our Philosophy
our Philosophy
City Venture Capital (CVC) is a private investment holding group established by Richard Fisher in 2009. Richard is also the founder and Executive Chairman of City Logistics (Pty) Ltd, one of Southern Africa’s largest privately-owned logistics companies.
Headquartered in Cape Town, with offices in London, CVC’s primary objective is to spread investment risk through diversification across a broad range of market sectors, including retail, digital commerce and technology.
The goal of CVC is to help our companies grow and up-scale their businesses with the ultimate aim of generating significant returns for the Trust’s investors.
We collaborate with other investors and entrepreneurs to bring new products and services to market. This collaboration helps to create a supportive ecosystem for start-ups where they can access the resources they need to succeed, while promoting innovation and economic growth.
Where possible, environmental benefit and community upliftment are key principles upon which the Trust has been built.
One of CVC’s noteworthy investments is Synergy, which has developed into a world-class, employee-centric, Omni Channel contact centre. In the space of seven years, the business has grown from a fledgling start-up to an advanced centre employing some 1600 people.
Another, is Snappi Group, which builds and provides scalable e-commerce platforms, software development services and logistics solutions for stores and businesses across South Africa.
The senior executives within CVC provide strategic guidance, mentorship and access to a network of industry contacts gained through their local and international experiences.
This demonstrated leadership is especially important during times of economic growth and financial uncertainty.
Richard Fisher
Executive Chairman
Richard is the founder and chairman of City Logistics Group, which has a projected turnover of R3.6bn for the current FY. Richard is an entrepreneur with shareholdings in various businesses and investment entities, including logistics, property holding,
trade finance, agriculture, hospitality, aviation, technology, digital commerce, security, and retail.
In 1988, 19-year-old Richard started City Logistics, then City Couriers, which initially focused on providing Durban’s inner-city legal fraternity with a document courier service. The business gradually expanded and in 1990 secured the transportation and delivery account for Mr Price, which was then in its infancy.
Together with the Mr Price Group, City Logistics grew to be a large-scale enterprise. The group incrementally diversified its customer base to include blue-chip customers and brands such as PEP Stores, SPAR, Ford Motor Company, Edgars, Pick n Pay Clothing, AVI, Thule, Hirt & Carter, The Hub, Barrows, and many more.
BRUCE GOULD
EUROPEAN EXECUTIVE
Bruce has a wealth of experience in the world of business, holding executive and senior positions with international and local organizations across the private and corporate sectors.
His strength and success are in integrating different businesses, fostering cultures of consolidation and growth, and ensuring compliance with ethical codes of business conduct.
He currently sits on three boards and is a trustee of a private equity company where his entrepreneurial spirit has inspired measurable success.
Based in London, with regular travel throughout Europe and Africa, Bruce also serves as a trustee for the Fisher Foundation (NPC) based in South Africa. Using enterprising initiatives and solutions, the foundation focuses on raising awareness of conservation through education in rural communities living adjacent to the national parks.
Quintus vd Berg
African EXECUTIVE
Quintus is a former member of the City Logistics executive where he served until 2022 before focusing on the City Venture Capital portfolio. In 2007, he and Richard Fisher cofounded Bluerich-Q Holdings which now owns and operates Mr Price and Edcon in Mozambique together with mining investments, sports development, and strategic procurement.
Quintus has worked throughout Africa, including South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, DRC, and Nigeria. He has working experience in various sectors: logistics, retail, mining, hospitality, and digital commerce. His current portfolio includes:
• CEO – Bluerich-Q Holdings
• Commercial Consultant – City Group of Companies
• Directorships: Buy Better, LOAD, The Sire
His specific skillset includes contract negotiation, cost engineering, process and systems design, and marketing. He speaks English, Afrikaans, some Portuguese, and isiZulu. He now lives in the Western Cape where he enjoys golf and small-scale wine making. Uncompromising ethics underpin his enduring business relationships.
Frank du Toit
Chief Financial Officer
Frank is a chartered accountant (CA SA) and a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA). He has worked for City Logistics for over 12 years and is the group’s current Chief Financial Officer.
He is accomplished and commercially focused as evidenced by his career trajectory at City Logistics. He is adept at implementing the necessary cost control and revenue growth strategies to drive and execute consistent and sustainable business success.
Frank oversees the fiduciary aspects of the company, and, together with the board, ensures both management and allocation of funding are transparent and astutely administered. He also serves as a trustee for the Fisher Foundation (NPC). His mandate for the foundation is to ensure all initiatives and allocations of funding are implemented with sound governance.
Our Portfolio
Our Portfolio
Founded in 1988, City Logistics is one of the largest privately-owned logistics companies in Southern Africa and has grown over the past three decades into a customer-focused and agile enterprise with an extensive network. A deep understanding of retail ecosystems and supply chains, fortified with 250 000m2 of warehousing space, 3 500+ personnel and a 1 200+ vehicle fleet, underpins their status as sector leaders.
With a world-class IT platform – including OnRoute, an advanced software system which focuses on the execution of the last mile of the supply chain – City Logistics is uniquely positioned to distribute throughout Southern Africa, achieving efficiency levels above 98%.
City Tech is positioned to provide critical logistics software solutions as well as IT infrastructure, hardware and technology support.
Born out of necessity during the Covid-19 lockdown, software was designed to reach non-office based staff for important communications. This is enabled through reverse-data billing ensuring open communication at all times.
City Tech can provide support for companies with staff complements of 100+, enabling clear communication, motivation and feedback.
Established in 2007, City Industrial Property Fund provides tailor-made property solutions throughout South Africa.
The fund develops properties that are tailored to our client’s specific needs. Facilities vary from 2,000sqm to 46,000sqm in size and range from warehousing and distribution facilities to container handling parks and specialised factory / workshop facilities.
Developments are active in Cape Town, Durban, George, Paarl and the Gauteng region.
Fastway Couriers supports City Logistics’ e-commerce and “last mile” solution offering a nationwide, efficient and affordable timetable courier service, reinforced by leading-edge computer technology. Online parcel track and trace facilities ensure reliable and timeous service for small to medium sized businesses – with over 16 million parcels moved per year.
A recent acquisition by City Logistics, Fastway forms an integral part of the value chain and aligns with and complements the vision for the group as a whole.
Forsyth & Nash Insurance Brokers (FANIB) is a high-street, boutique and independent insurance brokerage, dealing with the entire short-term industry both domestic and commercial – including marine, transit and agriculture.
FANIB has agencies with all major insurance companies in South Africa and is an owner-run andcustomercentric driven business, going beyond boutique in its offering to build long term sustainable relationships.
Bluerich-Q is a boutique business set up specifically to facilitate the expansion of South African and international retail brands into the greater Southern African region. Since its inception the business has expanded to explore opportunities in business consulting, mining, aviation and specialized procurement.
Since 2007, the business manages the Mr Price stores under franchise agreement in Mozambique.
Recently, Bluerich-Q acquired EDCON Mozambique and facilitated the entry of the Decofurn Group into Mozambique.
Navy Creative is a full-service advertising, design and digital agency based in Cape Town, servicing a host of clients around the globe and across all sectors. From Los Angeles to Lusaka, they have worked on some of the world’s most iconic brands delivering strategic award-winning creative work.
In 2022, Navy opened offices in London and are looking to expand their footprint with offices in the USA in 2023.
Hatronika Energy leads the energy sector with the world’s inaugural decentralized energy network, eliminating reliance on traditional grids. Our groundbreaking solar panel integrates a battery, inverter, and wireless management system, transforming energy generation, transmission, storage, monetization, and consumption. Join us in revolutionising the global energy landscape.
Snappi Group offers a circular economy powered by transactions between government, citizens, businesses and tourists – reducing revenue leakage caused by dominance of foreign apps and businesses.
Snappy Seller lowers the barrier to entry for rural entrepreneurs, SMEs and enterprise alike to enter the mainstream economy towards digitization, scalability and national fulfilment.
Capitec Bank has appointed Buy Better Shop as a Live Better partner, specifically to develop a digital retail platform and curate products for their customer base.
The Capitec customer base mirrors South African demographics perfectly and thus constitutes a captured audience of around 25% of all South African consumers.
The Buy Better platform will build on the traffic and trust of the Capitec brand, in that customers will navigate directly from the Capitec banking application, into their digital commerce ecosystem.
Afrigistics understands the complexities of trading in Africa and Internationally, making them the ideal partner to help their clients unlock opportunities and build their footprint.
Specializing in a comprehensive range of transport logistics services and supply chain solutions to, from and within Africa with a network spanning 120 countries, Afrigistics has the resources and reach to effectively deliver on their products and services.
Synergy is an established 4000+ seats Omni Channel contact centre based in South Africa, solving the challenges of culture-fit, affordability and performance for a global market. Their employee-centric and culture-driven approach to innovation is reshaping the customer experience in the contact centre market.
With over 3000 employees and still owner-managed, Synergy continues to build sustainable jobs for the youth in South Africa and services over 60M customers across four continents.
CDR Contracts offers a comprehensive range of HR services to assist in creating, building and managing entire workforces as well as business solutions for the workplace enabling their clients to focus on their core business.
For over 25 years CDR Contracts has been a successful human capital solutions provider, delivering value-driven outcomes for clients and employees in the corporate, engineering, petroleum, mining, building, construction, motor, government, security and logistics industries.
Locstat is a graph analytics platform that uses graph-based AI and event processing to help organizations quickly scale their data intelligence solutions.
It generates graph intelligence by analyzing data relationships, which reveals deeper insights and identifies patterns and trends, enabling better decision-making and triggering next-best actions from contextualized data.
The platform is widely used in various industries, such as financial services, retail, customer analytics, supply chain, logistics, and safety & security.
Centred around the retail sector, Condeka offers a range of products and services to large retailers, smaller chains and independents which includes high-quality Point of Sale and packaging items for the clothing, food and alcohol sectors.
Additionally, Condeka holds listings and relationships with these retailers, allowing them to represent products and brands in a sales and in-store operational capacity. Leveraging off the growth of E-commerce, online stores are created, including the fulfilment of distribution via Takealot, Amazon etc.
With over 40 years of experience in the plastics industry, First Choice designs injection, extrusion and blow moulds and specializes in bringing products to market from concept to final production. Partnering with Elite Profiles (Pty) Ltd, PVC data strips are one of their main product lines which are used to display pricing on shelving by the leading retailers in South Africa, including Woolworths, Shoprite, Pick n Pay, Makro, SPAR, and Walmart.
The company also offers CNC Routing, CNC Lazer cutting, and the bending of components from PERSPEX® to aluminium and stainless steel.
A well-established sourcing and supply business with offices in the East, having direct links into manufacturing by support personnel with local knowledge.
Supplies mass retailers with a focus on furniture and fittings as well as specified exclusive products as required.
Warehousing and offices based in Durban offer direct trans-shipments into retail supply chains.
Fishbowl’s core business is encouraging entrepreneurs to bring new products and services to market. This CVC collaboration helps create a supportive ecosystem for start-ups, enabling them to access assistance and guidance from within the group structures, ensuring success.
Fishbowl is committed to the ongoing advancement of innovation and economic growth in a variety of sectors within the economy and community.
Founded in 1893 as Kesslers International, Kesslers is the UK’s leading creative design and turn-key manufacturing business with a proven and long-standing pedigree of delivering award-winning displays for the retail industry.
Fast, efficient on-site manufacturing based in East London forms the centre of our global operation and allows the team to deliver a range of retail solutions from store refits to worldwide launch activations. Sainsbury’s, Dior, Adidas and L’Oréal are among the leading global brands our passionate and innovative teams work with to design and create compelling in-store experiences.
The Beach House is a highly popular restaurant in Mauritius, situated on the beach in Grand Baie.
Well-established for over 15 years, it is renowned for its prime location, high-quality culinary experience and tropical island ambience.
The menu offers a variety of fresh seafood dishes as well as other local and international cuisine.
Proportion London, a global visual merchandising services company, crafts high-quality, innovative mannequin display solutions for top-tier brands and museums.
With over 150 years of experience, we blend cutting-edge technology with traditional techniques to produce unparalleled products.
Our skilled teams of sculptors, model makers, and artists meticulously ensure perfection in every detail of our entirely handmade creations.
CVC is the driving force behind the establishment of the Fisher Foundation NPC, having funded the initial rollout of effective programmes in conservation education and community upliftment initiatives. In the face of the current global environmental crisis, it is imperative to prioritize conservation education for the youth living alongside protected conservation areas in South Africa. The current sustainability crisis demands attention to environmental, social and economic concerns. Investing in the education of youth in “fenceline” communities is a strategic and moral imperative to ensure the long-term well-being of both ecosystems and the people who inhabit them.
Just outside of Paarl in the heart of the Cape Winelands is the charming Olijvenkraal Olive & Wine Farm with superb views of the foothills of the Klein Drakenstein mountains over flourishing vineyards and olive groves.
The farm produces limited quantities of red wine – namely Malbec, Shiraz and Touriga Naçional – alongside an annual harvest of 150 tons of olives.
Ideal for dream weddings and elegant functions, offering an open-fire dining experience, Olijvenkraal has a dedicated in-house team to assist in the planning and execution of your special celebration or event.
FYRE is the latest addition to the boutique event venue and working farm at Olijvenkraal, offering South African-inspired dishes that only an open fire with flame and smoke can produce. South Africans have a deep-rooted love for cooking with fire and in many ways this cherished heritage is what has differentiated South African cuisine from elsewhere around the world.
Watch our braai masters perfecting their art, hear the crackle of coals and the smell of wood char – all combining to create an energy that closed-kitchen restaurants cannot match.
City Logistics
City Logistics
IN DEPTH
City Logistics understands supply chains and the importance of adding maximum value, as well as providing cost-effective solutions and the highest service levels.
Our extensive network throughout Southern Africa has been developed over 30 years, offering exclusive supply chain solutions, specializing in client and fleet requirements. This typically consists of a dedicated pool of vehicles and staff customized to our client’s operational needs, enabling the client to share the benefits of our procurement, maintenance and risk management capacity.
We are passionate about what we do, passionate about Retail and service excellence.
Let us be part of your solution.
Fisher Foundation
Fisher Foundation
IN DEPTH
The Fisher Foundation, established by Richard Fisher in 2022, is a non-profit organization that focuses on education in conservation for children living in close proximity to the national parks through enterprising initiatives and solutions. Our mission is to grow our partnerships and alliances with the objective of cultivating a shift in community mindsets towards conservation and empowering those who face socio-economic challenges with resourceful solutions.
“Investing in conservation awareness during the formative years
of our children’s lives will translate into a more sustainable future for generations. We have to be future-focused. This mindset works in business and the same approach will create a world that we can proudly bequeath to our children.
It is my heartfelt wish that through constructive partnerships and initiatives, we can make a meaningful difference”.
– Richard Fisher
Olijvenkraal
OLIJVENKRAAL
IN DEPTH
Besides being a working farm, Olijvenkraal Olive & Wine Farm offers all-inclusive one-of-a-kind weddings, events in versatile indoor and outdoor spaces, and open-fire dining, all nestled in the heart of the world-renowned Cape Winelands.
Some of the many events Olijvenkraal has hosted include performances by Jeremy Loops, Darren ‘Whackhead’ Simpson, and the Konka experience. The venue is host to the annual Conservation Cup fundraiser which is played at the nearby Pearl Valley Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course.
Delectable cuisine, breathtaking views and excellent service make a visit to Olijvenkraal Olive & Wine Farm an unforgettable experience.
Fyre Dining
Fyre Dining
IN DEPTH
Olijvenkraal Olive & Wine Farm near Paarl in the Cape Winelands introduces FYRE, our boutique working farm and event venue. FYRE offers a primal, South African-inspired open-fire cooking experience. Watch our braai masters craft dishes with the crackle of coals and the aroma of wood char, creating a unique, sensory energy.
Indulge in dishes like skaapstertjies and oepsies. Mains feature locally-sourced meats all served with succulence. Try our 800g T-bone infused with smoky nuances from burnt olive branches, perfectly paired with our house Olijvenkraal Shiraz. Desserts include tantalizing malva cheesecake and melktert ice cream.
Escape to FYRE at Olijvenkraal to unwind and savor an unmatched culinary adventure.