Company Profile
The Localisation Support Fund (LSF) is South Africa's apex body for driving localisation across the manufacturing sector — working at the intersection of government and industry to identify where competitive local manufacturing can be unlocked, and ensuring the conditions are in place for that to happen. We exist to bridge the gap between localisation opportunity and execution.
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Established in 2021 as a non-profit company (NPC) and public benefit organisation (PBO), the LSF was founded as a partnership between the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) and Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa. This collaboration reflects the Fund’s unique role as a bridge between policy priorities and industry action, ensuring that localisation is not just a vision but a measurable, impactful reality for South Africa’s manufacturing future.
Our Purpose
South Africa has no shortage of localisation opportunities. What it has lacked is the consistent, coordinated effort to turn those opportunities into reality. Too often, promising localisation prospects stall — not for lack of potential, but because the research hasn't been done, the right skills aren't in place, or the stakeholders who need to act aren't aligned.
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The LSF exists to close that gap. We provide the research that establishes what is possible, the technical capacity to make it viable, and the facilitation to bring the right parties together. Our work is not about protecting industries from competition — it is about building industries that can compete. Localisation, done well, is a driver of competitiveness, innovation, and long-term industrial growth.
Our Focus & Priority
We take a value chain approach — working across sectors where South Africa has a genuine right to win, and where strategic localisation can unlock scale, competitiveness, and long-term industrial depth. Our current priority value chains are:
Automotive
Chemicals
Critical Infrastructure (Energy, Water & Logistics)
Pharmaceuticals & Medical Technologies
Food & Beverages
Clothing, Textile, Footwear & Leather
Green Transition Technologies
Furniture
Mining & Mineral Beneficiation
How We Deliver
We work through three integrated capabilities — Research, Capacity Building, and Industrial Facilitation — each designed to address a different barrier to localisation, and each capable of being deployed independently or in combination.
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Research
We commission and project-manage rigorous research into South Africa's localisation opportunities — asking the hard questions about where competitive local manufacturing is viable, and how it can be realised. What sets our research apart is the process around it: we convene public and private sector stakeholders to build on prior work, shape the right research questions, and ensure findings are translated into actionable outcomes through roundtables, workshops, policy submissions, and direct engagement with government and industry decision-makers.
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02
Capacity Building
We embed the right skills where they are currently missing. This means deploying specialist technical resources — process engineers, industrial engineers, and others — directly into manufacturers to help them scale production competitively. It also means working with state-owned enterprises and private sector buyers to strengthen their procurement functions, enabling them to engage more strategically with local suppliers. Whether on the supply or demand side, our focus is on building the capability that makes localisation stick.​​
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03
Industrial Facilitation
We support creating the conditions for localisation to happen. By convening the right stakeholders — manufacturers, buyers, financiers, and government — we facilitate the structured conversations and engagements that allow formal supply and investment relationships to form. Where gaps exist in a value chain, we work with industry partners to identify them and bring the relevant parties together to fill them.​​​​​​
The Business Case for Localisation
Strategic localisation is not about isolation or protectionism, but leveraging domestic demand to enhance industrial competitiveness. By strengthening domestic manufacturing, localisation reduces import reliance, stabilises supply chains, and builds resilience against external shocks, such as currency volatility, trade disruptions, and geopolitical risks.
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A strong local manufacturing base creates jobs, fosters innovation, and drives economic complexity, leading to higher-value exports and long-term industrial growth. Through strategic localisation, South Africa can leverage its natural advantages, industrial capabilities, and policy frameworks to build globally competitive industries.
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By investing in targeted research and industry-driven localisation strategies, LSF ensures that localisation is a catalyst for growth, enabling South African firms to scale into regional and international markets while enhancing productivity, efficiency, and technological capabilities.
How We Measure Success
Our primary measure of success is the value of goods that are now locally produced as a direct result of our work — manufacturing output that did not exist, or could not be sustained, before the LSF's involvement.
PRIMARY METRIC
Localised manufacturing output
Value of goods now locally produced as a direct result of LSF work
INVESTMENT ATTRACTED
Capital into manufacturing assets
Investment unlocked into productive manufacturing capacity
EMPLOYMENT
Jobs in
manufacturing
Jobs created in the manufacturing sector as a result of LSF activity
