Professors Chantal Rootman and Elroy Smith together with Peter Coutsourides
These are among the research findings of MCom in Business Management student Peter Coutsourides, who graduated cum laude at Mandela University’s recent Summer Graduation.
Peter’s study investigated the sustainable growth of taverns within the informal liquor industry in Gqeberha, South Africa. The informal sector is critical for economic development, employing 60% of the world's population and nearly 30% of South Africa's workforce and taverns are a prevalent form of small, medium, and micro-enterprises in South African townships, he says.
Finance, government interventions and facilities, competition, the COVID-19 pandemic and crime emerged as challenges hindering taverns’ sustainable growth.
The research also explored the historical context of the liquor industry in South Africa, highlighting the legacy of racial inequality and the evolution of regulatory frameworks to balance industry growth and social equity. SMMEs and sustainable growth were also covered with interviews with 12 tavern owners in Gqeberha.
A framework of sustainable growth enablers for SMMEs, including taverns were presented to bring about better support from policymakers and stakeholders, ultimately contributing to broader economic development and poverty reduction in South Africa.
“I saw first-hand during COVID-19 how tavern owners were ill-treated and neglected. They, as well as the whole liquor sector was in essence, shut down for close to six months when the government implemented liquor prohibitions. Their operations ceased to exist immediately.
“They were left with no means to generate income and had to somehow support their families, their kids, their staff all-knowing well that their businesses were shut-down in-totality,” Peter said.
Having worked in the liquor distribution since 2012 and later becoming the director of operations for the wholesale-arm of his family liquor portfolio, Peter worked and built a strong relationship with tavern owners and witnessed over the years the problems and issues that they were facing.
“COVID-19 for me was the last straw and I knew they had no voice, and I had to somehow bring about awareness as these entrepreneurs worked 12 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week.
“I unfortunately lost many friends during this period and this study was done in their honour and memory.”
Peter had a conceptual framework of the possible challenges faced by taverns, but this had to be backed-up with theory and research and an empirical investigation, which thankfully proved conclusive.
“To be honest, it was tough. There were many times when I wanted to give-up. Allocating time to do research and study when there are only 24 hours in a day was not easy. I had work and family commitments, my wife had just given birth when I started the whole master’s study process, so the timing was not great, but I had goals and had to persevere through.
“Thankfully I had strong and highly critical promoters, Professors Chantal Rootman and Elroy Smith, who knew what I wanted out of the study and gave the necessary direction and support”, he said.
Peter is now self-employed as a director of many companies focusing on commercial real estate, shares, crypto and angel-investing. His dream job would be in horology as he has a passion for watches.
Peter would still like to pursue his PhD as his father set a high benchmark for him with a PhD in operations research in statistics. He also wants to obtain his private pilot’s licence and learn to speak Chinese and Spanish.