SPIER, Pro-Poor Tourism Pilots in Southern Africa:Spier

Spier

Update on PPT linkages at Spier, April 2005
SPIER Village continues to develop its procurement from new small local enterprises, with PPT facilitation. The new on-site laundry, opened in August 2004, has been so successful that the operation expanded in February 2005, employing 2 more staff, and is now expanding again. This laundry will service most of the Food and Beverage outlets on the Spier property. A township supplier is now supplying LPG to Spier deli, and is tendering contracts to expand its business. Spier procured all the year-end greeting cards from a recycled paper making project in Khayelitsha. Work is underway for local contracts on organic produce, re-cycled soap, and chemical supplies.
Questionnaires sent to all suppliers have increased the awareness of suppliers and Spier's own staff about a wide range of issues, including their local economic impact. Results have been included in Spier's first Sustainability Report, launched in April 2005.

Spier, a wine and leisure estate, is located in the Stellenbosch winelands of the Western Cape in South Africa. Spier Leisure comprises a great variety of tourism-related operations which include accommodation (The Village at Spier with 155 rooms), catering, sporting facilities, conference facilities, cultural and wildlife attractions, as well as a number of related ventures. Since the Spier wine estate was bought by Dick Enthoven in 1993, Spier has diversified away from its traditional base as a winery into the tourism sector. Currently only about a quarter of Spier’s activities are directly wine related. Spier, a private equity firm, is divided into several business clusters (Hotel and Leisure, Agribusiness, Winecorp, Green Technologies, and property Development) and three non-profit organisations (Spier Arts and Culture, the Spier Institute, and Lynedoch Development). Spier is today one of the few wineries in the area that offers high quality and quantity of bed space, entertainment, catering, sporting and shopping facilities, and the company has further ambitious expansion plans. An important business strategy is to attract more staying visitor, which currently are less than 10% of visitors to the Stellenbosch area. Spier seeks to diversify and to increase visitor numbers and length of stay to create a Stellenbosch destination that looses its dependence on day-tripping Cape Town based wine-route visitors. This size and the variety of Spier operations, combined with its strategic location, non-profit commitments, and development plans make it a critical operation for increasing the involvement of local people in tourism in the winelands. It is in Spier's business interest to develop linkages to local entrepreneurs and tourism providers, and to expand the linkages it already has with neighbouring communities.

Stakeholders that have linkages with Spier come from a number of local townships which include Kayamandi, Ida’s Valley, Cloetesville, and Pniel. Kayamandi is located on the outskirts of Stellenbosch and was founded in the early 1950s to house exclusively black migrant male labourers employed on the farms in the Stellenbosch area. Living conditions remain harsh in the township, with 1996 estimates showing unemployment averaging 42%, and 86% of households living in informal dwellings. Kayamandi has limited tourist attractions and facilities, which include: Shebeens, middle-class homestays; the craft producer Vuka Creativity; and the Kaya Trust Centre. Local suppliers of goods and services to Spier are currently limited by low levels of business development and Spier is eager to transform its procurement strategy and support the development of viable SMMEs. A high proportion of Spier workers are from within 15km and concessionaires are obliged to employ 60% Historically Disadvantaged Individuals (HDIs). Spier, in conjunction with ‘The Peoples Experience’ (TPE), implements extensive staff training programmes and fosters a ‘diverse’ management structure through internal promotions and training. Organic Farming and the Spier Vineyard Trust are set up as equity share holding companies in collaboration with local stakeholders.

There are already a number of Spier initiatives that benefit the local community and environment. These linkages include: local enterprise linkages with Organic Farming and Biolytix; insourcing from an organic compost division and waste removal contractors, the organisation of local crafts fair and exhibition; organisation of cultural tours; a large scale environmental rehabilitation project; and a housing development that integrates commercial and social infrastructure. Part of Spier’s diversification activities include a strong focus on cultural products such as arts and craft markets and exhibitions for which the Spier Arts Trust was formed.

PPT linkages at the Spier site:
In 2004, Spier is seeking to revise its procurement policy and practice and has already identified a number of procurement issues which it would like to address in order to increase reliance on suppliers that are sustainable, run by Previously Disadvantaged Individuals, are small enterprises, and/or local, with a particular focus initially on procurement opportunities in relation to organic food, retail curios, laundry services, liquid gas, and environmental management.

This ambitious agenda, running well beyond the PPT Pilot project, will be supported in a number of ways by PPT facilitation. For example, PPT will assist Spier in the establishment of Affirmative Procurement Policies which will serve to facilitate a proactive and focussed drive to improve the access by the poorer community, in particular HDI SMMEs, to the sale of goods and services to Spier.

Click here for the summary scoping report