VIVA Engineering: Moving from strength to scale: winning in a tough market while expanding in Africa.

When we last told VIVA Engineering’s story in 2021, CEO Collen Gibbs had just taken over full control of the business and was deep in the process of redefining its direction. Together with his Grow coach, he had set VIVA’s first Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG), rebranded the business, introduced clearer systems and accountabilities, and begun building a leadership team around him.

It was a time of fresh purpose, but also of strain. “I realised there must be a better way to do this,” Collen said back then, reflecting on the challenge of so many in the company so reliant on him. By the end of that first chapter, VIVA had found its rhythm again, guided by structure, strategy, and a renewed sense of belief.

Four years later, the company looks very different, larger, stronger, and more confident, yet still driven by the same hunger to improve.

In 2019, Collen and his team had set themselves a bold goal: to reach R500 million in annual revenue by 2025, with half of that coming from international clients. At the time, some within the business dismissed it as “ridiculous.” But Collen held firm.

While they didn’t hit the R500 million mark, what VIVA achieved instead tells an even more powerful story of disciplined, sustainable growth. Over the five years from 2020 to 2025, revenue climbed 228%, net profit rose from unsustainable levels to healthy, sustainable margins, and tonnage nearly doubled, from 2,000 to over 4,000 tons per year.

Efficiency gains were equally striking:

• Revenue per employee rose by 77%.
• Net profit per employee increased sixfold.
• Headcount grew by 28%, from 150 to 200 people creating a healthy 50 new jobs even with significantly higher output per employee.

For Collen, these results were not the outcome of any single breakthrough, but of many small things done right, over time. “There’s no silver bullet,” he said. “It’s the culmination of lots of small things, setting the plan, breaking it down, holding ourselves accountable every quarter. That’s what got us here.”

One of those “small things” became a major turning point: VIVA’s decision to go global.

It began in the quiet uncertainty of the COVID years, when Collen and his team used the downtime to sharpen their brand story. With the help of Grow’s marketing faculty, they crafted a clear message that resonated internationally, “Manufactured in Africa, for Africa.”

Soon, VIVA began reaching out to Australian engineering firms doing work on the continent. “At first, the conversations were tough,” Collen recalled. “You had to sell the country before you could sell your capability.” But persistence paid off. The first few small projects built trust and credibility, which grew into larger opportunities.

By 2024, international work made up 80% of VIVA’s revenue, up from just 30% five years earlier. Annual trips to Australia, the United States, and Canada have become part of VIVA’s rhythm, each visit strengthening partnerships and opening new doors.

Collen now aims to anchor this expansion in a few key client relationships. “Rather than chasing twenty new clients, we want five in each region, five who trust us, and who we can build with,” he said.

Behind that strategy lies a new mindset of focus, and a recognition that VIVA’s ability to deliver across borders depends on the strength of its systems and people.

As the company grew, it began to outgrow its spreadsheets. “At one point, the whole business was being held together by Excel,” Collen laughed. “Each department had its own sheet, none of them spoke to each other.”

That changed with the rollout of Viva’s Information Portal, a custom-built integrated database and management system that now runs through every part of the business, from sales and engineering through to fabrication, safety and delivery.

The result has been a leap in both efficiency and client confidence. “We can now track every project in real time,” Collen explained. “Clients can log in and see the status of their projects live, like tracking a parcel, but for a multimillion-rand engineering and manufacturing project.”

For international clients, this transparency has become a competitive advantage. “If you’re sitting in Sweden or Perth and awarding work into Africa, you need confidence that the work will be completed as planned,” Collen said. “Now our systems give our clients that confidence.”

VIVA has also invested in barcode scanning systems, PV solar systems with battery and generator backups to achieve energy self-sufficiency, and a new workshop facility that doubled its fabrication capacity. These moves have improved control, quality, and delivery speed, allowing the business to take on larger, more complex projects while keeping operations tight.

Alongside these operational improvements has been an equally important internal evolution: the creation of a StratCo leadership team.

Through Grow’s Scaling Management Teams program, Collen learned to separate the layers of management in his fast-growing business. “For years, everyone reported to me,” he admitted. “Now we have clear levels, StratCo, senior management, mid-management, and then team leads.”

The StratCo team, J.R. Miller (New Business), Natasha Mourinho (Operations), and Claudio Trocado (Engineering), now steer much of the day-to-day running of the business. “If something happened to me tomorrow,” Collen said candidly, “this place could run without me. I’m currently still too involved in day-to-day issues, but we’re getting there.”

This structure has been necessary to give him the space to focus on strategy and market development. “Collen’s intention is to do less, not out of disengagement, but rather to empower the leaders to manage the business day to day.” Collen has recognised and fully appreciates that he needs a strong leadership team to grow and develop VIVA, and this is a key area where he needs to focus as CEO.   

Perhaps the most meaningful transformation has been in VIVA’s culture. Early in the coaching journey, Collen and his team defined their purpose, to change the lives of their people through opportunity.

That purpose is now visible in the company’s steady investment in leadership development, training, and safety. The slogan first coined years ago, On Time, In Full, Always Safely, has become more than a tagline; it’s a lived standard, a promise to their clients. VIVA’s safety incidents are now one-third of what they were in 2019.

Inside the business, growth-minded employees are thriving. “If someone puts their hand up to grow, they’ll grow here,” Collen said. “It’s the people who don’t put their hands up who unfortunately get left behind.”

With their first long-term goal now complete, VIVA has set its sights on an even more expansive vision — a new chapter they call “Africa and Beyond.”

The focus of this next phase is twofold: to deepen VIVA’s presence across Africa while building a more enduring, diversified business model. A key part of that journey will be developing aftermarket services which is the provision of ongoing maintenance, refurbishment, and support for the large steel structures and installations they’ve built over the years. It’s a natural extension of their core capability, and one that creates lasting partnerships rather than once-off projects.

At the same time, the leadership team plans to grow VIVA’s international footprint by strengthening relationships in markets where trust and delivery excellence have already opened doors. The emphasis now is on depth, not breadth, cultivating strong, long-term clients rather than chasing volume.

The new strategy is underpinned by the same discipline that has guided VIVA’s growth so far: thoughtful planning, quarterly focus, and consistent execution. But it’s also shaped by a more mature leadership mindset. “This time, we’re building from a position of strength,” Collen said. “We know who we are, what we’re great at, and how we want to grow.”

When asked what coaching has meant for him, Collen doesn’t hesitate. “We wouldn’t be here without Grow and without our coach,” he said. “He’s kept us on the straight and narrow, challenged our thinking, and held us accountable. There’s a lot of work that happens between sessions, but the insights, the best practices, the push, they’ve made all the difference.”

His coach agrees that what stands out most is VIVA’s discipline and persistence. “They’ve built momentum the right way, small, consistent steps, aligned to a clear plan.”

From a business surviving on local contracts to a continental player with global reach, VIVA’s evolution tells a story of leadership growth, focused execution, and the quiet power of doing the right things, quarter after quarter, year after year.

As Collen put it: “There are more challenges now than ever, but somehow it all feels doable with our team and our coach”.