The first concrete has been poured and construction is underway on the Pemba Retail Centre on the northern coast of Mozambique. With this development, Atterbury is changing the landscape of this little town, situated alongside one the richest off-shore natural gas reserves ever discovered. Project manager Gerhard van der Westhuizen tells us more
Are there particular challenges to running a project in Mozambique?
Travel time is a big one – Pemba is really far. There’s one direct, three-hour flight from OR Tambo daily, which only departs from ORT at 11h30, arriving in Pemba at 14h30. The same plane returns back to ORT on that day. So, when travelling to Pemba for business, one swops 17 normal business hours in South Africa for seven normal business hours in Mozambique. The language and cultural barriers also slows things down, with translation services required for all documentation, for instance.
Ensuring efficiency must take a lot of planning!
Indeed! The work culture is very different; you can’t assume meetings will start on time, and when you’re travelling in and out and have to plan your time, it can get quite challenging! Also, development in Mozambique is very expensive – the building costs are up to three times higher than in South Africa. To make a development feasible requires very detailed planning and clever work.
So why did Atterbury identify Mozambique as an expansion platform?
Atterbury’s focus on Africa is strategic, targeting underdeveloped areas that show potential for expansion. There is not much retail stock, and no significant shopping centres in Mozambique so there is a lot of opportunity. Market research has shown that most towns, like Pemba, can’t sustain more than one shopping centre, so being first is important. The cost, complex processes to obtain local authority approvals and language differences present real barriers of entry so if we put down roots first, we’ll have an advantage over any competitors.
And why was Pemba chosen specifically, as the first step?
The major natural gas reserves that have been identified off the coast there has turned Pemba into an economic growth point; it is said that there is enough gas to supply power to all of Europe for 30 years! Without further development it can already support a small retail centre, but with the anticipated growth comes extra possibilities and we are excited to be part of that future.
What is next after Pemba?
We plan to build more of these smaller convenience retail centres, and the aim is to build up a strong portfolio within Mozambique.
