Training company Torque IT is confident of boosting revenue growth in the new financial year, after beating expectations in the first quarter.
The company, a Kelly Group division, is made up of three divisions and offers Cisco, Microsoft and Novell training. It has branches in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Nairobi (Kenya) and Luanda (Angola) and provides training in over 24 countries in Africa.
“Torque IT grew market share in spite of the financial challenges the financial crisis presented,” says CEO Mthunzi Mdwaba. The company improved its results by 13.9% year-on year and exceeded expectations in Kelly's first quarter to December.
Mdwaba says the difficult environment has resulted in margin squeeze, as customers have been negotiating pricing aggressively. However, Mdwaba is pleased at the level at which the company grew and sees scope to grow further as the economy improves.
He says the company is just about to kick off a Cisco training programme, Global Talent Acceleration Programme, which will aid revenue growth during the year. The programme was meant to run last year, but was held off due to the global recession. “We were able to grow our market share even though projects in the pipeline didn't run,” says Mdwaba.
Mdwaba, who is also Kelly's deputy CEO, adds that the company's recent scoop of three awards with Microsoft, Novell and Cisco is unusual in the industry, and gives it a competitive advantage.
However, the soccer world cup later this year could see training slow, he says. This is because customers may not feel up to a day of training if they have been off having fun the night before and could cancel.
Last year, the company achieved revenue of almost R76 million. Mdwaba expects this to improve by between 10% and 15% this year.
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