Cape Town - Truworths International's latest acquisition, Uzzi, was "trading well" following the finalisation of the deal at the end of June, Truworths said yesterday.
Truworths chief executive Michael Mark said it was early days, but his company was now "involved in the business" with existing management and "we are working well together".
Fashion retailer Truworths announced in February that it had bought a controlling stake in the 24-store Uzzi chain from founder Neville Kopping and his partners.
Uzzi aimed to sell "better-end designer fashion for young guys".
Mark said using the resources available to Uzzi after the acquisition would allow Uzzi to expand faster than if it had remained independent.
He did not give details of expansion plans, but said Truworths would experiment with new Uzzi stores located next to its men's stores, which included Truworths Man.
Mark said he could not give "material" information on how the Truworths group was trading as it was in a closed period. But details on sales performance will be revealed when the company issues a trading statement, expected by the end of this week.
He said Truworths had the option to buy out the remaining minority stake, which he did not reveal, within three years. This was a similar model to the Young Designers Emporium (YDE) acquisition. This year Truworths bought the 25 percent of YDE it did not own. YDE aims to sell cutting edge South African-designed clothes.
Local fashion designers, including those from YDE, were in the spotlight last week at Cape Town Fashion Week.
Asked if he thought local designs were starting to get noticed on the international stage, Mark said it was unlikely that they would ever play a significant role in this arena as southern hemisphere seasons were six months behind those in Europe and US, which meant South Africa was always following them.
But he said local customers had always liked South African fashions and he expected this to continue.
Commenting on expected further interest rate hikes, Mark said: "As long as they do not rise too high or too fast, they are unlikely to have any significant impact on us."
He said that as a credit fashion retailer, Truworths took risks on fashion, as well as on granting first-time borrowers loans. But he stressed that the company had a tradition of managing that risk. Many analysts considered Truworths one of the better credit retailers to hold shares in during times of high interest rates because its relatively conservative lending policies had historically meant it did not face huge bad debt problems.
Truworths shares rose 33c to R20.65 on the JSE yesterday. The general retailers sector climbed 0.51 percent.