How long it takes Vodacom, Shoprite, and Sasol to make R1 million

Sasol generates R1 million in revenue in less than 2 minutes, while Shoprite and MTN take between 2 and 3 minutes.

This was revealed in an analysis of the revenue generated by South Africa’s largest companies and expressed in time.

South Africa has created many world-leading companies in the industrial, mining, and telecommunications sectors.

Chief among them is Sasol. It was established as a state-owned company, the South African Coal, Oil and Gas Corporation, in 1950 in Sasolburg.

Today, Sasol is an international chemicals and energy powerhouse that employs 31,270 people in 32 countries.

It develops and commercialises technologies and produces a range of products, including liquid fuels, chemicals, and low-carbon electricity.

Over the last financial year, it generated R290 billion in revenue. That means it produced R1 million every 1 minute 47 seconds.

Another fantastic South African company is MTN. Mobile Telephone Networks, better known as MTN, was incorporated on 17 March 1993.

MTN received its global system for mobile communications (GSM) license in September 1993 and launched its first services in South Africa in 1994.

Today, the company operates in over 20 countries and has over 280 million subscribers – it is Africa’s largest mobile network operator.

Last year, MTN generated R221 billion in revenue. That means it produced R1 million every 2 minutes 22 seconds.

South Africa’s most successful retailer is Shoprite. It was started in 1979 after purchasing 8 Cape-based supermarkets for R1 million.

Today, Shoprite is the largest South African retailer in terms of market capitalisation, sales, profit, and number of employees and customers.

The group has 2,938 corporate stores, 605 franchise outlets, and employs over 160,000 people.

In the last financial year, Shoprite generated R230 million in revenue, which is equivalent to R1 million every 2 minutes and 17 seconds.

The table below shows how long it takes prominent South African companies to generate R1 million in revenue.