About
NEW DIGS: FX Africa’s new East Rand Mall bureau follows several branch openings in 2006.
FX AFRICA is licensed by the South African Reserve Bank to deal in travel-related foreign exchange products and services including cash passport cards, traveller’s cheques, foreign bank notes, drafts, and telegraphic transfers. FX Africa is the third largest of seven licenced bureau de change operators in South Africa.
FX Africa has grown from just two bureaux in 2001 to 21 at the beginning of 2007, through its commitment to excellent service, personal attention to clients, and an entrepreneurial hunger to be the best in the business.
With exciting developments including aggressive expansion plans for retail branches and a recent deal to provide Nedbank with foreign currency among others, the company is expecting a remarkable 60% growth this year.
Executive Director Sean Maloney and Managing Director Darren Jenkins-Ferrett both exude enthusiasm about FX Africa’s immediate future.
“We’re looking for at least 30 branches by year end,” says Maloney. “We have never advertised; most of our business has been gained through our staff’s shoe leather. We’ll hopefully be achieving some seriously good advertising and marketing this year to establish our brand and keep the strong momentum we have created over the last 18 months.”
2006 Highlights
- January – We opened up a new store at the Riverside Mall in Nelspruit, the largest mall in Mpumalanga.
- February – We opened a branch at The Glen Shopping Centre in the south of Johannesburg. A new retail store opened at The Gateway Theatre of Shopping in Umhlanga, Durban.
- March – We signed an empowerment deal with Thebe Tourism Group (TTG), the only black-owned and controlled tourism group in South Africa. The deal saw TTG take a 25.1% equity stake in FX Africa.
- April – Amid great excitement, the first stocks of FX Africa-branded Visa Electron Cash Passport Cards arrived and we began to sell this innovative new foreign exchange product with great gusto.
- May – We opened a new bureau at the Knysna Quays in the Western Cape.
- June – Always willing to try something new, we opened a concept store with youth travel agent OVC in Fourways, offering customers a one-stop travel shop.
- July – In July signed a national agreement to become the preferred supplier of foreign exchange to clients of Club Travel.
- August – We signed another preferred supplier deal with Garth Wolff, MD and owner of E-Travel, the largest grouping of independent travel consultants.
- September – We signed our third preferred supplier agreement in a row – this time with OVC Travel. We also opened our second one-stop travel concept store with OVC at Canal Walk, Cape Town’s largest shopping mall.
- October – Our growing pains forced us out of our head office premises in Sandhurst and we returned “home” to larger accommodation at The Forum building in Sandton, which we had left for the Sandhurst offices in 2002.
- November – We had two more office moves in November: the Musina branch took over the much larger VBS Bank premises and our main Knysna branch moved into a new location in the Knysna Mall, Knysna’s new premier retail node.
- December –We opened two more stores in Cape Town in conjunction with OVC, at Cape Gate and Bayside Centre.
Jenkins-Ferrett adds, “We’re hoping to open more branches in strategic places, mainly around Gauteng. A tender for the bureaux de change at the O.R Tambo International Airport is out this year and we’re obviously going to try and get that.”
The company is also aiming to expand its African operations beyond its six branches in Zambia and one in Botswana, into at least one other country in sub-Saharan Africa. “We’re currently applying for licences to operate in this entire region,” he says.
In terms of new products FX Africa will be launching a pre-paid Rand card for people who are visiting South Africa and would prefer to not carry cash. This will undoubtedly be helpful against theft.
FX Africa has always prided itself on its relationship with its customers and with expansion the company might be hard-pressed to maintain its personal touch. But Jenkins-Ferrett has already set in motion plans to maintain the service it’s become renowned for. “We are currently working on ways to standardise customer service through scripting and training so that each person knows how to deal with clients,” he explains. He adds that each branch will be incentivised for profit and service, and that “mystery shoppers” will keep staff on their toes.
Jenkins-Ferrett says that FX Africa is still enjoying growth momentum, which means that it is in a position to expand and gain clientele while some of its competitors have reached a plateau.
Says Maloney: “Being small and entrepreneurial has helped us to be more competitive on rate. Our staff is willing and flexible to beat our opposition’s quotes. Our flat structure doesn’t constrain them to having to stick to the published rate of the day, come hell or high-water!”
To current clients, he says, “Thanks for the support so far, I hope we have saved you a lot of money! Please understand that you can always contact us all the way to the top, and if our growth affects our service in any way please do not hesitate to call us and firmly put us in our place!”
Adds Jenkins-Ferrett, “We are still a small-enough company that our clients can call and demand to speak to the managing director. In fact people can call me on my cellphone: 083 325 8527.”
