The Central Chamber held their 99th Annual Function at Emperors Palace on 12 June. The evening was an enjoyable one and featured good food, prize draws and members were dressed according to the theme ‘Rio Carnival’.
Printing SA CEO Patrick Lacy officially announced to all members that Steve Thobela, who is currently the Deputy CEO of Printing SA, has been appointed as the new Printing SA CEO which will be effective from January 2015. At the event, Lacy also spoke about how far the association has come from 2009 right up to this year.
In his presentation Lacy asked, ‘How far have we advanced in five years?’ He went on to explain that when Cross Media went insolvent, 17 staff members were retrenched and they were in possession of an empty premises with limited training. This did not keep them from trying to re-establish the association. Lacy elaborated on how the association redeemed itself: ‘The Honeydew Campus was sold and full TT courses were offered in Cape Town, Kwa-Zulu Natal and Gauteng, now the Printing SA staff was fully motivated. Branding PIFSA as Printing SA was completed and registered, with the establishment of a training council and a strategic plan and the was company consolidated and restructured. We received full participation of the five largest members which led to the concept of shared services. The association still has a developing and development plan and has prevented the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) from forcing Air Quality Act (AQA) costs. The board had resolved the funding of the establishment of Two Sides as well as establishing industry funds to receive Enterprise Development (E.D)., Socio-Economic Development (S.E.D) and Skills Development contributions. There is projected 2014 operating turnover of R30m.’
The Master of Ceremonies and entertainment for the evening was the well-known Harry Sideropoulos. Economist Daniel Silke was the guest speaker. There were six prize draws that took place during the event: Best Dressed Male (Raymond Blake from Papercor Holdings) and Best Dressed Female (Olivia Neves from Peters Papers) who both won Woolworths gift vouchers. L Schutte from Typo Print won an HP Mini Laptop and AntiVirus Kit as a Diamond Prize, while Denise Wegener from Guillemont Busines Forms took home the Canon digital camera as a Sapphire prize and the Ruby prize of a DSTV Explorer went to Maion Schuls from Parrot. The all-expanses paid trip for two to Mauritius was won by Papercor Holding’s Nadia Maguire.
