Picture this, 1995, three little boys playing on the Hermanus Primary School playing field, Dawie said, “when I grow up, I am going to be a policeman.” Franklin said, “I am going to be a fireman.” Young Hannes Smal joined in by saying, “I am going to help people.”

Hannes was born and bred in Hermanus, matriculating at Hermanus High School in 2003 and held various positions at different companies before realizing his childhood dream and at the tender age of 23, in 2009 he opened his own funeral undertaking business here in Hermanus, namely, Anré Funeral Services.

Anré Funeral Services professional and caring team provides a comprehensive range of funeral services to meet all budgets, faiths and personal needs across the Western Cape of South Africa. We are committed to understanding your unique needs and we ensure everyone is treated with dignity, respect and compassion.

At the current age of 31, Hannes is currently serving on the boards of many local community service centres and old age homes. He is also associated with “age in Action”, and assists them yearly with sporting events for the service centres in the Overberg. 

Eight years later and Hermanus branch is still situated at 11 Argon Street where he originally opened. Sheila, Hannes’ mother, affectionately known as “Moekie” joined Hannes in his venture and is still based at the Hermanus branch.

Hannes soon began spreading his wings and opened a second and third branch late 2009 in Caledon which is now where his Corporate Head Office is based, housed in their own huge double storey building at 29 Church Street. The opportunity was also identified in Riviersonderend and an arranging office was opened  in the Main Road.

A new operational branch was opened at 65 Main Road in Gansbaai in 2010 covering the area from Stanford to Pearly Beach.

Hannes saw the need for an arranging office to be opened in Hawston. Although Hawston is close to Hermanus, Hannes identified the needs of the local community and the lack of transport, hence an arranging office being opened at George Viljoen Street in 2011.

Hannes really began spreading his wings in 2012 and saw opportunity in other towns. An arranging office was opened in Main road Grabouw, 24 Dirkie Uys street Bredasdorp. With the Kleinmond , Bettys Bay, Pringle Bay area expanding rapidly, Hannes saw the need for an arranging office to be opened in Kleinmond. The office was opened at the Spar Shopping Centre, but Hannes saw a new opportunity, hence has moved to 54 Main Road. Watch the local press in the near future for the unveiling of the new branch.

A fleet of 20 vehicles have been accumulated during the past five years. The vehicles range from an early 1960’s imported Cadillac, imported Buick, Ford Falcons, Hyundai I10 to 2013 models of Chrysler Voyagers and Volkwagen Caddys TDi.

With this wonderful infrastructure Hannes has built up, he has a high caliber of staff working for him at Anré. Hannes’ staff compliments of 25 includes both males and females and are fully trained in assisting bereaved families with compassion and empathy. Anré also has Policy Agents in the Overberg to service our policyholders. Naturally with all this responsibility, Hannes appointed an client and Customer relation Officer, Gavin Kiewitz, to assist with operational details.

Anré has expanded services offered to now include worldwide repatriations due to having an in-house qualified embalmer and restorative technician.

The range of services offered by Anré are:

• Funerals
• Cremations
• Coffins
• Caskets
• Ash urns
• Flowers (fresh and artificial)
• Monumentals (tombstones)
• Funerals policies ranging from single life cover to family cover, to senior citizen policies to pre-paid funerals
• World wide repatriations
• Embalming
• Pet Cremations

From humble beginnings, the business has grown into a well respected service provider, capable of meeting the needs of any funeral, across South Africa as well as additional services provided abroad.

Hannes Smal is “living his dream” by assisting people in need.