Johannesburg – Local plant supplier Fado Art has seen phenomenal growth since the company started supplying their range of succulents to Checkers, and has expanded the scope of its operation and rapidly increased its headcount to meet demand.
Fado Art started as a business in a rented Bronkhorstspruit garage in 2015 with just two employees. Today the business employs 76 people across its various divisions.
“At any given time we have around 850,000 plants in our greenhouses – our 12-month target is to get this up to 3 million plants,” says founder Johan van Zyl.
With the plant side of the business expanding, van Zyl looked to make their pots in-house to cut down on imports, invest further in the business and expand its local employee base.
So Fado Art purchased three kilns and three wheels, and then set about training employees to make the pots. “We identify young, motivated people with potential. Then we give them training and send them on courses until they have the skills to complete the work,” says van Zyl.
The pottery arm of the business now supplies 50% of their own pots along with their plants.
Van Zyl says these achievements would not have been possible without the support of Checkers.
“You can have products in all the stores, but if you don’t have the support like that provided by Checkers it’s not possible to grow your business. They guide us on price points, help us send the right products to the right source to achieve the best sales, and help us estimate numbers to make it easier for us to do budget and growth planning,” says van Zyl.
He’s still amazed to see Fado Art’s products in Checkers stores around the country – and of the legacy the business is creating.
“We feel incredibly proud to see that it’s our team that’s growing and making the products. We believe we can change a lot of peoples’ lives with this, because we’re just getting bigger and bigger, and our skill levels are only getting better,” he says.
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