Bizana in the Amadiba A/A Marina Location, will provide water cooler equipment and bottles as part of the resort’s Enterprise Development initiative.
The contract is for a period of three years and comes after Thumeka attended Wild Coast Sun’s two-day SMME Business and Networking Conference in March to help educate and assist SMME’s with information related to procurement opportunities, available training and funding.
She has also been selected to attend the Academy to study an SMME business course.
The course provides short learning programmes and workshops and teaches skills such as the Basics of Bookkeeping, Business Plan creation and key pillars for scaling a business, Procurement Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), structuring Request for Proposals and food safety.
Thumeka said: “It has always been my dream to own and run my own business and now in the space of a few short months I have made so much progress thanks to the investment by Wild Coast Sun.
“I am now a part of the Wild Coast Sun Academy and already learning so much about how business must operate, and I am really hoping to use all the knowledge I am gaining to grow and scale up my business.”
On the award of the contract to supply purified water to the Wild Coast Sun and country club, she said: “This is an incredible opportunity for my business, and I want to thank the Wild Coast Sun for creating opportunities for small businesses like myself to enter formal supply chains.”
Wild Coast Sun General Manager Peter Tshidi said the resort, part of the Sun International Group, was committed to supporting SMMEs to grow the regional economy and contribute to the socio-economic development of the country.
“Through the Academy we are looking to share knowledge and equip small business owners to run successful enterprises,” he said.
“But corporates also need to provide the platform and opportunity for SMMEs to flourish and we are thrilled to have opened the door to L’aQua and look forward to building this relationship.”
The WCS Academy officially launched on 11 July and is run in conjunction with the International Hotel School (HIS) and Summit, which develops specialised course curriculae for various industry sectors.
According to Tshidi, the Academy forms an integral part of the resort’s Socio Economic Development (SED) programme.
“It is our hope that the Academy will provide people from the region with the requisite training opportunities to enter and excel in the broader hospitality and food and beverage management sectors,” Tshidi said at the time of the opening.
Up to now, local residents hoping to study towards a career in the hospitality industry had to travel and stay in Durban at huge expense.
“The Wild Coast Academy now offers world-class training right on the doorstep of our stakeholder communities and we are immensely proud of this achievement and the transformative role it can play in economic development and empowerment in this region,” he added.
The launch of the Academy follows on from the very successful SMME Business and Networking conference which was hosted at the Wild Coast Sun in March, in conjunction with a number of key government stakeholders, including the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEFA), the Eastern Cape Department of Economic Developmental Affairs and Tourism (DETEAT), and the Alfred Nzo District Municipality and the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEDA).
Tshidi said the SMME conference was part of the Wild Coast Sun’s role in supporting the development and sustainability of micro, small and medium enterprises, so as to contribute to job creation, local economic development and transformation in the area.
BUSINESS REPORT