Vivica Group, which recently rebranded from Vox Holdings, has created new brands under its stable and avoided job losses after recently bringing together its several subsidiaries under one roof.
This was revealed by Vivica CEO Jacques du Toit in an interview with ITWeb.
Earlier this month, Vivica announced it is poised to turn up the heat on the unlisted, private sector in South Africa by bringing its well-established brands such as Vox, Braintree, Frogfoot and Everlytic into the same stable.
However, Du Toit says the new development does not mean that well-known brands such as Vox and others will cease to exist.
“These brands are strong brands that have been standing on their own feet for a long time and will continue to do so.
“We have added some new brands such as Nymbis (cloud services), QWERTi (managed IT), Guardian Eye (off-site monitoring and IOT) and Armata (cyber security).”
According to Du Toit, these are all standalone entities focused on their respective target markets with a proposition that is fit for purpose.
“They all have something unique that makes them stand out from competitors,” he says.
Asked if there had been any job losses as a result of the coming together of the subsidiaries, Du Toit says Vivica is the group holding company and all subsidiaries are 100% owned by Vivica. “Its employees are limited to the ones offering shared services to the group subsidiaries.
“Previously, most of these services were offered by Vox. Through this process, there have been no staff losses and, in fact, we have seen some great opportunities unfold for some [employees].”
Staff at all levels have been retained, he adds. “Now that the subsidiaries are operating as standalone units, they will expand their workforce in areas that will help the business effectively accelerate its growth.”
ITWeb asked Du Toit whether the new entity will hire new staff. “Vivica is the holdings entity and at this stage, no additional staff will be hired,” he responded.
“However, we may see some staff in the subsidiaries moved to a group level. Most of the hiring will be at the level of the individual subsidiaries, as this is where the demand for resources will be the most.
“We are actively looking at identifying opportunities where we can pinpoint large market segments and use our ‘incubation to maturity’ concept to capture market share by offering value to a customer that is going to be difficult to match.”
On the business strategy, he said each vertical has its own opportunities. “In the ISP [internet service provider] and fibre space, we are seeing consolidation starting to happen.
“Most other markets have been subjected to change in one way or another. This was mainly due to COVID, an increased cost base, or customer demands that have changed. All of the above created opportunities in terms of what services we deliver and how these are delivered. This is the era of change – if you resist change, you simply won’t survive.
“We have to strive to become the lowest-cost operator in our field of expertise and have a value proposition that is of value to customers and one that is difficult to mirror.
“We certainly do have things in the pipeline that we are excited about and looking forward to sharing in the coming weeks, and this will be communicated by Abraham van der Merwe, who is spearheading the group’s strategy, so watch this space.”
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