Sometimes the most valuable asset of a business is also its most intangible. The knowledge collected in the mind of the business owner, from the technical know-how to who the local players are in the industry, can far outstrip the value of its machines or premises.
Grant Barratt, owner of RHB Marketing, a supplier of industrial gearboxes to the heart of the South African economy, recently bought his first business premises in Sebenza on the East Rand with the help of Business Partners Limited.
The building, which houses RHB Marketing and a handful of tenant businesses, is worth millions of rands, but it can be argued that the knowledge that Grant has built up over thirty years of operating in his industry, is worth far more than that.
RHB Marketing fulfils the role of a matchmaker. All over the industrial heartland of Gauteng, and as far afield as Namibia and Zimbabwe, production and maintenance managers need the gearboxes that operate their production lines replaced, refurbished, improved or repaired. Most of them, at one stage or other over the past thirty years, have dealt with Grant, tapping his extensive knowledge of the suppliers and refurbishers of industrial gearboxes locally and internationally.
It works the other way around as well, if an engineering outfit somewhere in Gauteng buys second-hand industrial gearboxes on auction, they turn to Grant to find out which factory in his vast network could benefit from it. Thirty-six years ago, after completing his schooling in Johannesburg, Grant started in the industry as a stock controller for the local branch of a large German manufacturer of industrial gear boxes and soon found his home in the company’s internal sales department. His technical knowledge of the machines he was selling grew fast, but it was when he joined the local on-the-road sales team for an Italian rival that his knowledge of the industrial landscape of Gauteng started growing.
Soon enough Grant knew all the mines, the packaging companies, the poultry plants, food processors and virtually every factory that used industrial gearboxes in the region. He steadily moved up in the industry, but after some time as national sales manager of gearboxes for one of the large suppliers, Grant found that he had had enough of the corporate world.
“The rigidity became too much for me. Your life revolves around sales reports, logbooks, and meetings about meetings,” says Grant. In 2008, he and a co-worker decided to start their own business that would bring factory operators and gearbox suppliers together.
It was frightening to step out of his corporate job, especially since it was during the height of the great recession. But their business worked, and for ten years they grew their orders, their business and their industry knowledge. Towards the end of the 2010s, however, Grant’s partner wanted to emigrate to New Zealand, and they couldn’t agree on the dissolution of the company. “I left with my client list and my bakkie,” says Grant.
For the second time in his career, Grant had to start from scratch. Although he was much more experienced by now, launching RHB Marketing in 2018 was still very daunting, because this time he did not have a partner to help carry the burden. The business got off to a flying start with an exceptionally good first year, and it has been growing steadily ever since despite the setback of a client who died in a car accident, leaving RHB Marketing with a sizable bad debt.
Grant survived the Covid-19 pandemic by producing and selling Covid-19 items such as sanitary stands to his network of client businesses. By 2022, Grant was confident enough in the future of the business to find premises to buy when his lease came to a sudden end. Not only would it put an end to his dependence on a landlord, but it would also serve as a nest-egg for his retirement.
Furthermore, suitable premises would allow RHB Marketing to start its own gearbox workshop. An industrial unit in Sebenza suited all his requirements, but Grant found it difficult to raise the necessary finance from his bank. He found the computerised systems of the banks inflexible and out of reach. He was turned down twice by the automated process of his bank, before he found Business Partners Limited, which agreed to finance his purchase of the property. “I’ve never seen my so-called personal banker, whereas with Business Partners Limited, I can just pick up the phone when I’m unsure of anything,” concludes Grant.
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