Bidvest

Bidvest has been the recipient of a number of prestigious awards over the past years and its bold acquisitions have stimulated a fair amount of newspaper headlines.

Empowerment rating

Bidvest, a level four and a good broad-based BEE contributor, with unrestricted operational capacity, has an "A" empowerment rating from Empowerdex.

Fitch Ratings

Fitch Ratings affirmed Bidvest's credit rating as an AA- (zaf ). AA- (zaf ) ratings denote a very strong credit risk relative to other issuers in the same country.

Dow Jones Sustainability World Index

Bidvest is one of only four South African companies listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index 2007, a grouping of global organisations that meets stringent criteria for strategic strength, innovation, financial performance and stakeholder relations.

JSE Social Responsibility Investment Index

Based on an assessment of the Group's policies, performance and reporting on economic, social and environmental sustainability, the JSE has reaffirmed Bidvest as a founding constituent of the SRI Index.

Forbes Global 2000 - the world's 2 000 largest public companies

Forbes Global 2000 is a list of the world's largest and most influential companies in terms of US dollars based on a composite ranking which includes sales, market value, assets and profits. Bidvest is currently ranked at 1 115th after being ranked at 1 162nd in 2005. (Value of $6,32 billion).

FTSE/JSE Africa Index Series ranking

In the June 2007 FTSE/JSE Africa Index Series quarterly review, Bidvest was ranked 25th in both the FTSE/JSE All Share Index and Top 40, 8th in the FTSE/JSE Industrial 25, with a market capitalisation of R48,4 billion, a 100% free float and the JSE's highest liquidity rating.

Morgan Stanley International Emerging Market Index

Bidvest is considered to have an 80% free float for the MSCI SA Index, and a weighting of 2,4%.

Bidvest as an employer of choice

Bidvest has been recognised by a panel of experts as one of the top 10 companies to work for in South Africa in research undertaken by the Corporate Research Foundation.

Company confidence predictor

Bidvest performed exceptionally well, rating not only top in total (across all 28 characteristics used in the evaluation) within the Industrial Sector, but also among the major large capitalization companies from all sectors. Bidvest also performed well in terms of "Company Basics" and "People".

In the Industrial Sector Bidvest was the leader in "Communications", held second place for "Social Relations" and third for "Ethics" and "Future Prospects".

Among the most important characteristics as rated by the investment professionals, some individual characteristics in which Bidvest led in the Industrial Sector were "has inherently strong products, services or subsidiaries", "is a well-managed company", "makes effective use of capital", "is alert to new ideas to improve profitability", "has an effective chief executive" and "chief executive is a straight talker".

Among the major large capitalisation companies from all sectors, Bidvest also headed the list with "has inherently strong products, services or subsidiaries", "is a well-managed company" and "has an effective chief executive".

Awards

Bidvest is one of only 11 winners of the inaugural Unity Awards, reinforcing its credentials as an empowered, socially responsible employer. The awards are backed by major trade unions.

Most admired company

In the Finweek's "most admired CEOs and companies" peer review survey, Bidvest was ranked within the top 10 companies recognised and ranked 6th in terms of turnover. Brian Joffe was listed within the top five CEOs.

South Africa's leading managers

Brian Joffe has been recognised in the above publication collated by the CRF (Corporate Research Foundation). Being at the helm of Bidvest, which has maintained its record of 19 years of uninterrupted earnings growth, Brian Joffe celebrates a "decentralised methodology", which he describes as harnessing the enthusiasm of each and every staff member at all levels of the business.