CEO
LA Customs MFG&Co
Total years of experience :12 years, 8 Months
LA Customs Automotive MFG&Co
LA Customs is a automotive customizations shop and a passion of mine more
than just a business. It has many successes and working with many large brands
including Vodacom, Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Sweet Orr.
1. Creation of the brand.
2. Workshop setup.
3. Importing parts.
4. Managing workflow.
5. Staff hiring.
6. Project management.
7. Media.
8. Vendor Management.
9. Contractual agreements.
10. Process and procedures.
11. Government tenders.
LA Customs is a going concern and is currently being managed by an effective
team allowing me to further pursue my career internationally. We are currently
rolling out a training program with local government so the shop is currently
closed as we are focusing on training. Below are a few articles on the business:
https://m.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/454/228942.html
https://www.iol.co.za/weekend-argus/news/cape-town-based-custom-car-
fabricator-aims-to-put-a-spin-on-youth-empowerment-f255aa83-ef26-4e6e-
b3cb-8666beccddb0
https://www.sweet-orr.com/love-what-you-do/artist-overview/gino-lange/
https://www.gq.co.za/culture/cars/la-customs-restores-classic-porsche-
964-carrera-targa-2-to-its-former-glory-126020ea-a39a-477d-9e2f-
8f0461c2cebf
https://social-tv.co.za/la-customs-launches-a-new-training-programme-in-
the-automotive-industry/
Royal Phoenix Gold and Diamonds
I work for Royal Phoenix Gold and Diamonds LLC and Al Sahab Jewellery LLC in
Dubai remotely, having working with masks and commodities I decided to join the
team to try my hand at Gold and Diamonds. My responsibilities include:
1. Sourcing gold and diamonds from developing African countries.
2. Travel to African countries to view, manage and facilitate gold and diamond
transactions, countries include Ghana, Mali, Uganda, Togo and Kenya.
3. Manage contracts, facilitate trade finance including but not limited to
Standby Letters of Credit, Bank Guarantees, Documentary letters of credit
and blocked funds transactions at an institutional level.
4. Manage Import and export documentation.
5. Manage logistics.
6. Management of intermediaries, facilitators and suppliers.
Wave Innovate
Wave Innovate started as a small tech startup based out of Paarl in Cape Town,
Wave Innovate also has a sister company Wave Technology Shenzhen. The
company focused on smart devices, IOT and Streaming Services. The companies
ability to adapt and innovate became even more apparent during the pandemic
with the creation of a revolutionary new mask to help combat the spread of covid
taking the product global in a tough climate. Responsibilities included but not
limited to:
Flew to China to meet with a manufacturer to develop a new Android TV
Smart device capable of effective streaming and became the top rated
device in South Africa within 3 months.
Completing product certifications with all the relevant authorised bodies to
ensure that all products meet and exceeds required specifications and
safety standards.
Sourced, designed and manufactured a range a smart watches which were
affordable to the everyday consumer and sold them on the local version of
Amazon called Takealot selling out in 3 days.
Designed and deployed an effective streaming service hosted on Google
Play Store which allows people to stream content from around the world.
During the Covid-19 Pandemic all operations were suspended, I strategically
sold our streaming service and developed a brand new sustainable reusable
face mask launching with 20, 000.00 units which sold out in 3 days and
could not meet the demand. I negotiated a distribution agreement and later
managed to supply major retailers selling over 2 million units of a brand
new mask in the space of 3 months and negotiated a long term distribution
partnership with major retial chain Dischem and Huracan procurement.
Took our mask global putting it on the faces of the likes of John Rael
Cassimero, Manny Pacquiao and Victor Matfield.
Designed, branded and created a new smart wallet and Smart business
card to revolutionise the way people do business.
Managed marketing relationships with brand partners, creative companies,
film agencies and media.
Sold shares in the company to take a sabbatical and do a passion project
ending my time at Wave Innovate.
Articles relating to the business:
https://www.iol.co.za/lifestyle/health/south-africas-nano-wave-mask-goes-
global-cf5820bc-57ea-5c5c-a1a8-ea4f4f268bbb
https://www.iol.co.za/lifestyle/health/cape-entrepreneurs-find-success-
amid-covid-19-pandemic-a8320aff-2687-56d8-95e0-1c8659bcc145
https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/companies/africas-first-social-card-
offers-innovative-way-to-do-business-ff56d13b-9d85-549c-a208-
f99ab353963b
https://m.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/842/211123.html
https://www.google.com/amp/s/ventureburn.com/2020/11/sa-tech-
startup-launches-africas-first-social-card/
Stellenbosch Nutrition
Stellenbosch Nutrition a national sports nutrition chain with a footprint of 9 stores
became a dominant force in the nutrition industry, built with the goal to ultimately
sell as a going concern, it successfully accomplished its goals.
Design, formulate and introduce a new nutrition brand in a market
dominated by 3 big brands, by competing in price quality and relatability to
end consumers.
Effectively built, systematically educated, facilitated and sold 9 franchise
locations within the Western Cape with a turnkey solution which was
masterfully crafted from scratch to ensure that franchisees were profitable,
managed, supported and excited about the brand and growth.
Established a massive relationship with manufacturers locally, raw material
suppliers internationally, masterful designers and brand specialists to
ensure we produced the best possible offerings to fitness and gym
enthusiasts on a personal and professional level, by using influencers,
athletes, everyday mothers and fathers and a product that was second to
none in an effective price range.
Aesthetically ensured that our stores were pleasing, equipping our sales
staff with the needed soft skills, product knowledge as well as nutritional
knowledge to create reasonable expections of the products they sold to
ensure clients understood the results achievable by making use of the
products they were purchasing effective cutting out any false expectations
resulting in satisfied customers.
Deploying effective sales software for both brick and mortar application as
well as online sales, manageable at a head office level as well as at a store
level.
Successfully sold the business and its model to BODY20 as part of a deal where
they bought both our nutritional stores and gyms we built and introduced.
DMR Coatings - Dip My Ride
Dip My Ride which later became DMR Coatings was an automotive coatings
company focused on removable coatings for the automotive segment. It focused
on car personalisation and protection in a removable coating. After distributing
products from other entities we then focused on creating out own coatings which
are still used today called Full Liquid Jacket and Onyx1 coatings. We had 6
franchise locations accros South Africa.
Joined an existing organisation as operations director taking over an
organisation with one location and effectively building it into a company
with 6 franchises.
Taking the company from a distributor and applicator of a product to
developing a in house replacement at a fraction of the cost allowing us to
rapidly expand to 6 lovatiknsin the space of 1 year.
Patent, register trademarks and developed a brand strategy that allowed us
to get our product to Abu Dhabi to Fusion Auto Concept and become an
international brand.
Importing raw materials and exporting finished products globally.
Merchants BPO South Africa is a Dimension Data company that provides BPO
services to international clients including ASDA, iiNet, T-Mobile, Every Everywhere
and more.
Effectively and timeously reduced the amount of service outage and service
tickets, which resulted in a 80% drop in downtime of service agents at the
ASDA campaign site comprising of 1000 call centre agents, by developing a
basic troubleshooting guide to be deployed with each team leader and
ensuring they have followed all steps before logging calls and having
agents waiting for engineers to come and assist them.
Drafting new documentation relating to IT processes, establishing a new IT
Service desk managed by physical agents who provide first line
troubleshooting.
Discussing, establishing and satisfying weekly KPI's with the Service
Delivery Manager to effectively manage all services provided to our clients.
Rolling out of new sites to expanding business units and new clients,
including site design, infrastructure planning and deployment and new
technology roll outs.
Negotiating new contract terms, improvements and SLAs with third party
vendors to ensure we are receiving the best possible service, pricing and
roduct to save costs, boost profit and increase customer satisfaction.
After a successful and informative career at Merchants I decided to pursue my
own business in order to progress within my own personal growth.
