Entrepreneur Beverly Gumbi who is dubbed as the ‘Container Queen’ has been nominated for Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Rise to Glory
Ms.Beverly Gumbi has etched a name for herself in the male-dominated industry of container refurbishment after she started Isivuno Containers in 2005 and has never looked back.
The company buys these containers from different shipping lines and then clients enquire about different specifications of containers and customize their containers according to the clients’ needs.
Customized containers
Ms.Gumbi said, “I started the business when I was in Tongaat, where we set up. We put up the office and we leased a piece of land which was about 4000m². We put up a container office and bought up a few containers as our start-up stock. Then we employed qualified artisans that we sought from other container companies so as not to start afresh by training them and replicating the process and wasting a lot of time”.
She added, “Our very first impressive contract was from Hlabisa Municipality to supply 15 containers which were going to be used as business units. Some were tuck shops, toilets and storage units for street hawkers. That was one of our biggest contracts when we started in 2005. After that I did not look back. I realised that this was something to pursue and something that was really in demand in the market.”
Award nomination
Ms.Gumbi is a finalist in the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year competition sponsored by Sanlam. The competition is aimed at honouring and uplifting SMMEs. The company Isivuno has won several awards including the regional award in the 2007 SAB Kickstart Business Competition, the national award in the 2008 SAB Kickstart Business Competition and the regional Business Achievers Award from the Businesswomen’s Association of South Africa in 2012.
Did you subscribe for our daily newsletter?
It’s Free! Click here to Subscribe!
Source: IOL
