Tropic Plastic & Packaging Industry (Pty) Ltd is a family owned business established over 55 years ago. The company was founded by Ebrahim Bhabha in the 1960s. It was then taken over by Mr Fazel Bhabha who had a vision of growing the enterprise to be one of the largest in the country. Today Tropic Plastic is the largest flexible packaging company in South Africa and one of the largest in Africa under the leadership of Ismail Simjee, the current managing director. Tropic Plastic employs over 600 staff and has a manufacturing plant which expands over 35 000 square metres. Tropic Plastic has the largest extrusion, printing and bagging capacities in South Africa and supplies a host of multinationals across Africa. These include Unilever, Coca-Cola, Heineken, Astral Foods, Premier Foods, Pioneer Foods, Nestle, Clover and AB-Inbev.
Tropic Plastic has a rich history of investing in its human capital and has developed a strong, close knit bond with staff who have become family over the years. According to Simjee “our focus has always been on uplifting and developing our staff through our internal skills and learnership programs as well as our coaching and mentoring programs. We also donate to various schools in our community to assist them in empowering their learners with much needed resources such as notebooks and stationery. Our partnerships with our various suppliers make these contributions a part of our upliftment programmes.” Additionally, Tropic Plastic makes annual contributions to various Non-Governmental Organisations, such as the Action for Blind and Disabled, who support the disabled, under privileged, destitute and poverty stricken sectors of the community.
Tropic Plastic chose to support students at UKZN because Ismail Simjee is an alumnus of the institution. Simjee holds a B Com degree majoring in Management Accounting, Finance, Economics and Taxation. “I spent endless nights in the library studying to achieve my personal goals and I came across many underprivileged fellow students along the way. Many of these students had to work multiple jobs to pay for their student loans and get a hot meal on their table. Because of this, we have decided to invest in our future graduates and allow them the time to study and achieve their academic goals without financial distractions” said Simjee.
When asked what outcome Tropic Plastic expected from their substantial donation, Simjee responded “The main outcome is to empower South African youth as we would like to develop future professionals and leaders who can make our country a better place.” Simjee committed to continue investing at UKZN as part of their ongoing CSI strategy “especially if students grabbed this opportunity with both hands to work to their full potential”.
A final word of inspiration from Simjee to the Tropic Plastic Bursary recipients “Work hard, stay committed to your goals and bear in mind that nothing is impossible. If you continue to seek knowledge and invest in your future, the sky is the limit.”
Author: Anesh Maniraj Singh
Photo: Mr Ismail Simjee, Prof Anesh Singh