Cape Town - Marcel Joubert and his partner Moira O'Reilly have taken clothing retailer Platinum Holdings from selling T-shirts out of a rucksack on a university campus 21 years ago to a company that has grown its turnover to R200 million in the past year.
Joubert said the group, which owns the Hilton Weiner, Aca Joe, Jenni Button, Vertigo and Urban brands, had the scope to grow turnover in South Africa up to about R1 billion and increase its existing store base to anything from 120 stores to 200 from the current 55.
The group is conducting an expansion drive that will see the store base jump to 65 stores or more by the end of the year.
This will help drive the current year's turnover from R250 million to R300 million. Joubert said they saw themselves as niche players and did not intend to become an Edgars or Foschini that served a broader market.
"Our vision is to create a strong local base for international expansion. Although in the last seven years we have had more than 50 solid approaches from some big names in Europe to take our offering offshore, we have consistently denied it on the basis that we were not yet ready for the international market.
"We first want to optimise our local operations before venturing into the foreign market."
He said there was a string of local retailers that had failed overseas and that they would not rush into taking the business internationally.
Such a move would most probably be done through a joint venture with an overseas partner.
The most likely offshore destinations would be the UK, Europe and the US, although the Middle East and the rest of the continent were also possibilities.
Despite being approached, Platinum had no intention of selling its business to one of the major local retailers. "We jealously guard our independence.
"We would rather spread some of our ownership to the Platinum team. The vision is to dilute the shareholding within the team, a process we intend to complete in the next 12 months. Selling to one of the major retailers would be our last port of call."
As for acquiring other clothing businesses, Joubert said the group took the decision a few years back to take it slow as far as acquisitional growth was concerned and to rather concentrate on growing organically.
This followed a spate of takeovers, which included Hilton Weiner in early 1995 and Jenni Button and Aca Joe in mid-1997.
Platinum is currently embroiled in a legal battle with the LA Group over the failed takeover bid of LA Retail and Oxygen. The case is set to be heard this month.