Bus Africa Importation – Meet the company driving Yutong in South Africa

The irony is that had the chance to relocate not come up, I would still have needed to build a team and seek out the help of Grow.

“The bus industry is notoriously difficult to penetrate, typically because companies looking to enter and stay in this market must do so with high capital input and be able to see out economic cycles. More than this, it’s necessary for business leaders to look for innovative solutions to help them transition from merely breaking even to becoming profitable. This is the journey that Dave White, CEO of Bus Africa Importation (BAI), undertook.”

BAI is the sole Yutong agent in Southern Africa, expertly providing the sales, spares, and after-sales support for over 500 Yutong busses operating in South Africa and over 1500 busses in Southern Africa. And these numbers are constantly growing. While Dave has achieved success, it’s been a long road that started around 24 years ago.

Dave started Luxliner Coaches with industry colleagues in 1996 to fill a need in the market for groups and companies looking to hire busses – an idea that had all the hallmarks of success. Over the years, Dave gained complete knowledge about the market and in 2003, transitioned to Managing Director for Luxliner.

One of the key challenges that Dave and the team faced was achieving stability. Explains Dave, “While we successfully got the business off the ground, we really struggled to move beyond breaking even and achieve stability and so we started exploring new ideas to help the business grow.”

This included initiating a relationship with then unheard of, Yutong. A China-based, global brand, Yutong was highly successful and visible in international markets but had no presence in South Africa.

No one had heard of Yutong, so even though importing cheaper, top quality busses could give Luxliner and its sister company, Phola Coaches, the competitive edge needed to become more successful, it was a potentially risky undertaking.

The decision wasn’t made without deliberation. The team wanted to see how the product would operate in South Africa so they decided to import the busses for internal use at Phola Coaches When in one of their orders they identified a technical issue with the busses and duly reported the issue to Yutong, their response was astounding. Yutong promptly sent new parts, without delay, excuses, or argument.

“It was a defining moment and helped us realise that this relationship was one that we could trust, and it inspired us to stop solely using the busses as an internal resource,” says Dave.

In 2011, he took Yutong out of the private space and started running it in the open market through his newly formed company, Bus Africa Importation. That’s when things started to pick up and BAI expanded.

BAI was a success, and with Dave increasing sales, sharpening the company’s service offering, and improving its spares function, it became the regional distribution centre for the whole of Southern Africa. Everything he did caused BAI to grow, but it also meant that everything revolved around Dave – which worked well up until the business reached a certain size.

It was apparent that he needed to make the business less centred on him and more about sustaining and growing without his day-to-day input and so he looked for support to help him achieve this.

Says Dave, “I’d witnessed the impact of business coaching on two friends’ individual businesses, observing the changes and benefits that came from their journeys with Grow and believed that the ‘Growth Formula’ so to speak could help me pursue my next chapter.”

With Grow’s guidance, Dave was released from pulling the business forward on his own and could step back to allow the team to share the load and pull together towards the future. Ultimately, Dave gained the freedom to let go of the business and to explore new business opportunities in Australia.

BAI continues to achieve its strategy through an empowered leadership team, and ongoing support from Dave and their Grow coach. With this support and access to tools and processes that they wouldn’t have been in a position to take advantage of, BAI has managed to sustainably scale up and go from strength to strength.

Says Dave, “The irony is that had the chance to relocate not come up, I would still have needed to build a team and seek out the help of Grow, and the lessons that this journey has taught me can be extrapolated to whatever entrepreneurial endeavour I decide to embark on, whether it’s in South Africa or Australia.”

Over the next two years, Dave worked diligently with his Grow coach to make BAI independent of his everyday involvement and sustainable for years to come. This included developing his team and recruiting a General Manager that could relieve Dave of the reins. Their time was well spent, and the management team became rounded out and ready to lead and manage the business without dependence on Dave.

Dave and the team also participated in quarterly sessions, which were timely engagements to create visibility around the goals that had been set, bring new ideas, discuss errors and solutions, and stay true to course. The accountability of quarterly sessions became a key discipline that they would continue to create and leverage to this day.

Some of the most important decisions that a leader like Dave can make is to choose to communicate concerns and allow those entrusted with the information to share insights.

Says Dave, “I needed my team to be able to discuss and debate with me and these sessions helped them take on more of a shared ownership so that they became partners in setting priorities and finding solutions.”

“I’d witnessed the impact of business coaching.”