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The business started from humble beginnings in 1998 with Lance and his wife Georgina, both clothing workers & entrepreneurs at heart, starting a promotional clothing company called Basic Marketing from their garage with R2 750. Thankfully they landed a contract with Old Mutual which led to more contracts with other large companies.
In 2006 they saw the opportunity to grow their fashion offering and opened a second business supplying clothing suppliers who were in turn supplying local retailers.
A year later, they realised that although they had two business they were still not financially sustainable so they merged their promotional and fashion business into one business forming Season’s Find and moved their business back home to reduce costs. But as life would have it a year later the demand for their clothing increased enough for them seek premises in Woodstock and employ 35 people. But they were still only just making ends meet. Lance realised that only way to become financially stable would be to supply retailers directly so he started courting Woolworths as he was already supplying Woolworths via Bibette.
Soccer World Cup was Lance’s big break. Woolworths was looking for a local supplier with a quick turnaround time to assist with the manufacturing of World Cup merchandise. Lance grabbed the opportunity and returned within a week from briefing with samples for approval. Woolworths was impressed with Lance’s perseverance, quality of work and quick turnaround so awarded him the business.
Lance had to double his staff and in two months he supplied over 75 000 units of World Cup branded kidswear & menswear. Based on the success of this order, Woolworths asked Season’s Find to become an official Woolworths supplier and placed their next order for Autumn/Winter 2011.
Since then Season’s Find has proven itself as an extremely competent and valuable supplier to Woolworths and the Woolworths orders have steadily increased so that they have been able to become a financially sustainable business employing 120 staff.
Last year, Woolworths was looking to grow it’s local suppliers & create valuable jobs, so knowing that Lance & Georgina had a similar vision Woolworths Enterprise Development department offered Season’s Find a loan of R1.9M. The loan was an opportunity for Lance to invest in some additional infrastructure into the business so that he could take on substantially more orders on offer from Woolworths and in doing so employ more people. He purchased additional sewing machines & a new production system. This investment & the additional Woolworths orders has resulted in Season’s Find doubling their turnover and now employ 179 local Capetonians – mostly woman.
Season’s Find is in essence a family business run by Lance, his wife, daughters and son. They made a formidable team and have positioned themselves ideally as a quick turn-on supplier and one with great product development capability. Unfortunately last year Georgina pased away leaving Lance even more driven to prove that local clothing manufacturing is viable.
Season’s Find products are proudly Southern African in that not only are all garments made in Cape Town but the fabrics & trimmings are also manufactured locally or in Swaziland. Wherever possible Lance also sources BCI certified cotton to meet Woolworths’ sustainability goals and commitments
Woolworths believed that Season’s Find’s successes can be attributed to Lance’s ‘Can Do’ attitude, his ability to make things happen and to deliver. Being a local supplier with a big social community focus and sustainability mindset aligns his business with their own Good Business Journey.
Season’s Find is now a core part of Woolworths business and a success story that Woollies are phenomenally proud of. They currently supply Woolworths with various styles of men’s and children’s t-shirts, sweat shirts and jogger pants.
Woolworths Enterprise Development Programme
- Woolworths believes that Enterprise Development must make business sense for both Woolworths and the Enterprise Development beneficiary.
- Consequently, their Enterprise Development (ED) programme has been designed to support emerging black-owned enterprises in the Woolworths greater supply chain, including primary and secondary suppliers. Through this strategy, Woolworths assists emerging black-owned suppliers to become truly sustainable through a balanced enterprise development programme implemented based on individual needs analysis approach that also delivers on Woolworths commercial requirements.
- The programme rests on four pillars – all of which are essential to help an emerging entrepreneur or small business grow into a sustainable entity: financial assistance, guaranteed business, targeted up-skilling and a package of support which includes mentorship and the assistance of external experts.
- The ED support is afforded to black enterprises for 3 – 5 years, after which it should be demonstrated that the enterprise has reached a certain level of sustainability.
- Woolworths has intensified enterprise development support to 48 businesses, which are receiving business development support and financial assistance.
- Over the last three years, Woolworths has had an accumulated procurement spend of R666 million with Enterprise Development beneficiaries & disbursed R 44,043 million in loans
- Currently, Woolworths has a loan pipeline in the agricultural sector worth R12.5million which is currently under review.
- Over 808 sustainable jobs created, which impacted over 3 632 people
- ED is a key component of Woolworths Good Business Journey by making a significant contribution to social development and supporting transformation initiatives.
