About the company

Benlati Properties (Pty) Ltd (Benlati) is a BBBEE Level 1 black female led and controlled business management consulting firm that renders advisory and lead generation services to aspirant and existing landlords, developers and franchisees as well as oil companies within the downstream petroleum industry.

 

Benlati exists to offer professional consulting services for clients who require advice on petroleum franchising, new business development and property investment projects.

 

Benlati partners with our clients, investors and strategic petroleum and property specialists to unlock franchise, business and property development opportunities.

 

The name Benlati is a creative combination of the family names of members who inspired the vision to build the company whose portfolio at maturity will include both tangible and intangible assets. Ben worked in the property division at a local municipality for 30 years and he introduced the Founder to property dynamics.

OUR VISION

We see Benlati growing a community of profitable and sustainable petroleum and property SMMEs and in turn contribute to the South African economy.

OUR MISSION

To capacitate our clients to build thriving property development and franchise businesses, through leveraging our team’s expertise in best practice solutions that address opportunity specific key deliverables to set our clients up for success.

The oil industry contributed R163 billion (3,2%), 1,5% of the total employment and R94 billion capital investment to the South African GDP through direct and indirect investment and operating activities in 2019 according to the South African Petroleum Industry Association (SAPIA).

 

This industry also went into a contraction phase during the 2020-2021 economic meltdown of the global markets due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, energy products in various forms are still in demand and the security of supply is a key priority for the Department of Minerals and Energy (DMRE). There is therefore scope for oil companies, investors, landlords and operators to pursue current and future service station developments and operation opportunities.

The downstream activities at the service station level create multiplier effects across the value chain through the forecourt and convenience transactions. Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME) play a critical role in this industry yet regrettably the failure rate of these businesses is still very high due to capital and/or capacity barriers.

 

The evidence of failures include but is not limited to multiple change of hands of retail franchisees and property owners, non-pumping service stations, unprofitable business operations and negative return of investment (ROI) developments. The landlords, operators and the oil companies suffer both financial and non-financial losses with each failure. Our economy suffers through rising unemployment rates.

OUR FOUNDER

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Princess Zanele Ntuli

Founder

Princess Zanele Ntuli is the Founder and Managing Director at Benlati Properties (Pty) Ltd. She brings 20 years petroleum expert knowledge gained from major oil companies namely Total South Africa (Total Energies), Sasol Oil (Sasol), BP Southern Africa (BP), Chevron South Africa (Caltex) and Astron Energy.

 

She accomplished high performance in marketing and customer service management, sales consulting, franchise business management, network development and transformation. She is a driven problem solver therefore has contributed extensively to the successful delivery of strategic and operational excellence projects.

 

Her achievements include exceeding volume and turnover targets for the sales territories she managed. Her recent deal acquisition accolades include breaking historical records by delivering the highest number of new service station developments from lead generation, deal negotiation, board approval to breaking ground. This accomplishment was despite the unprecedented global economic meltdown due to the pandemic in 2020-2021.

 

She is supported by strategic and comprehensively experienced petroleum experts. Specifically, the teams skill set is in leading the crafting and execution of service station retail footprint optimisation and network development strategies, decision-making for service station investments; development project management and operational business consulting.

 

She is also a Business and Entrepreneurship Coach and is a part of networks of professionals and organisations that offer business planning advisory services ; entrepreneurship development ; internship and incubation programmes ; employee and service provider capacity development; funding and entrepreneur personal resilience strategies.

 

As a full status Property Practitioner, she is actively growing a portfolio of properties for sale, lease, facilities management and development opportunities.