From spaza shops to big-league ambitions
ENTREPRENEUR: Founder of Blue Cellular Barry Taitz
The man who has quietly built an empire worth R1bn by selling Sim cards wants to take his business to the next level with a JSE listing
After 13 years of operating under the radar, Barry Taitz is ready to take his empire public. The founder and sole shareholder of Blue Cellular is eyeing a possible listing of the company that he hopes will unlock expansion opportunities in the rest of Africa. Blue Cellular began by distributing prepaid Sim cards and airtime recharge vouchers mainly to traders operating in rural areas and townships. Taitz started the business with just R50,000 in 2003; by the end of last year it had recorded almost R1bn in sales. It has about 5m prepaid customers, many of them in rural areas. Every time those customers buy airtime, Blue Cellular earns a commission. Other companies focus mainly on cities and towns. “I spotted a gap in the market and had to come up with innovative ways to capture it,” Taitz says.
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