Former sales and marketing director for a group of daily and weekend publications, Victor Nemukula, 51, is soaring to great heights through his seven-year-old industrial equipment company.
Nemukula is the managing director and shareholder of Shumani Industrial Equipment, a fast-rising black-owned company.
The company, which is based in Chloorkop in the northeast of Johannesburg, has branches in Cape Town, Durban and Gqeberha.
Shumani, which means “working” in Venda, covers most of Transnet’s projects at its ports, where it provides industrial machinery such as heavy-duty forklifts, reach stackers and empty container handlers.
Nemukula said his company sold and leased equipment to a variety of companies, including the top three beverages companies in the country.
“We have created a huge footprint in the business where we are competing with the biggest white-owned companies to deliver our services.
“When we started, it was a huge and difficult task to get our business right. We struggled for three years to get the ball rolling as we previously did not have our own equipment to sell or lease.
“Our company relied on our partner, Goscor Group, where we would hire equipment, however, when the business started growing, we managed to pull strings on our own.
“We are grateful for the assistance we received from Goscor to guide us to greatness,” said Nemukula.
One of the company’s biggest breaks came in 2018 when it got a contract to supply Transnet directly with its equipment.
Nemukula said that though he did not have a technical background, he had to learn as much as he could to understand the business dynamics.
“We are unlocking opportunities in the industry, and as a big black industrial equipment supplier, we are heading to greatness.
“The success we are enjoying is also opening [new] opportunities for us in other parts of the continent, and we are already doing business in Zimbabwe and Ghana,” said Nemukula.
He pointed out that the vision of his company also aimed at branching out to many other African countries and the world, as he believes that their service is of high quality.
“We are looking forward to getting our business out to the world as we have what it takes to shake trees across the globe.
“With the drive that we have, the sky is the limit for Shumani to get to the top through passion and the business model we have to give our clients satisfactory services,” he said.
With 100 employees so far, Nemukula is confident of creating more employment as the business grows.
He said that some of the clients Shumani prided itself on included Bell, Enviro Serve, Multotec, Coca-Cola, Heineken and South African Breweries.
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