To Us, You're Everything

Established in 1994, The Unlimited is a young and vibrant player in the Financial Services sector. Based in Durban, we are distinguishing The Unlimited as an entrepreneurial, forwardthinking company that's shifting business thinking for our people, our customers, our strategic business partners, our shareholders and our community.

The Unlimited specialises in the delivery of money, insurance and lifestyle products. Our strength lies in packaging benefits from each of these industries to provide innovative financial solutions for our customers that are centred around an account enabled by Visa and MasterCard debit cards, multiple insurance benefits and cash back rewards.

Customers for Life

A critical element in our go-to-market approach is that we do not sell our products through brokers; instead, we sell directly to our customers and are thus able to pass on significant discounts, ensuring that affordability is a hallmark of our products. By offering products that are straightforward, uncomplicated and value for money, The Unlimited is creating customers for life.

Our customer-centric approach has resulted in a strong annuity base of over 500 000 customers, which continues to grow.  With a dynamic range of products that appeal across all income groups, our customers are generally attracted by the cost effective nature of our products. We thus drive innovation as we are able to introduce our customers to products and benefits that they may previously have viewed as beyond their reach.

Best Employer

At The Unlimited we believe that our continued success rests in our people, so we constantly innovate to ensure that all our employees are set up for success. Keeping our roots firmly in KwaZulu-Natal, the majority of our 300 full-time employees and 500 agents have been sourced from the existing talent pool in Durban - and our flat hierarchy, stand-out behaviour based culture and dynamic leadership development programme means that the team keeps pace with our strong growth trajectory.  Our success in this regard continues to be recognised through our accreditation by Best Employers, which we have now been awarded for the past two years running. Only one of two businesses in KwaZulu-Natal to have received this certification, The Unlimited ranks amongst an auspicious group of only 73 companies in South Africa which were accredited Best
Employers status for 2012.

Empowering for Growth

In The Unlimited's distribution channels the opportunities for personal development are unparalleled, with the ultimate goal being that our employees can become business owners in their own right! The first step in this process is recruitment and in our distribution channel, we almost exclusively recruit among the pool of people who are unemployed or have no tertiary qualifications, thus creating sustainable job opportunities to those who need it most. In a step-by-step learning and development programme created in-house, we give them the skills, work-based experience and confidence they need to climb the career ladder - creating real growth opportunities for all our people, regardless of position.

At The Unlimited, our distribution channel is a talent incubator through which we have given over 1 000 people the opportunity and vision to pursue what they want in life. For those who choose to make a career in our distribution business, the sky is the limit and to date, we have promoted 50 business owners. We have also created further opportunities for over 420 people through our franchise ownership model in the Direct Marketing arena.

Life-Work Balance

On a more personal level, The Unlimited also promotes a healthy life-work balance for all our employees. We have a comprehensive Wellness programme and with a 90 minute lunch break, our employees can choose from various exercise classes daily, a full training gym or they can go running with The Unlimited Running Club.  Members of the Wellness programme undergo regular fitness assessments and also have access to professional nutrition, health and wellness information.  Another major Wellness component is the ICAS service which offers 24-hour support through a telephone helpline.

Environmental and Social Responsibility

We are also committed to reducing our environmental impact and we have adopted several initiatives in this regard. We measure our carbon footprint and our goal is to ensure that The Unlimited is carbon neutral by 2015.

Looking at the wider KZN province, The Unlimited is also striving to create shared value within our communities. Putting South Africa's future at the centre of our business practices, our flagship Corporate Social Responsibility project, The Unlimited Child, is a successful initiative that targets early childhood development. We believe that through this focus, we will play a strategic role in changing the future for our nation.

By providing educational toys, caregiver training and on-going support, The Unlimited Child enables crèches in underprivileged areas to give children the stimulation they need to achieve their full potential in life. To date, this initiative has reached over 27 500 children, nearly 1 000 caregivers and more than 320 crèches, most of which are situated in the Valley of 1000 Hills and the greater Durban area. By 2016, The Unlimited Child aims to reach 1.25 million children nationwide.

Branches located in:

• Joyhurst Centre
• Whitehouse Centre
• Hillcrest

To Us, You're Everything