DURBAN – Retail Capital has released data that shows that South African small businesses have had a trying year.
The data from the company that has provided more than R1.7 billion in funding to the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector also shows how small businesses fared in KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Gauteng.
Here’s a breakdown of the statistics in the major sectors across South Africa for the past two years.
Automotive industry
The automotive industry in the Cape saw a 9 percent decline in growth this year, after a 2 percent decrease in 2016 and 2017. In Gauteng the sector experienced a 2 percent decline this year in comparison to a 9 percent growth 2016 to 2017. Aside from these provinces, KwaZulu-Natal saw no distinction, with a 2 percent year-on-year growth.
Beauty and wellness industry
The beauty and wellness industry has seen a sharp decline of 8 percent in the Gauteng province. This in comparison to strong positive figures across the Western Cape with a 2 percent increase in 2017-2018 and 3 percent spike for 2016-2017. KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) generated superb results with a leap to 56 percent growth from 2017 to 2018.
Food and beverage sector
The food and beverage sector has fared well in the Western Cape with a 14 percent hike from 2017 to 2018 parallelling the increase of 11 percent from 2016-2017. Gauteng has fared well with year on year growth of 11 percent 2016-2017 but just 4 percent growth since. KZN revealed a huge 27 percent growth in 2018 off the back of a 13 percent growth in 2017.
Retail industry
The retail industry in the Gauteng region was up 6 percent in both 2016 and 2017, but saw a huge spike of 11 percent in 2018. Kwa-Zulu Natal took a dip in 2017 with a drop of 5 percent but recovered with a positive gain of 2 percent in 2018. Western Cape retail experienced an increase of 23 percent growth from 2017 to 2018, up from 13 percent for the period 2016 to 2017.
The sector that has shown the most promising progress is general retail nationwide, with a swell from 8 percent growth in 2017 to 15 percent on average in 2018.
Retail Capital’s clients’ turnover also showed some growth. Businesses in KZN saw the biggest increase with a jump from 6 percent to 31 percent growth on average from 2017 to 2018. Nationwide, card turnover for clients grew by 8 percent in 2017 and by 11 percent in 2018, reflecting a steady growth overall.
Karl Westvig the chief executive of Retail Capital spoke about the ways that empowered. He said: "There are three main areas that small businesses need to be empowered and grow – firstly, the technical assistance, secondly, the infrastructure and thirdly, funding for growth."