Exporter of the Year 2015 Award Winner
Canvas and Tent won the Exporter of the Year category for 2014/15 at the South African Premier Business Awards.
Founded more than 40 years ago, the company is a global leader in the manufacture of canvas and polyvinyl chloride-related products. Canvas and Tent supplies local and international military, humanitarian, mining and construction organisations. In recent years, there has also been a shift to supply luxury outdoor accommodation solutions to the tourism and hospitality industry.
The company is South African Bureau of Standards ISO 9001:2008 certified. Coupled with its ISO 14000 certification, this is a reaffirmation of its commitment to full customer satisfaction.
Canvas and Tent has its headquarters in Pretoria, but it is at its purpose-designed factory in the KwaZulu-Natal town of Ladysmith where the magic happens.
The state-of-the-art factory has been fitted out with Eton, a flexible material handling system designed to eliminate manual transportation and minimise handling. It increases productivity radically, ensures an optimal work flow and provides time to add value to your products.
“This system has increased our productivity massively. Our business is labour-intensive so we are always looking for ways to be more efficient in our production,” explains Mr Louw Bekker, the Group Managing Director for Canvas and Tent.
“Since we shifted to focus on the luxury tent market there has been lots of changes in our industry and we pride ourselves on staying abreast with what is happening. People are our key resources so we have always made it a priority to ensure that our more than 400 employees are constantly being trained and equipped with the required skills,” said Bekker.
The company has grown from strength to strength since opting to focus on luxury safari tents and Bekker believes that being part of the Technical Textile Cluster convened by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) has played a role in its expansion.
“Through participation in the cluster we are able to group together with other manufacturers and market our products as a group. We also make use of various incentives and assistance programmes offered by the dti and regularly attend trade shows and other international sales missions, which allow us to market our products in new markets.”
In 2002, Canvas and Tent embarked on a strategic alliance with Weatherhaven Canada to form Weatherhaven RCS, which serves the military, aviation, construction, mining and rental market, the we design and manufacture redeployable turnkey solutions.
In 2013, together with Bushtec Adventure, the company opened Tents Direct, its first one-stop retail shop. This shop provides customers with an opportunity to view and touch the Canvas and Tent consumer product range before making a purchase.
Then in 2015, together with Trekk 4x4, a Belgium-based company, the company established Canvas and Tent Europe, the sole provider of Bushtec Safari luxury tenting to the European market.
“Our next move though is to the United States and we are working hard to break in to the consumer market there. The US has a massive camping and outdoor economy and we want a part of that. Winning the Exporter of the Year Award of course helps our cause as it adds credibility to our product in a market where we are unknown,” explains Bekker.
