This year, more than 100 000 people, most of them from the US, the UK and Europe, are likely to pack khaki clothing and go on a safari with CC Africa. And they are unlikely to forget the experience.
Unlisted CC Africa (Conservation Corp Africa) has in the past 25 years become Africa's leading ecotourism company, with more than 40 lodges and camps in wilderness locations in SA, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Kenya and Tanzania. Household names include the Londolozi, Phinda, Ngala and Kwandwe private reserves in SA; Ngorongoro Crater Lodge in Tanzania; and Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge in Namibia.
CC Africa recently spread its wings in Mpumalanga's Sabi Sand, acquiring the management contract for Kirkman's Kamp and for Exeter Private Game Reserve from Aspen Pharmacare CEO Stephen Saad.
The company's operations include tented and walking safaris and expeditions, as well as a range of specialist safaris. It is commended not only for its locations but also its staff and service standards. And it has won several awards, one of the most recent being Travel & Leisure magazine's 2006 Best Service awards for Kenya's Kichwa Tembo Tented Safari Camp (second place) and Londolozi (seventh).
Recently, too, CC Africa expanded to India, where, in partnership with Taj Hotels, it is soon to open five exciting lodges in tiger reserves.
But CC Africa is more than an ecotourism company. Its core purpose has always been the sustainable funding of wildlife conservation to the benefit of indigenous people and the environment through adventure travelling. Its chorus is: "Caring for the land, its wildlife and its people."
Nowhere is this ethos more evident than at Phinda in northern KwaZulu Natal. Fifteen years ago it was a rag-bag of underperforming farms sandwiched between two national parks; today it is a model of sustainable conservation that has had a positive effect on the local community.
One of CC Africa's recent successes in community upliftment has been Positive Health, a preventative health programme that promotes healthy living to everyone in a community, including those with HIV/Aids. This is important, not least because many of CC Africa's 2 500 staff belong to local communities.
CC Africa's conservation strategy has recently scored a number of wildlife victories, including a leopard monitoring system at Phinda; a black rhino range expansion project; the protection and monitoring of green turtles on Mnemba Island in the Zanzibar archipelago; and the reintroduction of endangered African wild dogs to Kwandwe in the Eastern Cape.
The independent, not-for-profit Africa Foundation, which was founded in 1992 by CC Africa, further empowers local communities by generating income and providing education, health care and infrastructure improvements across Africa.
CC Africa was cofounded in 1991 by Dave Varty, whose vision was based on his and his brother John's experience over two-and-a-half decades at family-owned Londolozi in the Sabi Sand. It was Varty and cofounder Alan Bernstein who sold this vision to heavyweight shareholders, the then biggest being the US's Getty Foundation and the AECI Pension Fund.
Luckily, since CC Africa's path has been as rocky as a Land Rover ride through the terrain around Londolozi, the Getty family has held on and been its most supportive shareholder. And now, with SA's Enthoven family, big in insurance through Hollard, among others, the Gettys equally control CC Africa.
A stake belongs to management, too, a team led by CEO Steve Fitzgerald, whose wife, Nicky, heads the sales and marketing portfolio. They previously ran Halcyon, a small Cape Town hotel group they built up in the 1980s.
Chief operations director Debra Fox (see "People people game for game") is another half of what are many married couples within CC Africa - her husband, creative director Chris Browne, is responsible for the look and feel of all the group's lodges. Another well-known couple at head office - there are many others in the bush - was, until recently, Pete and Yvonne Short, who between them looked after the all-important wine and food sides of the business. But Yvonne recently left for Pick 'n Pay.
"In the past five years," says Steve Fitzgerald, "what with the consolidation of our shareholding, finally resolving our distribution issues, the success of our community-based projects and the growth in the tour-operating side of our business, we have managed to achieve greater stability and success.
"As we will show in India, CC Africa is now in a position to take its concept and brand to an even broader international market."
CC Africa is the only business in the world in which all branches of the Getty family have invested. And though it is financially inconsequential, it receives disproportionate attention. Succinct testimony to this is that the lead trustee of the Getty family trust, Jan Moehl, sits on CC Africa's board - and never misses a meeting. When Fitzgerald asked him how significant an investment CC Africa was for the Gettys, his reply was a wry: "Well, don't be offended, but you're lost in the roundings."
CC Africa's preferred model is to own its businesses. "We have only three that we manage - Kwandwe, Madikwe and Exeter," says Fitzgerald. "And we have a joint venture with Taj in India simply because we were too nervous to go there on our own. Our model is increasingly to structure a deal with the local community, whereby it owns the land and lodges and we lease these and take the business risks. But circumstances vary and it depends on whether the land is inside or outside a national park."
Fitzgerald says the underlying market for African travel has never been better. This despite the fact that though it offers a cross-section of tariffs, CC Africa's average room rate is expensive at R8 500/night.
"Since the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, the definition of safety has changed dramatically," he says. "Before, if an American thought he'd get mugged, he wouldn't travel. Now, if he thinks he's going to get nuked, he won't travel. And now Americans are pouring into Africa - which is good for us, because it's the most price-insensitive market of all."
But SA is tough because it has become highly competitive. Over the past decade, there has been a proliferation of independently run lodges; indeed, there is a saying that every man with a bakkie and a bokkie has got into the safari business. CC Africa also competes with Mala Mala, Singita and Sabi Sabi in the Sabi Sand.
Though it is the only company that has a slightly similar structure, Fitzgerald says CC Africa doesn't compete intensely with Wilderness Safaris. "We supply one another and are good mates. In fact, we've just had contact with them over possible leases in Botswana, which is their biggest territory along with Namibia, and we're publishing a scientific journal produced by our rangers together. But if we grow bigger in Southern Africa, we probably will compete more strongly with them."
Since CC Africa's business is structured around an exchange rate of R6/US$, the recent strengthening of the rand to R7 has been a windfall. "But that doesn't mean that the exchange rate isn't the most difficult issue we've had to deal with over the years," says Fitzgerald.
CC Africa's figures (see "United approach wins the day") bear out Fitzgerald's bullish outlook.
CC Africa's strongest business by far is Tanzania's Ngorongoro Crater Lodge. But Phinda is also a mecca for ecotourists. And Londolozi, the founding brand and the forerunner, along with the Rattray family's Mala Mala, of the safari business in SA, never skips a beat.
Which is why it comes as a surprise to learn that Fitzgerald doesn't seem overly concerned that Dave Varty and his wife, Shan, are taking back management of the reserve and will run it as a family business from next March.
Fitzgerald says losing Londolozi will have no effect on profits because CC Africa was paying the Vartys a lease fee of almost R2m/month. "Despite the fact it used to generate the highest turnover in the group, it's difficult to make a profit with that kind of overhead."
Both Varty and Fitzgerald say the decision to part company was amicable and resulted from an inability to reach agreement on commercial terms.
It hasn't always been so rosy for CC Africa. In the mid-1990s, Varty and Bernstein embarked on a too-ambitious expansion drive for the times. Bernstein left and the company was trimmed down and refinanced. But then in 2001 Varty was ousted as CEO, not least because CC Africa was unprofitable and seemed to have lost focus. Fitzgerald, then MD, stepped in, his mandate being to make what had been developed pay.
"Dave and Alan set up the basic framework for what is today a fantastic business," says Fitzgerald.
Not that his era has been plain sailing either. "It's been a tightrope of monumental proportions to get CC Africa where it is today," he admits.
In 2002, the group reported its first break-even operating performance, and, in 2003, its first operating profit (R25m). But then, with the strengthening of the rand and a drop in tourists to East Africa because of security scares, CC Africa hit another cash crunch.
In 2004, it raised R236m through a rights issue that put it on a sound financial footing. But this was bitterly opposed by former employee and minority shareholder Philip Lategan, one of the partners in travel company Afroventures, which merged with CC Africa in early 2000.
"Afroventures, which was owned by the Enthovens, was an iffy deal for us, but it got us into tour operating," says Fitzgerald.
The upshot of its troubled history is that CC Africa has struggled to win as much recognition and respect for its brand locally as it has overseas. The view that CC Africa is not a viable business - and that it only continues to exist because of the immensely deep pockets of its shareholders - has become entrenched.
"It is also due to the fact that for a long time we had a policy of promoting our individual brands - Londolozi, Phinda - instead of the corporate brand," says Fitzgerald. "But it is hardly noticed by South Africans that at any one time three or four of our properties are on top-10-hotels lists, or that we have won practically every environmental and community-development award."
The other reason CC Africa isn't a strong brand in SA is self-evident: SA is not its core market. "I suppose it is more relevant for us to be better known in the US than in SA," says Fitzgerald.
However, its SA suppliers and competitors must be aware of its clout, since, as Nicky Fitzgerald puts it, "our tour-operating business is so big now we compete with our suppliers and we supply our competitors". Steve Fitzgerald explains that this business is largely generated off the Internet. "We must be one of the biggest e-commerce companies in SA."
Its Bateleur Club members, all of whom are South Africans or SA residents, also do a great job of promoting CC Africa - here and abroad. There are about 2 500 members, who pay a lump sum upfront for a minimum of 30 nights' accommodation (sharing) and can save as much as 50%, depending on dates and season of travel.
The Bateleur Club, launched in 1997, is a club for people who, as Fitzgerald puts it, "mainline wilderness travel and are so knowledgeable that our rangers love them". According to Nicky Fitzgerald: "They do a fantastic marketing job for us overseas by recommending our products."
Bateleur has been criticised for being a quick-cash-generating tactic - it certainly made it difficult for CC Africa's competitors to attract locals at top-end, corporate and conference markets. "It pays off for us," says Steve Fitzgerald, "because we can make it attractive for members to visit locations at times of the year when the international market is weak."
Steve says that growth is likely to come from Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana. Namibia and Zimbabwe are also on CC Africa's radar, as is Rwanda because of its gorillas. "The problem with Africa, though, is that just when you think you've got a deal going, there'll be some political torpedo to take your legs out from under you," says Steve. "So sometimes you just have to do the deals that come your way."
