Ellies Holdings is a 41-year-old JSE-listed company whose products, from television aerials to electrical cables and LED lighting, are well known to most South Africans.

What many people don’t know is the company has been through enormous difficulty in recent years — to the extent that its auditors raised a red flag around its 2020 annual financial results, saying there were “material concerns” about its ability to continue as a going concern.

But recently appointed CEO Shaun Prithivirajh said the big pain is already behind Ellies and he and his management team are focused on future growth opportunities after a big clean-up of the business last year.

Though the share price is still languishing at just 6c (from a peak of about R10 in 2013), Prithivirajh is convinced better days lie ahead.

One of the key focus areas for Ellies is a planned launch, in the next six weeks, of solutions that will take it into the home solar market at scale.

With a network of 3 500 installers who can be trained to help Ellies go to market with its solar solutions, and a South African household sector keen find to solutions to Eskom’s ongoing power cuts, Prithivirajh believes this will prove to be a key pillar of the business in future.

Listen to the interview to find out more about Ellies’ plans in this regard as well as the work that has done to clean up the legacy problems that have bedevilled the company.

Watch the video

Listen to the audio

How to subscribe to TechCentral’s podcasts

There are many ways to enjoy TechCentral’s podcasts, beyond simply streaming them from the website. The best way is by subscribing to them using an app on your phone, allowing you to listen in the car (via Bluetooth), at the gym or wherever you happen to be. Use the links below to subscribe:

TechCentral podcasts are governed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. This means you may copy and redistribute the material unmodified, but you must provide the appropriate credit to TechCentral, with a link to this page. — (c) 2020 NewsCentral Media