SA-born success story: Lobster Ink trains world's hospitality staff

JOHANNESBURG — Many people in South Africa may have never heard of Lobster Ink before. It's a company that's quietly gone about its business providing online video training to staff in the hospitality and tourism sector. From small beginnings in South Africa, Lobster Ink has grown rapidly to service the world's biggest hotel groups from Africa to the Middle East and the US. But even more impressively, Lobster Ink was recently acquired by Ecolab for an undisclosed sum. US-headquartered Ecolab is a global provider of water, hygiene and energy technologies and services to the food, energy, healthcare, industrial and hospitality markets. In this interview then, Fasie Malherbe, the President of Lobster Ink, tells us the story of his company. - Gareth van Zyl