Kumba Shines at National Business Awards
28 May, 2010
Kumba Iron Ore was named as the Top Performing Company of the Year for 2009 and Chief Executive, Chris Griffith won the Top Businessman of the Year Award at the 8th annual African Access National Business Awards (AANBA) that took place at the Sandton Convention Centre Ballroom on Thursday, 27 May 2010.
Kumba also won the ESG (Environment, Sustainability and Governance) Award and received an honourable mention in the Exporter of the Year category.
Said Chris, "Kumba had a great year in 2009. This is evident from the company's performance on the JSE where Kumba ranked 2nd for the year in terms of profit, after interest; moving up from 11th position the previous year. Over the period the company's share price also grew by a phenomenal 85%.
"We did the basics well. We looked after our costs, increased production, and grew our sales and exports. At the same time we improved our safety performance markedly, and continued to invest in our people and our host communities in spite of the global recession."
[Kumba's BEE partner, Exxaro Resources, has received total dividends of R3.8 billion paid by the Sishen Iron Ore Company (SIOC) since 2006. Employees also benefit from the broad-based employee share participation scheme or "Envision" which, since 2006, has received R593 million in dividends from SIOC, and employees (through Envision) have received R125 million, with R468 million used to repay funding and interest. The SIOC Community Development Trust received dividends of R570 million since 2006 to repay funding and interest, and a further R22.5 million for development projects.]
"There is no denying that iron ore is a strong commodity that happens to be in huge demand currently, however it takes a great team that delivers on its promises across the board to achieve what Kumba did in 2009. I am incredibly proud to be part of the Kumba team. Our employees are clearly people making a difference in a company making a difference," said Chris.