Established in 1967.
The journey of the De Wit Group started way back in 1967 when the late Elbie de Wit ventured off into the exciting world of entrepreneurship. As with all startups, the first few years were a grind. It is through sheer sweat and tears, driven by an unshakeable belief that the sky is the limit that Elbie started his first business “Worcester Scrap”. The trade of purchasing, cutting, sorting and delivering cast iron to the Klipheuwel Smelter in Cape Town and SA Metal in Vereeniging is not for the faint of heart.
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By 1969 Elbie ventured into the retail industry by starting a gas distribution business “Shell Gas”. The first store opened in Roux Park, Worcester with a monthly premise rental of R27 ($2.50)! Two years later, “Shell Gas” moved to a larger facility in Riebeeck Street.
By 1972 the business has taken off, which allowed the Group's first property investment in Church Street. An industrial depot was added that facilitated the filling of gas tanks and with the infrastructure the company became the distributor of residential and industrial gas throughout the Boland region. Shell Gas expanded into a range of sport and camping goods and thereby changed it's name to Worcester Gas & Sport.
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In 1973 the Group added a Gypsey caravan retailer distributorship to its list of operations and by 1977 it also became the Jurgens caravan retailer in Worcester. The Jurgens dealerships proved exceptionally successful and the distribution network were expanded to sites in George in 1980, Goodwood in 1982 and Kuils River in 1983. During that December in 1983 the Jurgens dealership reached a new milestone by selling 133 caravans in one month.
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The heights reached in 1983 was short lived for the caravan industry, since by 1985 the US recession spilled over to South Africa that saw the prime interest rate skyrocketing to 25%. The first thing people did during this time was to sell their vacations. Although the company was heavily invested in the caravan business Elbie realized that the industry is unsustainable at such high interest rates. He made the tough decision in 1986 to exit an industry that was a roaring success just two years prior.
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Many of the caravan properties were converted into rental properties and changed into real estate investments. In Dec 1991 the company further diversified by adding a Caltex fuel station. This fuel station was upgraded in 2012 to become one of the largest in South Africa.
Since 1996 the group expanded its investments to include agriculture.
In January 2014 Toerien de Wit joined the Group as Chief Executive Officer with a mandate to use the platform laid by Elbie to further grow the business.
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The group opened the Elto-Towers convenience shopping centre in Kuilsriver in 2019. This state of the art facility, known as “the home of premium brands” includes a new generation OK Foods supermarket and OK Liquor, a Caltex fuel station, and the first of 3 new franchises rolled out in South Africa in Patriot Coffee, Caresso Carwash and Kroonplaas Restaurant. We are proud to serve an average of 3,000 happy customers per day at this facility.
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With a strong management and support team, the Group is passionately living out its purpose of running and growing a Christ centered business. The team is currently working on various fresh opportunities that will shortly see the light of day.
Investment Portfolio
We are passionate about business and entrepreneurship. We believe the most important part of a business is to establish
a healthy culture where people can thrive. This does not come from sitting on the sidelines. It is therefore our investment approach to be actively involved in the companies we invest in. We have a hands on approach whereby our job is to do everything we can to support our companies to be successful.
The Team
Toerien De Wit
CEO
Toerien started his career as an auditor with Deloitte in Cape Town in 2001. He obtained his CA(SA) qualification during this time. In 2003 he transferred to the Deloitte office in Nashville, Tennessee in the USA. There he obtained the CPA qualification as well as the CGMA and CITP credentials. During a few years working for NASBA as quality regulator over the CPA examination Toerien obtained his MBA at the Owen school of business at Vanderbilt University. In 2014, after 11 years in the US, Toerien relocated back to Cape Town, South Africa to take over the executive function of the De Wit Group from Elbie.
Henk Mostert
Financial Director
Henk started his career in 1999 as an external auditor at Deloitte in Cape Town in the Financial Institutions Services team providing him the opportunity to explore the inner workings of major financial institutions such as Old Mutual, Sanlam and BoE. He completed his studies at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology where he obtained a B Tech: Internal Audit degree. In 2002 he started his first entrepreneurial venture and formed part of numerous business entities. Since 2007 to 2014 he practiced as a forensic auditor and was registered at the ICFP (Institute of Commercial Forensic Practitioners). He investigated a vast range of investment, public and private enterprises. The investigations lead to in-depth knowledge of business operations and, because of the nature of investigations, what business practices to avoid. Henk lectured at the Cornerstone Institute in Accounting and Economics and accumulated 17 years of auditing and business experience.
Wolfgang Beyer
Chief Engineer
Wolfgang started his career in 1995 as a technician in the Electrical Engineering, Instrumentation Department at a mining company, which exposed him to various environments (smelter, underground pump stations, telecommunications, mill plant, power plant etc.). After completing his B-Tech degree, Electrical Engineering, in 1996, he worked for the next 8 years at a Research & Development Company (Psitek (Pty) Ltd) in Cape Town, where he was involved in the development of cutting edge technology in the telecommunication field. Wolfgang has been involved since 1997 in community development initiatives in various countries in Africa, and has transitioned into doing this in a full time capacity since 1998. He has also been involved since 2004 in focusing on leadership development and team building in a large organisation. He joined the De Wit Group management team in 2015 as well as overseeing the technical division of the company.