Pick n Pay mentorship app launched to empower small suppliers

Pick n Pay hosted a ‘speed dating’ event in Cape Town and Johannesburg where they launched a mentorship app to connect its small suppliers with experts across its business. The retailer said the new initiative seeks to empower entrepreneurs with easy access to the mentorship and business development support they need to grow their businesses.

The PnP Mentorship app already has over 150 Pick n Pay staff members who have been verified on the app and is offered to suppliers at no cost. According to Mishinga Seyuba Kombo, Head of Pick n Pay Enterprise and Supplier Development “we offer our small suppliers access to a network of Pick n Pay mentors who can offer guidance, their expertise, experience and knowledge of real-life challenges and how to solve them”.

Suppliers from its Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) programme were invited to meet over 150 of the mentors in a speed dating setting and had five minutes to learn what value they could add to their business. This was followed by an opportunity to further engage with the potential mentors they identified.

The app mentor’s expertise will range from procurement, merchandising, compliance, supply chain, financial management, marketing and human resources. Seyuba Kombo, says “While entrepreneurs are passionate people with a very clear vision of what they want to achieve, many don’t always have or have access to, the expertise they need grow their business. As they grow, this is the kind of expertise they need to ensure they are successful and sustainable”.

Ntombi Nonxuba from Rise Uniform, a clothing manufacturing company that supplies uniforms to Pick n Pay stores nationwide, says Pick n Pay’s head of finance helped her to implement her plan and vision. “I call them my strategic partners because they are really interested in my business. When I started my business, I didn’t know anything about cash flow, projections or plans. I just knew I wanted to make uniforms. Since 2014, my mentor has guided and directed me every step of the way, but she did it with me, never for me. And this is the best way to learn, otherwise, I’d still be hanging onto her back today,” says Nonxuba.