President Ramaphosa’s announcement of a R20 billion fund to empower small businesses in the country at the recent State of the Nation Address (SONA), underscores the importance of South Africa’s approximate 3 million SMMEs. SMMEs have long been recognised as the backbone of South Africa’s economy, a concept which local airline LIFT has recognised since inception; resulting in the brand supporting fellow local businesses in its day-to-day operations.
The domestic airline was founded in South Africa and is operated by South Africans, with a deep understanding of the local travel market.
“We’re great supporters of local business and talent,” says Haydn Henning, LIFT Brand Manager. “We believe in supporting fellow South Africans if possible, which can be seen through partnerships with our caterers right through to our support of Mzansi’s talent.”
Local business support and impact
LIFT has enlisted the services of several local businesses for catering. “Anyone who’s flown with us knows we offer complimentary drinks and snacks, offered by South African businesses,” says Henning. For LIFT’s snack offering, the company partners with the likes of Khayelitsha Cookies, Thistle Bakery, Grumpy Snacks, and KD Foods. For a diverse local beverage offering, LIFT offers drinks from vida e caffè, Pura Soda, DGB, Kingship Distilleries and Signal Hill.
“We love to shine a light on the fantastic service providers we use. Of course, all Local is Lekker, but these small South African businesses have gone above and beyond, and truly make an impact on passengers on a daily basis, and we’re proud to enlist their services,” explains Henning.
No snackcident
Henning highlights LIFT’s partnership with local snack company, Grumpy Snacks as a prime example of how support of local business makes an impact, emphasising that the brand’s partnership selection is an intentional process; “When we looked at our catering options, we wanted to provide the platform to local startups who we felt deserved a boost.”
Grumpy Snacks, SA’s healthier snack offering, has been supplying LIFT since its launch in 2020. Cait Black, co-founder of Grumpy Snacks says that the partnership with LIFT has played a significant role in the growth of the company. It provided Grumpy Snacks the courage and financial runway to open its own Grumpy factory, purchase its own machinery and employ its own full time staff contingent at the end of 2021, one of the most difficult periods due to the pandemic.
“Boy oh boy, when your business is barely a year old and an exciting new airline is demanding higher volumes, we knew we had to move it,” Black says. “After a year or two of the partnership, LIFT’s commitment to an atypical and carefully curated onboard catering offering pushed us to explore new snack territories outside of our core chickpea offering,” adds Black.
Black appreciates the LIFT team’s rare appetite for the unconventional, leading the brands to team up on some genuinely fun and beautiful collaborations over the years, as well as the launch of collaborative packaging designs.
“The power of getting hundreds of thousands of our snacks into the hands of South Africans in the air has proven to be invaluable for our business in terms of the ripple-effect recognition our products get offboard (which translates into sales through these channels). LIFT had every opportunity to offer ‘plug and play’ catering solutions by tapping into the supply of some of the ‘big dogs’ in industry, but they chose to work closely with the small and growing Grumpy team, to build unique offerings together. We don’t think that the exposure and growth springboard LIFT has given us could’ve been paralleled anywhere else!”
Homegrown African Artistry
Apart from LIFT partnering with local business and employing local pilots, cabin crew, and ground staff, the airline’s marketing, branding, and creative campaigns highlight South African photographers, designers, and content creators and artists too.
LIFT’s official anthem sung by Zolani Mahola, reflects her sentiments about the feeling of well-being and sense of positivity that LIFT embodies.
“It means a great deal for me to be the composer and performer of the LIFT anthem. The song itself is a reflection of positivity that is so inherent of the South African psyche despite all of our challenges. It’s very much encouraging us to lift each other up and move towards a brighter future. This is completely in line with LIFT, a young airline that started during the first year of the global pandemic, that has steadily grown and to embody an ethos of playfulness, reliability and social responsibility that is fully in line with the Zolani Mahola brand,” says Zolani Mahola.
“We continue to support artists with their travel needs with a dedicated team working on their bookings, helping as a springboard for artists performing at SA’s most loved festivals and concerts. This is another expression of supporting local which our team embraces,” adds Henning.
“Supporting local businesses and artists creates a knock-on effect in the economy. When local businesses are supported, jobs are created, communities are impacted and opportunities are created. The impact is seen through spending at other businesses in the SA economy, which helps to simulate a robust local economy,” he adds.
“Apart from the economic benefits, partnering with local businesses and artists helps with another LIFT pillar – creating unique and memorable experiences for our travellers,” Henning concludes.
