Origins
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Introduction Mrs Sandra Coetzee, proud owner of Sandra’s Bridal Boutique, was thinking about a quote she recently came across in a women’s magazine. The writer said the world was divided into three types of people: the few who make things happen, the many who watch things happen, and the very many who wonder what happened.
Sandra tried to guess what life events had led the author, Mr Nicholas Murray Butler, to this cynical conclusion.
And yet the statement had a ring of truth, Sandra thought. If she thought back to major events in her life, she had certainly at times belonged to each of the three groups. And the logic could also apply to organisations and even entire nations.
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Origins Take for instance the Rex Trueform Clothing Company, where she started working at the age of 18.
Many Capetonians worked in the clothing industry and Rex was the industry leader. Sandra had been so proud to be part of this famous corporation which exported Rex Trueform men’s sports jackets and House of Monatic lounge suits all over the world. She loved visiting the fabric store when new shipments arrived, and watching the pattern-makers cutting through 20 layers of cloth at a time. Most of all she loved the great production halls with their lines of sewing machines, six hundred workers bent over their work busy as bees, the local radio station at full blast, the line supervisors sitting on their high stools, the production numbers chalked on the wallboard. 6
And now it’s all gone, Sandra thought sadly. When the Chinese started selling their quality sports jackets to Rex’s international customers at prices way below what Rex paid for just the base fabric, the writing was on the wall. Rex Trueform closed down just 3 years later, those skilled machinists lost their jobs, the great sewing halls declared a heritage site and turned into offices and apartments. And the owners watched it happen, and couldn’t or wouldn’t do a thing. The Chinese did it cheaper and better, and that’s what killed Rex Trueform.
On the other hand, Sandra thought, Gordon Joffe was definitely one of the few who always made things happen. That smart young man used his retrenchment money to buy a flight ticket to New York and for four days, morning to night, sat in the reception at Polo International’s headquarters on Madison Avenue, until someone agreed to see him. A week later, he flew back to Cape Town with a royalty agreement in his pocket and a licence to use the iconic designs and brand names, Polo and Ralph Lauren, on men’s and ladies’ sportswear in Southern Africa.
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Origins Sandra learnt the clothing business with Gordon at Polo Manufacturing. She spent a year as a production supervisor and another year as a sales agent. She bought sewing machines and buttons and zips and sat in on meetings with the arrogant buyers from the national retail chains. She planned and supervised a move to new factory premises. She went with Gordon to Hong Kong to buy fabric. In her 5th year, Gordon made her general manager of The Polo Ladies, a new division of the company.
And then Gordon died. One Saturday afternoon he complained to his wife of indigestion and went to lie down. She tried to wake him an hour later but he was dead. A weak heart, and into the dark night he went.
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Origins Sandra was devastated. She loved her young husband, and in a different way, she had loved and respected Gordon too. She didn’t want to carry on at Polo without him. The shareholders were appointing a new management team and she thought it was time to move on. At the age of 30, Sandra faced the challenge of what to do next. It was her time to make things happen.
To survive in the clothing industry in South Africa, Gordon always said, you had to have a unique brand or a unique product or a niche market, and preferably all three. If you tried to make standard lines like school shirts, boxer shorts or pyjamas, or any export products, the Chinese low labour rates would price you out of the market. And if not them then the Indians and the Indonesians.
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Sandra wanted to be her own boss. She thought she might open a boutique, a dress shop for adult women, not kids. Party gowns, cocktail dresses, formal wear and dresses for special occasions. Locally made to order by people who understand the contours, hopes and aspirations of South African ladies. The new mall near the Sanlam head office in Voortrekker Road was looking for tenants. One day, a customer asked Sandra to design a wedding dress for her daughter. And that’s how it all began….. 4