Eaton South Africa, a global power management company with manufacturing and distribution sites in South Africa, has secured its fourth consecutive Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Level 1 status, affording it a 135% procurement recognition level.

The company scored a total of 100,12 points in its most recent assessment, with key metrics including 25,5% ownership and 13,51% black women ownership.

“Retaining our Level 1 B-BBEE status provides Eaton with a competitive advantage in the South African market, as other companies that similarly place a high priority on transforming the local economy are able to partner with us as consultants and suppliers to meet their power management needs,” says Themba Leshaba, Human Resources Business Partner at Eaton South Africa.

“We have a committed team across our different business units that have worked together to help the business achieve this milestone,” he adds.

Many international brands operating in South Africa struggle to achieve the local ownership requirements laid out in the B-BBEE guidelines, but Eaton South Africa’s parent company understands the need for local transformation. With this in mind, it partnered with Lion Pride Investment Holdings, which is a 25.5% shareholder in Eaton South Africa.

“We also pride ourselves on Inclusion and Diversity as part of our Human Resources strategy. Our Human Resources department ensures that vacant positions are filled by the best candidates for the job, that we appoint and promote on merit, while focusing on transformation.”

Eaton also invests extensively in further education with its bursary programme that funds tertiary studies for the children of employees at Tertiary level. Eaton also funds bursaries of students from the communities where we operate, who are studying for careers in power management or other related fields. We have a good track record with regards to the absorption of some of the students that have been placed in various departments in the business.

One of our values at Eaton is Learning. We drive continuous improvement through learning on the job and studying part-time to improve educational qualifications. There is extensive investment on employee development driven through our performance management system where each employee is expected to have a development plan.

With the power management sector being a highly specialised industry, Eaton has additionally focused on helping its suppliers grow. “We identify small businesses that can provide value added services, and implement service agreements with them, with the goal of empowering them and helping them build more sustainable businesses,” Leshaba explains. “We are very proud of how we are helping emerging businesses grow, despite the prevailing challenging economic environment.”

Eaton’s procurement strategy is to carefully select suppliers that also have a high B-BBEE level – particularly with black female ownership.

“Our unrelenting focus on transforming our business and our industry positions Eaton well to accelerate our business success in South Africa and further afield,” Leshaba adds. “Not only are we a supplier of choice to other businesses and public sector partners who are as focused on transformation as we are, but we will attract the continent’s leading talent, in turn build higher-performing teams, provide exceptional service and solutions to our clients.”

For more information, visit www.eaton.com/za.