SKIDATA South Africa had another successful year in 2023 in the Parking & Smart Mobility and Sports & Entertainment markets, both in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Following on from a successful 2022, we carried on this momentum into 2023 where we were able to obtain many New Facility orders during the year, we ended off the year by making our Forecasted Turnover and exceeding our EBIT, which was an exceptional result, especially when one considers the overall depressed South African economic climate and all the additional challenges and disruptions of load shedding and in some cases, having no water brings for businesses. This included new excursions into Zimbabwe, Namibia, Malawi & Tanzania.
New Sites in 2023
Some of the New Facilities are highlighted pictorially below:
- Limpopo Mall – New Pay on Foot Parking Solution
- Gold Reef City Theme Park – New Pay on Entry Parking Solution
- Mediclinic Medforum – New Pay on Foot Parking Solution
- Tanzania Ports Authority – New Pay on Foot Parking Solution
- Zimbabwe Agricultural Society – New Event Access Solution
- Johannesburg Surgical Hospital – New Pay on Foot Parking Solution
The interesting point to note is that many of these newly equipped SKIDATA sites were replacements of older sites equipped with our competitors’ systems, as well as completely new sites where the Landlord’s requirements were for the latest technologies of Touchless, Ticketless, Cashless, and Cloud-Based solutions.
This trend continued into Q1 2024, where we have been awarded 2 international airports out of the 4 New Facilities.
New Sites in Q1 2024
- Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport – New Pay on Foot Parking Solution
- The Fields Pretoria – New Pay on Foot Parking Solution
- Tram Shed – New Pay on Foot Parking Solution
- Sir Seretse Khama International Airport – New Pay on Foot Parking Solution
Sub-Saharan Africa
2023 saw SKIDATA South Africa venture into additional new countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, by being awarded new sites in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia, where we have agreements with in-country companies to be SKIDATA’s agent for commercial and technical support.
The Sub-Saharan countries in which SKIDATA South Africa is currently active include Kenya, Nigeria, Angola, Botswana, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.
Further, SKIDATA South Africa also supports certain Middle Eastern countries with our SKIDATA Connect Cloud-Based solutions via our Digital Expert located at our SKIDATA Cape Town office.
New Technologies
With the COVID-19 pandemic that swept the world from around December 2019, causing the South African Government to impose a variety of hard lockdowns starting on the 27th of March 2020, it has been said that we have created new technologies in 2 years, what it would normally have taken 10 years.
SKIDATA South Africa was no exception to this, with the introduction of new technologies in 2020 such as “Touchless” with our “Wave” to obtain a Parking Ticket, plus our “Ticketless” License Plate Recognition (LPR) solution for access and egress to parking garages, and of course our “Cashless” Tap & Go and Chip & Pin devices installed on the Automatic Payment Machines that accepts Credit & Debit Card payment, plus our “Scan to Pay” via a Mobile Smart Phone. We are delighted our commercial property owners and landlords with solutions that meet the current Health & Safety requirements and assist them in their quest to increase cashless transactions as a percentage of overall revenue generation.
Further, we are introducing Parking Technology Solutions that are “cloud” based, whereby the control of the onsite solution will be virtual in the cloud. The platform is known as SKIDATA Connect, which offers a variety of products such as sweb® Control, sweb® Analyze, sweb® Validate and sweb® Mobile Pay, wrapped in a Software Platform known as Solution Subscription, whereby the client pays a monthly subscription fee for these software licenses.
Intertraffic Amsterdam 2024
Intertraffic Amsterdam is held every 2 years and this year it will be held from 16th to 19th April 2024.
This is the world’s largest Traffic, Infrastructure Management, Road Safety, Smart Mobility and Parking Exhibition, and attracts 900 Exhibiting Companies and over 35, 000 Delegates from 140 Countries.
SKIDATA will be presented with a highly innovative and futuristic technology stand where we will be demonstrating the current and future technologies under the banner “SKIDATA Connect”.
SKIDATA South Africa will be sending our Digital Expert to assist on the SKIDATA stand, as well as meet South African and Sub-Saharan African customers who will be attending Intertraffic Amsterdam 2024.
Austrian Business Chamber Annual Golf Day 2024
Once again, the Austrian Business Chamber is having its Annual Golf Day on the 12th of June 2024 at the Houghton Golf Club. And once again, SKIDATA South Africa is sponsoring a Hole and taking at least 3 Fourballs by inviting VIP Customers to participate, plus encouraging our suppliers to either book a 4th Fourball or donate prizes.
We have also invited Stephen Tibber, SKIDATA Vice President LatAm MEA to participate again as he did last year, by playing in one of the Fourballs and to meet our VIP customers.
General
In the latter part of 2023, SKIDATA South Africa moved the Head Office into new offices at 114 Oxford Road, Houghton Estate, Johannesburg.
This location is better suited to welcoming customers for business meetings and social events, as the facility offers better parking and security, which is also of benefit to our employees who work out of the Head Office.
SKIDATA South Africa also has regional offices in Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KZN, where we support our customers in these regions both commercially and technically.
So, the Team at SKIDATA South Africa is eagerly looking forward to the rest of 2024 as we have many Potential Opportunities in the Pipeline, where we are working indirectly with Parking Management Operators, and directly with Commercial Property Owners and Landlords in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, who are looking for world-class access and revenue-generating solutions and changing the way of welcoming people.
This article was brought to you by SKIDATA South Africa. A member of the Austrian Business Chamber.