Taking Care of Business turns retail waste into a $31mln micro-enterprise economy

Zawya

20-05-2025

This month, award-winning organisation, Taking Care of Business (TCB) celebrates 15 years of creating impact and unlocking economic access for South Africa's most vulnerable.
It marks a remarkable achievement, as over R559m in profits have been generated by 7,800 informal entrepreneurs, powered by dead stock donations from 17 of South Africa's leading retailers.
Their secret? Turning retail waste into income — and competitors into collaborators.
Tracey Chambers, CEO and co-founder of TCB, says, 'TCB's enterprise development model is an international benchmark for win-win competitive partnerships. Our 17 retail partners collaborate to donate excess inventory and dead stock (clothing, homeware, personal care and appliances) that would have been sent to landfill, to TCB's circular economy programmes.
The donated stock is sorted, debranded, repaired if needed, repurposed and resold by unemployed South Africans in the informal sector who are participating in TCB's enterprise development programmes.
TCB's model has been used in local and international case studies as an example of what incredible impact can happen when competitors collaborate for the greater good,' she says.
'As South Africans, we can be proud of our local retailers who participate in the TCB programmes. They don't dump or incinerate their excess items (like many others do). They package and donate their items to TCB where we turn it into worth,' says Chambers.
TCB currently receives donations from big brands and retail groups such as TFG, Truworths, Woolworths, Mr Price, Shoprite Checkers, Pick n Pay, Clicks, Pep, Cotton On, Home of Living Brands, Retailability (Edgars) and My Runway.
TCB's three enterprise development and circular economy programmes are Resell, Repair and Remake:
- Resell equips unemployed mothers to become successful informal clothing traders. Their small businesses are fuelled by donations of excess stock from the retail sector, which reduces fashion waste.
- Repair equips unemployed South Africans (mostly fathers) to run appliance repair and trading businesses, reducing e-waste and extending the life of products. Repair participants learn how to repair small and large appliances, a life-long skill they use to build their informal businesses.
- Remake equips unemployed seamstresses to generate income from their creativity through micro-manufacturing and reduces fashion waste.
TCB's model combines retail collaboration, waste reduction and micro-enterprise creation to drive measurable poverty eradication.
Tracey Gilmore, co-founder and COO of TCB, says, 'Our retail supply partners currently donate over two million items (including 170 tonnes of eWaste) per annum to TCB branches in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and East London. Every year TCB recruits new participants into their programmes with up to 1,000 unemployed individuals receiving the support they need to grow their business and eradicate poverty in their families at any given time.
Graduates continue to benefit after they complete the programme as they have access to stock for their businesses. It is a large-scale operation that has human development at its heart. Over the last 15 years, over 7,800 recruits in TCB programmes have generated an estimated R559 million for themselves, from the more than 22 million donated items, all of which have been diverted from landfill.'
Chambers says, 'We call this form of competitor collaboration, 'co-opetition'. It happens when businesses that compete in the same market cooperate on specific aspects of their operations, such as research, innovation, or distribution, to achieve mutual benefits. 'Co-opetition' can help businesses achieve economies of scale, reduce costs, unlock access to new markets, improve customer satisfaction, or create social impact - as is the case with TCB.'
'The foundations of the TCB co-opetition model are shared social impact and win-win-win benefits for all involved. The retailers can responsibly manage their waste, reduce their costs, improve their controls and support enterprise development for unemployed South Africans (mostly mothers).
TCB can run social impact programmes that eradicate poverty. And people participating in our programmes can access the circular economy with business skills to build a sustainable income stream that in turn drives their entrepreneurial spirit and results in financial and social independence.
By collaborating with competitors through an organisation like TCB that has scaled operations, a national footprint and a lean cost structure, these competitors are reducing the cost of responsible waste management.
TCB also works with other down-stream providers and suppliers such as eWaste partners for electrical appliances beyond our repair, and NPO partners such as old-age homes, orphanages and disaster relief projects, to distribute much needed clothing when needed,' she explains.
Gilmore says, "It started back in 2010 when Woolworths generously donated the first batch of excess clothing stock, and we started our training and development programme. We recruited unemployed women from The Volunteer Centre and started teaching them business basics and trading skills. We were naively optimistic, not realising how complex the journey to poverty eradication would be.
Our relentless hope in a brighter future has kept us going. Since then, we are proud to say that we have started working with most of South Africa's major retailers and built a social enterprise with proven poverty-eradication impact and a scalable model that is internationally recognised.'
Chambers says, 'We are proud of all we have achieved, but mostly we are grateful to all our partners for their ongoing support, without which none of this would be possible, and to our participants who work hard to eradicate poverty in their families. It has been a journey that we could never have imagined when we took that first step. Making change is hard work, but it is worth it. When we take care of small businesses, people can take care of their families and live with dignity.'