Be your own boss with our tyre entrepreneurship programme

In 2012 we at Sumitomo Rubber South Africa started our Dunlop Container project, which we envisioned as a means to drive sustainable township entrepreneurship and promote safety on the road.

Over the years, the Dunlop Container programme has enabled informal tyre businesses often trading from makeshift, roadside facilities, to be transformed into proper Dunlop-branded fitment centres, where they can offer high quality and affordable tyres and tyre services to their communities, while creating jobs.

A decade on, with 80 outlets and hundreds of jobs created across South Africa’s townships and rural communities, this programme remains South Africa’s only township and rural area enterprise development programme from a local tyre manufacturer.

It’s something we’re very proud of, and we’ve been working hard to see how we can expand it to create greater impact. As a company with a long and proud history in South Africa, we take our role in this country very seriously, and we are committed to playing a role in tackling our high unemployment of around 33%, the majority of which is young people in rural areas and townships.

“Sumitomo Rubber SA is now proud to introduce our Dunlop Business in a Box concept – and we’re on the hunt for young entrepreneurs to join us on this journey.”

Through Dunlop’s Business in a Box initiative, 48 entrepreneurs will apply for loan capital from recommended funders and receive holistic business support and training from Sumitomo Rubber SA to run their own high-quality tyre centres in their local communities.?

In a nutshell, Business in a Box is about:

• empowering entrepreneurs?
• unlocking opportunities
• creating jobs, and
• transforming townships, by fostering the entrepreneurial spirit that we all know lives within these local communities.

With the support of our partners, we’ll be setting out over the next few months to find the right people and to ensure they are equipped to be successful and well supported for their journey.

Why are we doing this? Well, we believe that all South Africans should have the same, quality, reliable experience when it comes to their tyre safety. Through our business, we are responsible for the safety of millions of South Africans.

Our purpose at Sumitomo Rubber is to create a future of joy and well-being for all. That purpose anchors everything we set out to do as a business – and it’s why we want to empower our people to deliver trusted service and drive safety.

Successful Business in a Box candidates will take ownership of a tailor-made and fully-fitted 12 metre Dunlop branded container complete with equipment, retail software, start-up stock and point-of-sale material. The sky is the limit thereafter, because we will make absolutely sure they have the ongoing support for their businesses to thrive. Business in a Box owners will receive all the technical, sales, business and back-office training and development they need to run their own thriving tyre centres, offering tyre fitment, tyre repairs, wheel balancing and rotation, and more.

The longer-term vision is that these entrepreneurs will be able to grow and develop their businesses from entry level enterprises serving the man-in-the-street, to commercially viable businesses that can support the taxi industry, and even government departments.

As I’ve said before, we provide the platform, but it’s the go-getting entrepreneurial spirit within South Africa that has driven our Dunlop Container programme forward since its very beginning. We’re all very excited about this next step of identifying young innovators within the community. Together, we believe we can work to create more opportunities, more sustainable businesses and more jobs down the line.

Please visit www.dunloptyres.co.za/business-in-a-box for more information and to apply.