Oceana tops M&G Most Empowered Companies list

South Africa's largest fishing group, Oceana has moved from ranking 70th in 2004 to 17th on the empowerment list in 2011, to 2nd place in 2013. It leads with a total B-BBEE score of 95.17 points, an improvement from 93.98 points in 2012. Oceana also came 1st in the Food and Beverage sector.

"We view transformation as the right thing to do for the socio-economic stability of our country and the long-term success and sustainability of our business," said Francois Kuttel, CEO of the Oceana Group.

The company's performance comes as a result of it focusing on improving areas in which it did not previously achieve maximum points - namely management control, employment equity, skills development and preferential procurement.

During the year under review, it increased its Black representation at board and executive level from 54.6% in 2012 to 63.6%. The company also increased its expenditure with B-BBEE suppliers from R1.1 billion to R1.4 billion pushing its preferential procurement score to 19.68 and also invested R17.5 million in training its black employees, upping its skills development weighting to 14.51.

Oceana introduced an 'Africanisation' programme to assist in attracting black African talent to increase Black representation at all management levels. "It is important for the company's long term success that we meet the Department of Labour's targets.

"Maintaining our status as black owned and controlled fishing company and ensuring that we retain our credible empowerment credentials should ensure retention of our commercial fishing rights, thereby contributing towards the company's overall long term sustainability," he concluded.