Betts Townsend
Strengthening its East African FootholdWriter: Emily JarvisProject Manager: Stuart Parker Building strategic business partners with high-profile international clients over the past two decades has resulted in a significant number of lucrative growth opportunities for project management firm, Betts Townsend, who have tripled their workload in the past year.Having delivered the ZAR 1.8 billion flagship Bay West Mall on-time and on-budget at the start of June, 2015, the Company has now turned its attention to East Africa’s booming commercial market, with well-regarded multinational and local names alike driving growth and healthy competition in the region’s retail sector. Seeing the continually growing confidence in its own offering based on exceptional project execution and an ever-growing portfolio, Betts Townsend is feeling the welcome effects of renewed market confidence and subsequent international entrants into the African retail and leisure market.Michael Taylor, Managing Director (MD) of Betts Townsend’s African Interest explains: “International retailers and hospitality firms are taking a shine to East Africa, which is a step in the right direction to increase investor confidence and boost the construction industry from a project funding perspective. Betts Townsend stands out from the crowd as we are an experienced ‘go-between’ that marries together the right combination of international standards and an understanding of the pitfalls and challenges in regional markets.”Combining the strong entrepreneurial spirit of its founders together with a results-driven continuous improvement strategy has allowed the Company to set the benchmark high and deliver in foreign markets outside its initial South African foothold and capitalise on the emerging middle-class movement in East Africa.Nairobi footholdAmong Betts…
Betts Townsend
Investing from the Ground-UpWriter: Emily JarvisProject Manager: Stuart Parker Driven by a strong entrepreneurial spirit and results-orientated family culture, Betts Townsend has spent a significant amount of time working on how it is perceived as a business; while allowing its experience level and portfolio of large scale projects to speak for itself.Incepted by Howard Betts 20 years ago, a merger was actualised as a result of joint interests between Betts Projects and well regarded project management guru, John Townsend. “Betts Townsend was subsequently formed with a concerted focus on strengthening the initial backbone of the company by investing in training both our general staff and project managers to be the best they can be,” highlights Michael Taylor, Managing Director of Betts Townsends’ African Interest.Growing from a simple installation company over the course of the first decade of business, Betts Townsend quickly progressed into a substantial construction business looking to take advantage of South Africa’s infrastructure trends, particularly in the retail and hospitality sectors. Post 2010 - since the World Cup infrastructure growth injection - the South African-based Company has been looking beyond the borders as part of its latest business development strategy: to capitalise on economic growth in East Africa after weathering the storm of time and capitalising on the emerging middle class movement.“Depreciation of the rand had been a concern. However, Africa as a continent remains one of the world’s biggest growth markets; even after the recent GDP drop in South Africa. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are still exhibiting some of the highest GDP rates globally…
