SOJO celebrates 20 years

A BIRTHDAY celebration for SOJO was held on the evening of November 30 at Mugg and Bean, Mall of the South, with members who have seen SOJO through an incredible journey.

The Mall of the South offered SOJO members a 50 per cent discount to all their court areas from November 27 to December 3. This was in aid of the SOJO Experience as part of the birthday celebrations and allowed businesses to promote activities that are happening over the December holidays.

Movies@ Gold Reef City stand attracted visitors at the entrance to the mall with their freshly-popped popcorn and movie trailer displays. SEEFF Kibler Park and Joburg South agents wore their Seeffer Hero outfits during their promo week while Pam Golding Joburg South’s beautiful stand layout with green balloons were outside Woolworths’ entrance.

Members enjoyed delicious canapés at the birthday celebration, prepared by Mugg and Bean and were welcomed with bubbly champagne. Nicky Vakaloudis, CEO of SOJO, thanked all members for their support and commitment and said, “YOU are the reason we are able to celebrate 20 years.” She especially acknowledged those members who have seen them through the 20-year journey from inception and thanked them for their commitment. They are, in no particular order: Bootleggers Bottle Store, Highway Tyres, Mr Tasty, Robot Hardwar, KAJ Investments, MBS Services, Ehrenberg Investments, Ricky’s Chicken, Howden Africa and Plusten Hardware.

New members which joined in the past 12 months were also acknowledged as it shows steady growth and interest. They are Noble Wealth, Roder HTC Hocker, Camera Press, International Wire Convertors and International Call Centre Solutions. Nicky also thanked Julie Maule from Caxton who has captured and shared all of SOJO’s stories throughout the 20 years.

Chairperson of SOJO, Richard Bennet (also marketing director of iProp) expressed his gratitude to the members that were present and to those who were not able to attend, highlighting the future that the South of Joburg holds in terms of expected growth and development. He said we are entering exciting times and encouraged businesses to hold on and not give in to negative influences. Richard is the fourth reigning chair of SOJO and has held this position for the past 13 years. Former chairpersons were in order of Manny Reis from Bootleggers Bottle Store, Karol Jaroszynski from KAJ Investments and the late David Appleton, Gold Reef City Theme Park general manager. Nicky thanked Richard and Andrew Barker (KlipSA’s chairman) for representing SOJO at all council platforms and for their intellectual capital investment ploughed back into SOJO.

SOJO wishes everyone a blessed Christmas and an exciting 2019.

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Going forward with SOJO

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