SAB’s philosophy around supplier development is aligned with the broader goal of the company which is focused on bringing people together for a better world.

Entrepreneurship manager at Anheuser-Busch InBev, Barbara Copelovici, explains that SAB looks to champion economic transformation and township revitalisation with a strong focus on women and youth.

SAB was a category winner in the 2019 Absa Business Supplier Development Awards. The judges said the company displayed a selfless effort to grow the ecosystem of independent small suppliers beyond their own supply chain while at the same time equipping them for diversification, growth and sustainability.

SAB’s Market Access Platform (MAP) initiative, first piloted in 2018, is a game changing initiative that encourage corporate South Africa to collaborate in the drive to implement supplier development. As a digital platform it provides market opportunities to high performing black owned suppliers while increasing their business. Buyers are able to refer, rate and contact suppliers through a vetted database of transformed, quality suppliers across various industries.

In the spirit of collaboration and in order to build a more resilient economy, the platform is available to all interested companies who would like to refer their high-performing, transformed suppliers to be visible to a wider community of buyers. Partners in the MAP steering committee include Total, KFC, General Electric, Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa and Macsteel.

Corporate interest in the platform has grown since the initiative was announced as the Collaboration Category winner in 2019, reports Copelovici. The initiative has also been identified by flagship business associations as a pivotal tool that will support the private sector in coordinating and reporting on localization efforts geared at creating black industrialists. Discussions are currently underway with these business associations for their membership base to join. This could potentially increase the membership base of MAP to 100 corporates in 2020.

During the past year the company has introduced new entrepreneurship programmes under an umbrella called Sabela, which is focused on women retailers and farmers. Sabela Retailers is a women-focused township revitalization programme aimed at empowering women owned retailer businesses, to achieve economic inclusion and overall transformation while Sabela Farmers is aimed at increasing the participation of farmers in the agricultural sector as a remedy to unemployment and rural exclusion.