In his column (October 5), Tim Cohen said “SA’s economy is not nearly as ‘concentrated’ as the government believes, and even if it were, this [the new Competition Amendment Bill] is not the way to fix it”. I have to strongly disagree with this assessment. After spending years as an investment banker with Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch in London, I moved to SA in 2003 to join an automotive glass and parts business called Grandmark International. Our mission was to supply insurers and car owners with high-quality, alternatively sourced automotive parts and glass at lower costs than established players such as PG Group and Glasfit. Even today these two latter companies have a combined market share of more than 70% — despite their higher costs. Grandmark International managed to save consumers and insurers in this country billions of rand, but its rise became a threat to established monopolies. Despite Grandmark meeting major insurers’ safety and quality standards, PG Group launched ro...
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