By George! A range of competitive clothing
Massmart has launched its George clothing brand in Durban today which is directed at a middle to high income earners. Photo supplied 8 Massmart has launched its George clothing brand in Durban today which is directed at a middle to high income earners. Photo supplied 8
Johannesburg - Massmart launched the George clothing brand in three pop-up stores yesterday as it aims to break into the competitive retail market through lower pricing and quality.
The instant stores will close after the Christmas period. George, which is owned by Asda, a subsidiary of Walmart in the UK, caters to the middle- to upper-income groups and is the third-biggest trading retailer in the UK by volume.
Massmart’s move to expand its clothing section is part of its strategy to be more innovative after the company reported a surprise decline in first-half profits in August.
Pressure on households from the increasing cost of living is resulting in shrinking profits for local retailers.
Despite this, retailers such as Edcon are expanding their clothing offerings by introducing international brands to South African consumers.
Edcon secured the master franchising rights to the UK’s Tom Tailor brand and said it planned to expand aggressively before the end of the year.
Edcon has also secured franchising rights to Topshop and Topman, Lipsy and Dune.
Most of these brands, however, are targeted at higher-income earners, while Massmart’s George is seen as a “competitively priced” alternative to Ackermans, Mr Price and Pick n Pay Clothing.
Keren Long, the director of brand development at George said yesterday that George hoped to be a success through its pricing and quality.
“It’s about bringing something to South Africa that’s unique in terms of price and quality. You are not getting cheap clothes that are going to shrink or twist, we sell clothes that you can be proud to be wearing,” Long said.
She said George would be positioned similarly to the UK version with a range of price points “where you can get everything from a R50 opening price ladies T-shirt to 100 percent linen trousers”.
Long added: “In terms of pricing we are competing against Ackermans and Mr Price, but from a quality perspective I’d say we are much closer to, if not better than, Woolworths and Edgars.”
And on catering to cash-strapped consumers she said: “The market is always a difficult place, in that sense you could say there is never a good time and never a bad time to open a store.”
The three trial stores are in Cape Gate Shopping Centre in Cape Town, Galleria Shopping Mall in Durban and Cresta Shopping Centre in Johannesburg. Long said the stores were small “snippets” with the Durban store being just 250m2, while the average George store in the UK was 800m2.
Although the George pop-up shops would be closing their doors after the key holiday shopping season, Long said the brand would be rolled out in 40 Game stores, while underwear, socks and babywear would be available in 10 of those stores.
By February 2014, the clothing brand would be in 60 Game stores.
Long said the three stores employed 24 people, and there were more hopes of employment when production of some clothes moved to South Africa. - Business Report