The brothers who revolutionised prepaid airtime in South Africa

Blue Label Telecom founders and co-CEOs Brett and Mark Levy went from humble beginnings to become the men behind a global leader in the prepaid products market.

The brothers went from selling electronics like car radios and televisions in high school to revolutionising South Africa’s prepaid airtime system.

Their company has since expanded into areas like electricity and water vouchers, starter packs, prepaid data, ticketing, and financial services.

The Levy brothers describe their childhood as modest but happy. However, they were forced to become more independent following the tragic loss of their father in September 1980, when the two were still young.

This led to the brothers forming a strong bond. Armed with a strong entrepreneurial spirit, the pair formed several businesses while still young, including selling various electronics.

Their entrepreneurial careers officially kicked off in the form of a distribution company selling consumer electronics like TVs, Hi-Fis, and CDs before venturing into physical stock management.

This effectively formed the fundamentals behind Blue Label Telecom, through which the Levy brothers established a national distribution network for virtual stock management.

That provided a good foundation for the venture into the telecommunications market when Telkom awarded Blue Label Telecoms a tender to supply prepaid time nationwide.

“In the early 2000s, the cellular industry was gaining momentum, and in 2001, we bid for and were awarded a national Telkom contract to distribute prepaid time,” said Mark Levy.

“We started up as pretty much the only people distributing Telkom prepaid, and this brought more retailers into our network, adding to the range of customers we were servicing.”

However, the new system’s rollout wasn’t seamless. Initially, mobile operators struggled to supply them with electronic pins, and they had to buy physical prepaid scratch cards to use for the electronic distribution platform.

After these early challenges were resolved, Blue Label Telecom expanded its airtime service to distribute products for Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, 8.ta (now Telkom Mobile), and Virgin Mobile.

This gave the company a national presence, which combined with its innovative new system, enabled it to expand into industries like electricity and water vouchers, starter packs, prepaid data, ticketing, and financial services.

During its last financial year ended 31 May 2024, Blue Label’s prepaid airtime, data, and related revenue was R31 billion.

Blue Label Telecoms successfully listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in 2007 — six years after its launch.

Levy said the key to Blue Label Telecom’s success was hiring good talent, adding that it’s best “that the next person you hire is smarter than you”.

This showed in the company’s growth, reaching a market cap of over R19 billion in 2016. It embarked on new acquisitions such as Viamedia and RMSC, and expanded its operations to India and Mexico.

While it saw success in its Blue Label Telecom Mexico, quickly establishing a network of over 4,000 points of presence in a year and a half, it disposed of the interest to its co-shareholder, Grupo Bimbo, in 2020.

The Levy brothers share a deep love for sport and are accomplished sportsmen in their own right. They recall captaining their respective first-team rugby and cricket sides in high school.

This led them on some generous sponsorship campaigns with notable South African teams, including the Proteas T20 cricket team in 2012 and the Springboks in 2016.

The story behind the name

Blue Label Telecoms was initially known as “The Prepaid Company”, and Brett Levy said the company’s early period was a time of very hard work, during which they worked many 18-hour days.

Around this time, they started the tradition of opening a Johnnie Walker Blue Label bottle, writing the details of the deal on the back of the bottle, and adding their signatures.

They even did so for their listing on the JSE.

While there were concerns that the company wouldn’t be able to register under the name “Blue Label” because it is closely linked to the whiskey’s name, they didn’t receive the slew of complaints following its registration that they expected.

“We only had one complaint with the name Blue Label, and that was from Blue Label Marie biscuits,” Mark Levy said.

“How we settled is that we promised not to bake, and they promised not to sell airtime.”