Agri-services provider goes from zero to hero

Chief Financial Officer of the Year finalist Eddie Fivaz has taken TWK Agri from the brink of collapse to expansion and success. He speaks to Lindi Botha about leadership charting a course in challenging times.

-  Lindi Botha

TWK Agri suffered major financial losses in 2010. By the time you joined the company in 2011, a complete shutdown was not excluded. What were the biggest financial challenges the company faced?

Undoubtably, the foundation and business model of TWK was and is still very good. That was not the problem. Rather, the financial losses were as a result of controls that were not in place. There were serious cash flow constraints because of the 2010 loss and some assets were not delivering the required income. Important stakeholders like financing institutions had lost trust in us. The profits were historically good, but at that time, nothing seemed promising to return to profitability or achieve sustainable growth. We were also mostly financed by the Land Bank, which had its own challenges.

To turn things around, we had to unemotionally evaluate our core business divisions, many of which were part of the foundation of the company. We had to ask ourselves if we had the necessary skills, manpower, knowledge, and support from stakeholders to continue with each of the activities. We had to take a hard look at all employees – even those that had been there for years – and weigh up if we had the right skills that the company needed at that moment and for the future. We had to seriously question if there was still value in the company to make a success of it going forward.

Under normal circumstances many would have thought it was impossible to turn around. But by taking the approach to see how we could restructure funding, win trust from our financiers and build on the good foundation we already had, we succeeded. It was clear that the underlying assets were good, the model was good, and we had many income streams. We just needed a more focused approach and to critically evaluate the business without emotion.