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Tevo Celebrates 10 years of success

“When we started, it was all telephone and post. They promised to get your product to you  in just six weeks!” remembers Robin Read, co-director of  Tevo, a Durban-based business that specialises in sourcing, developing, marketing and distributing innovative products via key retailers such as Game, Makro, Pick ‘n Pay, DionWired and Builders Warehouse.

However, according to Read and co-director Patrick Bennett, although the company is now 10 years old, the average consumer is more likely to recognise individual brands that fall under its banner than the Tevo brand itself.
During its first decade, the company elected to remain under the radar, aggressively growing and marketing a wide range of brands. Along the way, it has become a singular success story that has captured a huge wedge of its highly competitive market.

What started out as a three man business in 2004 now employs 490. It launched with just three products and currently has 216 active products across 32 brands which include shoX -for which Tevo owns global intellectual rights as is proud to say is the second largest mobile audio brand in South Africa after Apple – DriBuddi, Zingo motorised scooters, bennett.read cookware, the world’s top floorcare brand Bissell, WaZooka and more.
Read recalls that Tevo made its debut at a time when competitors had already been trading for decades.

The new kid on the block arrived with a completely new model and a very product focused approach that focused on growing credible brands rather than launching one hit wonders, gizmos and gadgets. The mainstay of this approach was to bring in innovative and quality goods that were not available in South Africa. The next step was to showcase these using a shop-within-a-shop approach in partnership with blue chip retailers.

All products are subjected to rigorous in-house R&D testing. Prototypes and final production samples are distributed to independent customer groups for testing and feedback. Each product must meet the need for which it was designed and must prove to be strong and durable enough to function for years to come.

“From the beginning, our focus was on retail. Our big drive was quality.  We wanted innovative products that did what they said, were well priced and offered value. We have been consistent over the past 10 years and it has worked well for us,” he says.

Exactly how well is illustrated by the fact that Tevo is the market leader in all but two of the categories in which it operates. “But watch this space,” warns Read.

“We are pedantic about quality in an industry that is not traditionally known for its quality,” adds Bennett, stressing that his pet hate is the word gimmick.

He says the best barometers of how ungimmick-like Tevo’s products are are its support and service and the notorious Hello Peter consumer complaints website.

“I challenge you to find another company in our sector with a better rating. On a website designed for consumer complaints, the vast majority of Tevo’s interactions are with happy customers. We have achieved a higher rating than massive brands and corporates,” he says.

When it comes to support, he says that up until they entered the market, any form of product back up had been virtually unheard of.  However, when they launched two high maintenance product categories – electric scooters and floorcare products – after sales service was a given. 

Although, during its early days, Tevo pitched its products at the top end of the market and LSMs 8 to 10, it has since broadened its aim, appealing to both aspirational markets and those looking to buy up in order to get more bang for their hard earned bucks in an extremely tough economic climate.

An example, says Bennett, is the Clean Cut ceramic knives recently introduced by Tevo. “We are now achieving what many would have thought impossible not too long ago – bringing in goods that are positioned at the high end of the market at mid-market prices. It brings a whole new value proposition.”

At the end of the day, South Africans are tough consumers, Read explains. The average local shopper is both quality and price sensitive and building trust is a big factor. But, as they have found, once a customer has used and is satisfied with one product, he is more likely to try another.

Based on its South African success, Tevo has moved into other markets, starting with Australia and New Zealand and then progressing to Dubai, Canada, the Middle East, Israel and the UK. Even Bissell, the US’s top floorcare brand, is now adding Tevo sourced products to its range and selling these through its own outlets.

As Bennett observes, over the past decade they have simply “knuckled down and grown the business” with the latest feather in the Tevo cap being a new world-class distribution facility in Johannesburg.
“Often people don’t realise that there’s a back end to this business that runs on grease tracks,” he says.

However, for both him and Read, one of the company’s greatest accomplishments has been building a strong team and providing training and incentives. Unlike in the retail industry where casual labour is common, Tevo has built up a permanent 400 strong retail team that treats its in-shop stores as their own businesses. Tevo employs a full time recruitment specialist and two full time in-house trainers and has its own training academy.
Looking back over the past 10 years, Read says building the business has been exhilarating. “Tevo has been an exciting place to work with new things constantly arriving. The focus has always been forward. It’s only now that we have taken the time to evaluate the many milestones along the way.”

Simphiwe Sithole (operations executive), Stephen Carrie (marketing executive), Jannie Haasbroek (business development executive), Robin Read (director), Paul Bennett (sales executive), Patrick Bennett (director), Tasha Chapeshamano (human resources executive).

For more information, visit www.tevo.co.za.

Ends