Pepkor aims to tap higher income shoppers with rebranded womenswear stores
Recasts with new womenswear format stores, add CEO comment on port congestion
By Nqobile Dludla
JOHANNESBURG, May 28 (Reuters) -Pepkor PPHJ.J, the South African company behind the PEP and Ackermans discount clothing brands, plans to make its womenswear stores more upmarket to tap mid-to-upper income shoppers as it seeks a bigger share of the adult wear market.
The retailer, which also sells electronics, has a dominant market share in children's wear in South Africa through its largest business PEP alongside Ackermans.
In the last five years it has been expanding into womenswear through its Ackerman's Woman standalone stores.
Last year it began a review of the Ackermans Woman offering, with a footprint of 57 stores, and has now decided to revamp it.
Chief Operations Officer Sean Cardinaal told investors that the retailer will launch the new rebranded and revamped womanswear format stores towards the second quarter of 2025.
"On the proposition, it will be aimed far more at the mid-to-upper end market segment," he said.
"We really believe this will be a strong step forward in Pepkor's strategy to gain more market share in womenswear."
Pepkor also sells adult wear through its Dunns and Refinery clothing brands.
Pepkor reported operating profit growth of 4% at 5.1 billion rand ($277.43 million) in the six months to the end of March due to revenue growth of 43.3 billion rand, up 9.5%, buoyed by back-to-school sales and strong Easter trade.
The retailer also said import supply chain disruptions at local ports, due to underinvestment by state-owned logistics company Transnet in infrastructure, adversely impacted in-store product availability.
Early in the year Pepkor had over a billion rand worth of products sitting at the ports but "that's less than half that now," Chief Executive Pieter Erasmus told Reuters.
"The ports are still about a month behind in terms of working through stuff... (We need) to make sure we don't bring in winter stock too late because then we have to mark it down," he said.
The retailer's suppliers are redirecting shipments to ports that are not full and Pepkor also plans to bring in products a month earlier than normal.
($1 = 18.3830 rand)
Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Tom Hogue and Susan Fenton
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