Overview of the business

Jasco is a black-owned, South African listed company that delivers integrated and converged technology across the two disciplines of Information and Communication Technology("ICT") and Energy and Industry ("E&I") solutions.

This year is the final year of Jasco's three-year restructuring, which commenced in July 2011. Although Jasco has always had a clear focus on electronic and electrical products and solutions, in 2011 Jasco had a holding company mindset with numerous smaller businesses and brands. This resulted in a lack of focus on offering an integrated solution to clients.

To address this, Jasco was restructured into three focused verticals, with stringent performance targets in place.

Consequently, the number of legal entities within the Jasco group reduced by 16. In addition, a number of non-core or non-performing assets were sold and the number of business units were consolidated from 11 to four and the Jasco brand was unified.

The restructuring journey has focused Jasco's delivery and aided cross-selling initiatives. In the past, Jasco's performance was driven by the respective business units, with limited emphasis placed on selling the entire Jasco basket of products and services.

The new structure has enabled Jasco to strengthen its operations and has moved Jasco from a product-focused to a solutions-driven and customer-focused group.

Although group revenue grew to the R1 billion mark the Jasco group set itself at the outset, its 2011 predictions proved accurate. At the time Jasco mentioned that markets will remain tough in the near future, which will continue to put pressure on the group, but the potential of the restructured group is strong over the medium to long term.

Jasco is pleased with the progress it has achieved thus far. Although it has some remaining challenges to address, the key growth levers are in place to ensure that the full benefits will come through in 2015, as planned and outlined at the start of the process in 2011. As depicted below, the new Jasco structure will comprise:

The Jasco group's home market of South Africa will continue to remain challenging, with low growth and a volatile labour environment. Against this, additional costs will be reduced and geographic and market diversification continued. The group will also finalise its exit of low-margin manufacturing.