Former Springbok Captain Corné Krige Builds Outdoor Ad Empire With Golden Arrow Bus Deal
- Corné Krige captained the Springboks on debut in 1999 and led South Africa 18 times before retiring in 2004
- After leaving rugby, Krige founded CK Outdoor in 2007, targeting billboards and high-foot-traffic informal market areas
- CK Advertising later secured exclusive advertising rights on Golden Arrow's fleet of 1,200 buses in Cape Town
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Corné Krige, who captained the Springboks 18 times during his Test career, has built a thriving outdoor advertising business since hanging up his boots more than two decades ago.
Krige founded CK Outdoor in 2007, three years after retiring from professional rugby. The company initially concentrated on large-format billboards targeting the formal market before pivoting in 2009 to serve the informal sector, placing advertising around taverns, taxi ranks, and other high-footfall locations across South Africa.
CK Advertising's Golden Arrow deal
The company's most significant commercial milestone came in the early 2010s, when CK Advertising secured exclusive rights to place advertising on the entire Golden Arrow Bus Services fleet in Cape Town.
Golden Arrow operates roughly 1,200 buses daily, each carrying an average of 65 passengers, giving Krige's business access to a large and constantly moving audience without the overhead of constructing or maintaining physical billboard infrastructure.
"I like the advertising business. It is quite a nice business because you meet a lot of people and it is all about relationships. I also like the creativity around it," Krige said.
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In 2012, the company added a promotional department to offer creative and production services directly to corporate clients, effectively making CK Advertising a vertically integrated operation.
From Paarl Boys to Springbok captain
Krige was born in Lusaka, Zambia, to South African parents and moved to Paarl at the age of four to attend Paarl Boys' Primary, where he was placed in boarding. He was two years younger than most boys in his grade, an experience he credits with forging his independence and competitive drive.
After excelling at Paarl Boys' High School, he joined Western Province in 1996 and earned his Test debut in 1999 against an international side, a rare occasion on which a player captains the Springboks from his very first appearance. A knee injury ruled him out of that year's Rugby World Cup. By the time he retired in 2004, Krige had accumulated 39 Test caps.
Alongside his advertising business, Krige has established himself as a keynote speaker and leadership consultant, drawing on his experiences captaining Western Province to back-to-back Currie Cup titles in 2000 and 2001. He completed a public speaking course during the COVID-19 lockdown period, which he described as the starting point for that side of his career.
He has also published an autobiography, "The Right Place at the Wrong Time", which examines South African rugby in the early 2000s and the pressures he faced as national captain.
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Source: Briefly News
