Tuesday 29 June
Interview with Gerrit Jan van der Grijn, Director of Zandspruit Estates.

1. Could you introduce yourself?
My name is Gerrit Jan van der Grijn and I am currently involved in a real estate development in South Africa. The development is called Zandspruit Bush & Aero Estate. I traveled all over the world but the African continent kept calling and in 2004 I decided to buy a holiday home in a residential wildlife estate in Hoedspruit, in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, just outside the Kruger National Park. In 2007 I bought, together with a South African local business partner, a farm of 1000 hectares just outside the village Hoedspruit. In 2009 we acquired full development rights. Should anybody be interested, our website is www.zandspruit.co.za or www.zandspruit.nl.

2. What are Zandspruit Estates NL main activities? Can you briefly describe the company?
Actually Zandspruit Estates is a South African registered company. The activities in the Netherlands are focused on the marketing and sales of (holiday) homes in the Zandspruit Estate development. Furthermore we are trying to extend our network of sales representatives across Europe. Until now we have representatives in France, Switzerland and Germany. Currently we are negotiating representation in the UK.

3. On which projects are you working at the moment in Africa?
Currently my main project is the Zandspruit Bush & Aero Estate development. Zandspruit Estate provides for 161 bush stands and 38 so called aero stands. The bush stands have breath taking mountain views and / or beautiful river views. The 38 aero stands are situated on the 1000 m long hard surfaced private airstrip and caters for those who are flying enthusiasts. All the house along the private airstrip will be designed with a hangar. The stand sizes for bush stands vary from 6000 to 16000 m2. The sizes of stands along the private runway vary from 3000 to 7000 m2. Clients can decide to (have) there own dream home (or holiday home) designed and built or choose from one of our 15 "standard" designs. We also provide turn key solutions where clients can have their home designed by our lead architect and built by our won in-house construction company, the ideal concept for a hassle free and top quality product.

4. What are Zandspruit Estates next steps concerning their projects in Africa?
Currently we are almost ready to start with the installation of water and electricity to each separate stand. Because of the size of the development this will be an extensive project. All other civil construction works have been finalized, the roads have been made and the earth works necessary to widen and lengthen the runway have been carried out. We expect to start building the first houses in the third quarter of this year. At this stage all our marketing efforts are focus on the Bush and Aero Estate.
Apart from the 161 bush and 38 aero stands a 120 bed hotel, a 24 bed luxury commercial safari lodge, an equestrian centre as well as a shopping and entertainment centre are part of the development. We expect to start the marketing for these parts of the development early 2011.
The last phase of the development consist of an extension of the suburbs of Hoedspruit town. This part of the development will consist of 368 homes with stand sizes from 200 up to 1200 m2 and will be accessible for lower and middle income groups.

5. How did you hear about the NABC?
During one of the network meetings, organized by the EVD, I got to know the NABC. Despite the fact that our focus is on South Africa only and the NABC’s focus is on all African countries, I believe the activities organized by NABC as well as the involvement of the NABC in Dutch entrepreneurship into Africa are very well organized and will result in a welcome extension of our existing network.

6. Why did you join the network?
I joined the NABC only last year. And in this short period of time I am pleasantly surprised of both quantity and quality all the activities organized.

7. What are your expectations?
I really don’t have much expectations of the NABC as I think the activities organized so far were beyond expectation.

8. What is your first impression of the NABC?
As I stated before the NABC is a professional network of Africa minded people and businesses and provides for high quality and above all interesting events. Because of the fact a lot of NABC members operate in very different parts of Africa and are very diversified one gets to know about more trades and industries then the ones you would know from own experience. A very good example was the latest visit of the Ter Haak group in Amsterdam.

9. If you were asked to describe NABC in five words, what would these be?
Interesting and worth your while.

10. Which advice would you give to a company that intends to enter the African market?
I think that everyone that is active in business on the African continent has it’s own story. I can remember the first event that I attended last year in Nootdorp. Questions we asked to the floor and everybody present was interested in doing business in Africa. However when the question was asked "would you invest a million euro", there were only a few hands raised.
I believe that if you want to be successful in business in Africa (actually I might have to say South Africa) you must get to know the people and their way of doing business first, establish sound partnerships if possible and above all you must be prepared to make a proper commitment. Most of the times a financial commitment is part of that.
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