With 12 small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs) safely tucked way in incubation and a few more in the process of being absorbed, the Riversands Incubation Hub hopes to envelop another 56 before year-end.

The hub, located in a new commercial park near Diepsloot, has the capacity to nurture and develop up to 150 entrepreneurs and small businesses at all stages of development into fully-fledged, formal businesses.

The incubator, developed last year by Century Property Developments and National Treasury’s Jobs Fund, currently houses an upstart bakery, a flooring firm, a printing company, a fashion and sewing school and a technology and construction firm, besides others.

Since incubation officially started in a staggered approach in March, the incubated companies have doubled turnover and extensively widened their market bases, Riversands Incubation Hub CEO Jenny Retief tells Engineering News.

Dubbed the “Rolls Royce” of the development programmes offered by the facility, all the businesses under the full on-campus incubation are individually mentored, coached, supported and incubated over a period of three years, with rent heavily subsidised, as they are transformed into viable businesses with long-term sustainability.

The small businesses would gain access to technical support, markets, on-site funders and training and networking, in addition to supplier development programmes and offtake agreements, before “graduating” and potentially moving into a still-to-be-developed nearby commercial park with limited support and less subsidised rent, to further develop into the market.

The hub also assists the SMMEs to apply for, and comply with, quality standards and negotiate lower cost for services, such as logistics.

The incubation also enables the SMMEs to leverage each other’s resources and capabilities, with the printing business, Maake Media, providing business cards and signage to other nearby companies, and an in-house bakery providing catering services for the hub’s conference centre, which was rented out for functions to generate additional funds to finance the incubation activities.

The Riversands hub also aims to provide the SMMEs a market and supply chain link to established enterprises and the associated benefits of growth in trade and business activity, with “big businesses” mentoring SMMEs and assisting them to build up their products and services offtakes until they formed a major part of their production.

The location of the facility also provides direct access – and a potential market – to the extensive mixed development construction activity circling the hub.

Rhulani Mabasi, owner of Apple Floors, a garage outfit for ten years and new resident of the hub, says he aims to leverage the residential developments to provide wood, laminate and carpet flooring, wallpaper, curtains and blinds, kitchen and built-in cupboards and décor as the new residents settled into the area.

Fellow incubated SMME House of Hemp converts the stalk and seed of Cannabidiol- or CBD-containing hemp into fabric, rope, paper, boards for cupboards, insulated roof tiles, bricks, insulation and other building materials for commercial and industrial use, as well as using the extracted oil for bodycare products, such as masks and lotions, besides others.