Diversified services company Workforce Holdings (Workforce) has acquired KBC Holdings and its wholly-owned subsidiary, KBC Health and Safety with effect from January 1, 2017 for a maximum purchase consideration of R47-million.

KBC provides induction training, safety, health, environment and quality (SHEQ) training, contractor onboarding services and contractor management primarily in the mining and minerals industries in South Africa, where KBC enjoys meaningful market share and brand equity.

KBC’s products and services also include facilitator-led learning, licensed online courses, behaviour-based safety training, safety consulting and instructional design. KBC is the supplier of choice for many blue-chip mining companies, helping them manage contractor risk and ensuring compliance with relevant safety legislation.

Regulation around SHEQ requirements for contractors is stringent, requiring mining companies to re-accredit contractors yearly. “Our specialised service offering means that we have built a client base that trusts us and relies on us year after year to ensure their contractor workforce remain SHEQ compliant, and most critically, safe at work,” explains KBC MD Graham Emmet.

Emmet will continue to lead the business and build on KBC’s already strong reputation as an experienced, reliable and knowledgeable expert in the SHEQ training and compliance industry. “We are excited to be part of the Workforce group of companies and to leverage the many opportunities that this transaction presents for us and our clients,” he says.

Workforce CEO Philip Froom says KBC trains about 100 000 contractors yearly in its 12 centres around the country. He adds that acquiring KBC forms part of its strategy of building a diversified human resources group through a combination of organic and acquisitive growth.

“KBC complements our existing accredited training businesses, and meets our criteria of acquiring quality businesses, underpinned by strong management teams who, importantly, share Workforce’s entrepreneurial culture and values,” he concludes.