The Lucert Group grew its fibre-to-home business by 30% between March 2020 and March 2021 – taking advantage of the instant shift towards remote working during lockdown.
“Thanks to the recurring income we receive from our clients, we were quite comfortable during the various stages of lockdown. There’s a saying going around that stable internet is like oxygen and we are fortunate to be the ones supplying it,” said Bongani Khosa, CEO and entrepreneur behind The Lucert Group. One of the company’s clients is The Parks@Riversands residential estate within the greater Riversands Commercial Park where Lucert Group has the contract to install fibre for Century Property Developments. This is in accordance to Century and the Hub’s continuous drive to find ways of connecting Hub SMEs to economic opportunities within the commercial park.
The Lucert Group is now a Riversands I-Hub alumni member having moved to new premises in Fourways in August 2020, where the office-based team now works. There are also five Lucert service vehicles which each carry two technicians who are on call for both installations and maintenance.
When asked how the technicians are trained, Khosa explained that he’s implemented an apprenticeship model which works well. “We recruit youngsters with a relatively good matric who demonstrate a good attitude, a willingness to learn and an aptitude for dealing with technology. A driver’s licence is an added bonus! When each individual has spent some time with a qualified technician, they receive formal training and become qualified.” The team at The Lucert Group has expanded in this way.
Further growth for the company will come from becoming a fibre network operator (FNO) which owns the infrastructure besides providing the internet services. “We’ve partnered with a property developer who builds complexes and we have the opportunity to install the fibre during the construction phase. Since Lucert is both an FNO and an internet service provider, we benefit from the entire value chain and in this way we can offer connectivity at relatively low rates,” he said.
The Lucert Group has grown considerably since it first started in 2015 when Khosa left a big corporate job to follow his dream of becoming a committed entrepreneur. “The Riversands I-Hub platform enabled me to scale slightly faster than would’ve ordinarily been possible. If we have learnt anything from 2020, it’s the fact that data has become like oxygen – an absolute essential. I’m slowly but surely becoming a serious player in the local internet industry,” concluded Khosa.