At Accensis, business is in the blood

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be working for my father.

At 22 years old, when I completed my Bachelor of Journalism, I had lofty goals of living like an artist and letting my passion for my profession feed my soul. But as I went through the motions of life, I landed in marketing, like many creatives. Business development became an area of interest.

... I still ask myself, "how did you even get here?"

As you may or may not know, Accensis is my father's business. He has been in this particular practice since 2010. The growth has been phenomenal.

However, this is not a new phenomenon for this family. Our Naidoo family has been in the business  for over 100 years. Some would say it's in our blood, and some would say these things were passed down through the generations.

But it came out of a need that we recognised: our Indian community has been disenfranchised after being dealt slave-like contracts to farm sugar, a job many others do.

If we look at things in this sense, Accensis has its roots nearly 100 years ago with my great-grandfather in a small town on the south coast of KZN. Here is who has moulded me into having the business sense I have today.

Mr R. C. Naidoo

My great-grandfather, Mr Rangiah Chinniah Naidoo, was born in 1885 in Umkomaas. His father was an indentured labourer, making him born into indentured servitude. As a child, he moved to Durban and went to school in the city. It's pretty unheard of to know of someone to have finished matric back in those days.

But striving toward academic excellence was Mr R.C. Naidoo's 'thing'. In one year of schooling, he received the highest marks for mathematics in the whole province amongst all races. His father, who came from India, passed away at a young age, so he was left to support the family as a paperboy.

After finishing school, he worked as a paralegal, a step toward his dream of becoming a barrister.

Given his love for the subject of mathematics, he taught it to the daughter of the Baumann family, the founders of Bakers Biscuits.

After saving up some cash, he moved back to his home town of Umkomaas, where he was born. He saw his dream of becoming a barrister fading away , due to the lack of funds. He then bought  land with a trading store from the Greenacre family. He was short of the capital but, after his success of tutoring his daughter, Mr R.C. borrowed £150 from Mr Baumann of Bakers Biscuits.

He started trading and eventually opened two additional stores in Willowglen and Fountainhead in the Umkomaas district. Being a trading store in a small town, he sold everything from building materials to fuel to soap and even dry perishables. This led to property ownership and real estate and empowered others in the Indian community to have this opportunity. Given that the banks would not lend money to people of colour, he would sell you the land and provide the finance to do so.

His success wasn't possible without a fight or two. He took on the sugar-giant Illovo in a dispute after the comapny had transported produce through his land. Education remained a core value in his life as he opened schools for the community. Two of the Three remain today: Naidooville School and Naidoo Memorial Primary School.

Mr C.S. Naidoo

My grandfather inherited his father's business and grew the well-established name around the south coast. Mr Chinniah Swaraja Naidoo kept up with the times and added three new stores to his father's collections of establishments: S.S. in Drift near the river, Casablanca Tea Room at the town's train station, and Crowder Store.

He was also a property owner, renting to businesses and residents alike. As the years went on, he acquired many properties and continued his father's legacy of empowering his community.

Mr S. Naidoo

My father had a flair for business since he was a young boy. Mr C.S. Naidoo passed away when my dad was a child. In his 20s, he grew up working in a trading shop in Umkomaas. Like most children in the family business, he had the opportunity to work in all areas of their company: At the front as a cashier, packing shelves, buying and selling, and carrying products for customers, he developed his business sense from starting from the group up.

After qualifying as a C.A. and working in the industry for quite some years, Mr Suresh Naidoo entered business in 1993 when he started his partnership at I.S. Pillay and Co.

In 2010, Mr Suresh Naidoo started what we now call Accensis. Pierian, back then, had just five people who put the wheels in motion. We have around 40 members in our team, and we are continuously growing.

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‍This is a thank you to Mr R.C., C.S. and S Naidoo for empowering me and carving the forward in the Durban-Indian business community. With generations of people who put in the time and had the insight and initiative, here we have Accensis. It stands today after learning curves, growing pains and all the beauty it stands for today.

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