PRIMEDIA OUTDOOR PROMOTES SUSTAINABLE TRANSFORMATION

Transformation is a hot topic in the advertising industry, and the general feeling is that progress has been far too slow, with media owners in particular being singled out recently for failing to implement meaningful transformation. Primedia Outdoor, the largest wholly South African owned outdoor advertising media owner, has taken great strides to ensure that their transformation process is more than just a superficial makeover and far from slow.

Primedia Outdoor's overall BEE Strategy, consists of five primary drivers; being equity ownership by empowerment partners, internal transformation and employment equity; preferential procurement; the broadbased beneficiary profile of its empowerment partners; and corporate social responsibility, which is consistent with the Balanced Scorecard approach set out by the Department of Trade and Industry. Empowerment partners, Mineworkers Investment Company hold a 25% direct stakeholding in Primedia Outdoor with a further 19.5% indirect shareholding via equity ownership in the JSE listed Primedia Ltd Group.

The company currently boasts a 43% employment equity ratio across all levels that filters through to the operational chain. “In 1998, we launched a programme to support established and emerging black owned and managed businesses. This includes the sub-contracting of operations functions to former employees,” explains Pete Piccione, Primedia Outdoor Managing Director.

“These functions include flighting of billboard faces, repairs, maintenance and servicing of structures. We aided the establishment of these new business entities with technical, financial and legal assistance. The programme, in its fifth year of existence, has had a success rate over 70%.“

The organisation’s list of empowered suppliers and sub-contractors is large, and growing each year. The overall spend by Primedia Outdoor on supporting these businesses in the last fiscal year amounted to over R8 million, an enormous injection towards empowering black owned and managed operations.

“This investment has heralded returns in more than just monetary terms. Our outside suppliers are obsessed with maintaining our standards, striving to improve their quality and performance,” says Piccione. “The motivation behind their passion is that they own the operational businesses, and combine this self interest with our strategic initiatives, best practises and systems.”

Primedia Outdoor’s principle aim is to create value for stakeholders in a way that also makes a meaningful contribution to the communities surrounding their operations. “Genuine transformation and sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their needs,” Piccione concludes.

For more information visit www.primeoutdoor.co.za or email primesales@primeoutdoor.co.za