Founded by Ashley Lattimer in mid-1994 with just six people, the vision for Trade Link was to introduce point of sale software with scanning of products into the South African retail market. Converting an existing business, Positron, a cash-register entity based in Durban, KwaZulu Natal, Trade Link was set out to be the pioneer of retail innovation.
Trade Link looked to the international software industry for a solution. POSition point of sale solution, developed by Retalix was highly rated with an established customer base globally.
Trade Link was awarded a pilot installation with The SPAR Group, implementing POSition on Nixdorf hardware, enabling the retailer to scan barcodes moving away from individually priced items. In May 1995, the pilot was deemed a success, thus starting the journey that would see POSitron rolled out to the entire SPAR Group nationally and into their Southern African countries
In 2000, Shoprite awarded Trade Link with the professional services, implementation, and POS hardware support for their Retalix point of sale solution across their estate. Trade Link’s continued dedication and commitment to the market drew new partnerships with retailers such as Clicks, TM (PnP) Zimbabwe, OBC and Food Lovers Market. Trade Link expanded their business further North and as demand for additional services grew across Trade Link’s customer base, additional businesses were formed in the respective countries.
Ashley Lattimer remains deeply involved in the company as chairman of the Group and handed the reigns over to Ahmed Laher in 2017.
Ahmed continues to lead the company on its upward trajectory, successfully expanding the Groups’ competencies. Trade Link is the largest services and support partner to retail banks and PSPs, with over 50,000 payment devices under their management. Trade Link built up their professional services and development divisions, and today provide consulting, QA, testing and retail software development services to retailers across South Africa and in key countries in the rest of Africa.
Today, highly respected in the retail market, Trade Link with a dedicated team of almost 600 individuals has established itself as one of the largest retail solution and services companies.
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