Under SAB, however, Edgars flourished. New CEO and managing director Vic Hammond steered the company on its greatest expansion, and by , when Hammond stepped down, the group had established itself as a South African retail empire with sales of nearly ZAR 2 billion. Part of that expansion came from the launch of a third-generation Edgars flagship format. Edgars continued to grow strongly into the first half of the s, more than doubling sales to top ZAR 4.
By then, the company's retail network of more than stores covered a total selling space of , square meters. In addition to the Jet and Edgars formats, the company operated a number of other store brands, including Cuthberts shoe brand, which had pioneered self-service shoe sales in South Africa; the more traditional ABC shoe stores; Sales House; and Smiley's Wearhouse.
Into the second half of the s, the Edgars chain began expanding its store formats. The Edgars chain in particular expanded through the addition of a number of new in-store concept boutiques, including the Red Square cosmetics corner and a sunglasses department, Accessoreyes.
Other boutiques tested by the company during the period included a denim corner, The Issue; a sportswear boutique, Starting Block; and Studio Quattro, which sold watches and jewelry. In addition to being developed as in-store corners, the company also launched a number of self-standing boutiques. Yet Edgars' growth came to a sudden halt in the late s. Despite steadily growing sales totals, the company had become less and less profitable.
By , the group's profits dipped by more than 60 percent--sparking the group's share price to crash as well. With shares dipping as low as ZAR 14 per share--down from a peak of ZAR at mid-decade--the company found itself in dire straits.
Employee morale was low, sparking a six-week strike by store workers in Even longtime majority shareholder SAB jumped ship, unbundling its shares in the company. Ross then led the company on a drastic restructuring, reducing store sizes--by as much as half--and consolidating the company's retail operations into two major components. Edgars remained the company's department store focus, while United Retail, created in , took over as a single logistics and administrative umbrella operation for the company's other retail formats.
The company then hired Accenture and Comparex to take over its internal IT operations, putting into place a more flexible and efficient infrastructure. Also as part of its IT effort, the company launched two e-commerce sites, edcon. The changes made in the company began to take hold in the early s. By , the company's profits were once again gaining strongly.
The company's retail operations now spanned almost locations, which, given the group's concept boutique shops, gave the company nearly retail store fascia. By the end of its year Edcon's sales had topped ZAR 7. Yet Edcon recognized that its command of the South African retail clothing market gave it little room to grow in the near and mid-future. Acquisitions of other clothing retailers were likely to raise anti-competition concerns. Instead, the company became determined to expand beyond the clothing sector.
Retail magnate Philip Green's Arcadia, which owns Topshop and many other British fashion brands, filed for administration on Monday, the biggest British corporate insolvency so far of the coronavirus pandemic. Here are some other high-profile retail names hit by the virus Quote and financial data from Refinitiv. Fund performance data provided by Lipper. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. Latest Trade 5. Change 0.
Volume 1, Today's Range 5. Pricing Previous Close. Today's High. Today's Low. Shares Out MIL. We also manufacture In-house brands which include:. We aspire to be the leaders in quality fashion both locally and internationally.
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