Tentra concludes share deal with management and staff

Loudfire & HBVO CEO, Bruce van Halderen.

The balance of ownership remains in the hands of HBVO Entertainment (Pty) Ltd., which also owns the majority stake in events, parties and experiences company Trionum Entertainment Pty Ltd sole licensee for the Loudfire and Venturescapes brands in southern Africa.

Following its enormously successful incubation as the tent manufacture division of Loudfire, Tentra was released onto the open market earlier this year, with licence to several patents and functional design applications to its credit, and a reputation as South Africa's leading manufacturer of freestyle tents and canopies. Since then, it has enjoyed strong sales of its superior quality products, while continuing the tradition of extensive research and development that has made it the continent's leading player in the freestyle tents market.

Bruce van Halderen, CEO of HBVO and Loudfire, says the deal is reflective of HBVO's philosophy of cooperatively sharing ownership with internal partners. He comments: "I am a strong believer in the principle of sharing ownership with operational partners in a business. In my experience, this practice improves not only the level of accountability demonstrated by workers, but also their productivity and motivation, all of which inevitably leads to job satisfaction and impacts favourably on the company's bottom line, as well as the individual profitability of all the operational partners. Adds Arundal Thom, Tentra's new CEO: "It's that rarest of circumstances, a genuine win-win situation."

Among the new management shareholders are the company's GM, Jay Haupt, who operates from the Cape Town-based factory and sales office, and Jonathan Tucker, who is in charge of the company's Johannesburg sales office. Factory staff and seamstresses are among the other individuals who have benefited from this internal empowerment deal.

About Tentra:

Tentra is Africa's leading developer, manufacturer and retailer of freestyle (Bedouin) tents and canopies. The company invests extensively into a rigorous R&D programme, the result of which is evidenced in its licences to several patents and functional design applications. These patents give Tentra the benefit of an unlimited outsource production capacity, in addition to its own manufacturing capacity of 45 000m2 per annum.

The company's two major product lines are its LavaSky freestyle canopy range and its 100% waterproof StormChild freestyle tent range.