|
Related Topics |
|
In this update we take a look at the total turnover of South African firms for the last quarter of 2017, based on the Quarterly Financial Survey published by Statistics South Africa.
We take a look at the contribution to turnover by firm size as well as the contribution to turnover by industry type in South Africa. |
|
Is South Africa's company turnover dominated by large firms?
The doughnut chart below shows the contribution to South African firms total turnover for the last quarter of 2017. Total turnover for South African firms during the last quarter of 2017 amounted to R2.483 trillion. The chart clearly shows that the majority of that turnover was generated by Large companies, who made up just under 60% of turnover generated. Turnover of large firms during the quarter amounted to R1.489 trillion. Surprisingly small firms generated far more turnover than medium sized firms. We suspect the sheer number of firms classified as small is part of the reason for this. Small firms generated just over 30% of the turnover or R754 billion in turnover during the last quarter of 2017 and medium sized firms generated just under 10% or R239 billion in turnover during the last quarter of 2017.
So while it is nice to know how much in turnover is generated in each quarter by different firm sizes, the next question to ask is which industries contributed the most to turnover generated in the South African economy during the last quarter of 2017. The doughnut chart below shows the contribution to total turnover per industry type. Industries are classified according to Standard Industrial Classification (SIC), which is a standard used across the world to make data comparisons across countries easier.
As the doughnut chart above shows, turnover in South Africa's economy is dominated by the Trade industry (this industry includes Wholesale, retail and motor trade sectors). It generated 35.25% of the turnover during the quarter, or R874.1 billion in turnover during the last quarter of 2017. The contribution as well as Rand value of turnover generated in the last quarter of 2017. is shown below. Note it is sorting in descending order, in which the biggest contributor is on top and the smallest contributor is shown at the bottom:
- Trade industry: R874 131 000 000 (35.20%)
- Manufacturing industry: R715 232 000 000 (28.80%)
- Real estate and other business services industry: R287 422 000 000 (11.57%)
- Transport industry: R220 120 000 000 (8.86%)
- Mining and quarrying industry: R170 698 000 000 (6.87%)
- Construction industry: R97 392 000 000 (3.92%)
- Electricity, gas and water supply industry: R60 866 000 000 (2.45%)
- Community, social and personal services industry: R57 542 000 000 (2.32%)
So in which industries do small companies contribute the most to the total turnover? The summary below is sorted in descending order based on the percentage contribution of the small firms to that industry's total turnover and not sorted based on the value generated) as well as the the turnover generated by small firms in each of the industries:
One can see small firms hardly contribute to the turnover off industries where massive capital outlays are required such as mining, electricity generation and transport industries. While they tend to contribute a lot more to specific industries where there are no massive capital outlays. For example business services could be conducted from small premises or remote via the web, construction doesn't require massive amounts of money to get started in the industry and trade (the selling of goods and services) tend to be less capital intensive too.
- Real estate and other business services industry: R143 478 000 000 (49.92%)
- Construction industry: R39 632 000 000 (40.69%)
- Trade industry: R343 311 000 000 (39.27%)
- Community, social and personal services industry: R17 862 000 000 (31.04%)
- Manufacturing industry: R163 837 000 000 (22.91%)
- Transport industry: R40 694 000 000 (18.49%)
- Mining and quarrying industry: R4 411 000 000 (2.58%)
- Electricity, gas and water supply industry:R 1 305 000 000 (2.14%)
One can see small firms hardly contribute to the turnover off industries where massive capital outlays are required such as mining, electricity generation and transport industries. While they tend to contribute a lot more to specific industries where there are no massive capital outlays. For example business services could be conducted from small premises or remote via the web, construction doesn't require massive amounts of money to get started in the industry and trade (the selling of goods and services) tend to be less capital intensive too.