Member Feature
Pieter Geldenhuys - Bidders Choice
What happens when the company you work for closes down? You dust yourself off and, if you’re lucky, start your own business. This is exactly what Pieter Geldenhuys of Bidders Choice did when the company he directed came to an end.
Starting out as a teacher, Pieter moved on to Boland Bank who had a property auction division named Seeff Auctions. Thereafter Pieter moved to Auction Alliance, and when they closed, he decided to start his own company. “I didn’t want to go and ‘slave’ for somebody else again, so I started Bidders Choice,” Pieter said as his inspiration for having started his own Auctioneering company.
What makes Pieter so exceptional is that he taught himself to auction. He didn’t train at an auction school, and says that he doesn’t like to copy anyone else. “I never looked up to other people in terms of copying them. I followed my own values – I don’t like to copy others,” he said.
Having been involved in the Auction Industry for almost 30 years, Pieter started Bidders Choice in 2012. “The auction business is very challenging and not easy – it has been a bumpy ride,” Pieter said when asked about the journey so far. The most challenging period for Pieter has been Covid-19. “By Grace, we survived Covid, however I lost one of my most trustworthy team members during Covid. That was very sad as we had a father/son relationship.”
There have been plenty of good times too -Bidders Choice serves the entire South African market. “We are very proud of what we have achieved, especially in terms of introducing a new generation of buyers to the Auction Industry,” Pieter said. He also said that his favourite part of being an Auctioneer is “standing on the podium and maximising value on assets give to me to auction, coupled with interpreting the buyers’ body language.”
Pieter says if he had to choose what his speciality is, he’d say property and mining. “All of the industries are very exciting and challenging to work in. In the Auctioneering industry, you need to know a lot about everything. Nowadays, Auctioneers must know how to explore the world in terms of buyers and sellers, and how to match them up. That is the secret,” he said.
Operating in many facets of the Industry and being service and result driven, Bidders Choice strives to have a satisfied buyer and seller. They have plans to expand- Pieter wants the company to grow from within. “We don’t have any foreign investors and foreign partners; we are proudly and truly South African,” Pieter said.
We are proud to have so many proudly and truly South African Auctioneers, and we wish Pieter and Bidders Choice everything of the best as they continue to grow!
Bidders Choice
www.bidderschoice.co.za
Bidders Choice | Auctioneers Pretoria | Auctioneers Gauteng (auctioneering.co.za)
Pieter Geldenhuys
Tel: 0861 44 42 42 | Cell: 082 808 1801
Email: [email protected]
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