Yes, we’re talking a brand simply titled Bathu that is the brainchild of
Alexandra born Theodore Baloyi- CEO and founder.
The coining ‘bathu’ is a universal slang for shoes in townships.
For his efforts, street-wise business model and never-die-attitude Bathu
will be moving into new offices and warehouse in Centurion, a
stone-throw away from his birth place in March this year.
The move to the new warehouse is prompted by the great strides of growth
that the brand has achieved over the past year, be it through the
increased growth in sales, which are strongly supported by brand
awareness campaigns such as Yama Supa, to the growth in the number of
retail stores across the South African landscape and of course to the
increase in the number of jobs that are needed to feed the nation with
these crafted sneakers.
He commented that “this move is a major milestone for the brand as it
begins to cement its place as one of the best in South Africa” and this
can be attributed to its consistent contribution in the development of
the economy.
However, on the other hand, the brand gets to benchmark itself with the
best of best across the world as a proudly African sneaker brand and for
this to be ensured, the move to Centurion allows the brand to
corporatize itself as a business and increase its capacity to deliver
more sneakers to feed the demand of the public.
This is all done as a process of improving the brand to rival all the
biggest brands in the world.
The 29 year old is an Accountant by profession who quit his corporate
job with PwC after being bored resplendent in suit every day of his
life, but today can be seen in Jeans, T-shirts and his brand Bathu
sneakers- that are 100% locally produced, with mesh material from
Lesotho and manufactured in Durban.
He started off with a range of four colours and now has 11 colours,
making a turnover of R20.2m for the 2018/2019 financial year.
“We are looking at tripling it in the next couple of years,” he was
quoted.
Baloyi employes 25 people, mostly from Alexandra, and has since opened
three stores – in Newtown, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth and now with
Centurion warehouse opening, it seems more jobs will be created.
“For the year 2020, Bathu will see an increase in the number of retail
stores across the country and increase its brand footprint into the SADC
region in countries like Botswana,” he pointed out with a tongue in
cheek.
According to some Alex locals they own a pair(s) -a sign of supporting one of their own!
Image (Theodore Baloyi- CEO and founder of Bathu sneakers- is coining it BIG TIME).
Bathu sneakers grows from ordinary to being a trend-setter!
