Hatch attains level 2 B-BBEE status in South Africa practice
After nearly two decades of targeted social efforts, international engineering and development consultancy Hatch has attained level 2 under the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment scheme for its South African operations. The firm currently has over 50% black ownership.
Founded in 1955 in Canada, Hatch is a consulting firm that offers services in the engineering and development domains. In contemporary times, this extends its scope of business into urban solutions & smart cities, responsible energy & sustainability, digitisation & the transformation therein, alongside expertise in mining and water management.
Since its establishment, the firm has become increasingly versatile in its service offerings and has rapidly spread across the globe. The employee-owned firm’s current project portfolio stretches across more than 150 countries, spanning the metals, energy, infrastructure, digital, and investment markets, and is conducted by its network of 9,000 professionals across the globe.
Given its expertise in the mining and metals sector, the firm is particularly active in the South African market, operating out of seven offices in the country, including locales in the major financial centres of Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg.
Since 2001, hatch has been engaged in a comprehensive transformation process with the primary objective of taking on a more socially equitable character. Describing the firm’s strategy over the period, Managing Director for Hatch in Africa, Middle East, and Europe, Pierre Olivier said, “The strength of our charter lies in creating an empowering environment, along with improving employment equity and growing our skills development efforts.”
Among the range of social initiatives taken by the firm is the allocation of nearly R175 million to the education sector between 2004 and 2007, over and above its platinum sponsorship of the African Academy for Computer Aided Design, wherein students are offered an internship at Hatch after completing a year of the programme.
One area where the firm has been particularly active is in promoting diversity in the business environment, particularly as its transformation process has coincided, for a large part, with the unraveling of the B-BBEE scheme across South Africa. The scheme was enacted in 2003, and aims to promote the inclusion of historically oppressed ethnic groups.
The scheme rewards firms with points for diversity, based on the inclusion of various ethnic groups in the ownership structure, skill development, enterprise and supplier development, and socioeconomic development of the firm. A number of South African firms have been engaged in restructuring efforts since the scheme was rolled out, ranging from marketing agencies to financial services firms.
In its current form, Hatch is 51.4% black-owned and 15.6% black woman-owned in South Africa, earning the firm an upgrade to level 2 status based on the B-BBEE stipulations.
Commenting on the upgrade, Olivier said, “As a global professional services provider, we feel we have a responsibility to do what we can to close the skills gap, improve education, and embrace diversity as a catalyst for creating decent work, sustainable growth, and a lasting transformation. We are proud to be a part of building a stronger, more inclusive South Africa.”
