QUARTERLY
EDCON DESIGN INNOVATION CHALLENGE Showcasing SA Talent
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EDGARS TEAM MEMBERS Celebrating you!
31 MAY 2018
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EDGARS CHANGING LIVES Magical moments at Orlando Children’s Home
Message from CE: Mike Elliott
EDGARS TEAM I have to begin by expressing a huge THANK YOU to so many of the Edgars and Edcon team members for making my start with Edcon so warm and welcoming. As you can imagine, there is a lot for me to get my head around, so having everyone so willing to support me has made my transition much easier than I expected. At the time of writing this note, I have effectively been in the role for nine weeks, but it really feels more like nine months (okay, maybe six). I have been able to meet many of you in these early weeks and I look forward to many more engagements to continue the journey of meeting team members and hearing your views. Just as importantly, I also look forward to getting into more stores and meeting store teams during the next few weeks. My early weeks have been focused on understanding our strategic journey, the strategic priorities, and assessing team structures to support this as well as conducting range reviews. As always, with a new leader comes some change. Unfortunately, this is inevitable and comes after numerous changes that many of you have had to endure. As I have said to many – I am a commitment kind of guy, so hopefully, this is the last for a while. Although, I always say the only thing in
retail that cannot change is change itself. From a trading perspective, Quarter 4 has been dominated by Valentine’s Day and Red Hanger Clearance, which has helped drive marginally positive comp sales but has had a negative impact on margins. As you have seen from recent press releases and what is needed from a business perspective, our goal is clear – we need to move swiftly to positive gross profit growth, and we certainly can. On the positive side, we will end the year cleaner from a stock perspective than we have been in a long while, which sets us up well to bring in fresh merchandise for a better 2019 financial year. Our budgets have been set with realistic targets and this is the year we must return to achieving our budget goals. During the next few weeks, I will also create the opportunity to share more details on our strategic progress and priorities. This will include detailed plans to drive positive growth and our continued turnaround, while remembering at all times that our customer experience remains at the core of everything we do. Best regards,
Mike
Edgars changing lives
A CHANGE FOR GOOD As part of Edgars’ Enterprise Development initiatives, Edgars on-boarded The Clothing Bank as a supplier in March 2018. Through their Training for Change Programme, The Clothing Bank will partner with Edgars to deliver basic life skills and financial skills training. The Training for Change Programme was established six years ago and upskills unemployed men and women with a number of life-changing courses. On 27 March 2018, we hosted our first training session with the ladies from Orlando Children’s Home and POWA East Rand Women’s Shelter. It was only fitting to start off our first training session with The New Beginning Course. The course included modules such as self-leadership, reaching your full potential and goal-setting. The training was well received, and the delegates felt empowered and left eager to practise their newly acquired skills. We look forward to a successful partnership with The Clothing Bank and the difference we will collectively make in the lives of the members of our community.
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A young woman asking for a pair of durable pants for her husband from a tailor in Nevada in 1873 was the spark that led to the creation of one of the most iconic items in anyone’s cupboard – denim jeans. Back then labourers, such as mine workers, wore clothing that was not very durable. A wife who was tired of repairing clothes asked a tailor to make a strong pair of pants for her husband who chopped wood for a living. The tailor was Jacob W. Davis and he chose to use denim as he thought it to be a strong fabric. His inspiration was to attach rivets to the places where the pants would wear the most and so jeans were born. The fabric he used was bought from Levi Strauss & Co. After being overwhelmed with orders, he approached Levi Strauss with a proposal to patent them and together they formed a partnership. Those original jeans are no different to the Levi’s 501 jeans we see today – even the logo is the same. However, the popularity of jeans as a fashion item only came to the fore in 1955 when James Dean wore them with a white T-shirt and leather jacket in the movie Rebel Without A Cause. From that moment on, teenagers began copying the look and the fashion revolution of denim jeans started. Traditionally, jeans were dyed a blue colour using indigo. Now they are dyed using synthetic indigo and only a few grams of indigo are used in each pair. Distressing only became popular through the punk movement in the ’70s, where tearing consumer products was an expression of anger towards society. Stone washes were developed in the early ’80s, which then brought jeans to a more commercial market. From there,the explosion occurred with jeans becoming the go-to item for most men and women. Edgars prides itself on offering the best selection of denim jeans in the market. From private-label denim to iconic brands, we offer an unparalleled selection to cater for all customers and body shapes. For our private-label assortments we use factories that offer exceptional value and produce some of the most wanted brands throughout the world. We are at the forefront of fashion, offering rip-and-repair, distressing, sandblasting and, most importantly in the new age of denim jeans – stretch. Technological advances in terms of sustainability have become a key focus in the jeans market. Key to these is waterless processing, where lasers distress and age jeans. We strive to advance this sustainability in our choice of factories and implementation of brands. So next time you don your easy-to-wear jeans, remember you are part of a revolution that started as a simple request for durable workwear and subsequently became a cultural statement.
Brands we love
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THE REVOLUTION OF JEANS
PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN STYLE
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Edgars team members
CELEBRATING YOU We started our new financial year by celebrating our Edgars Team Members with a big breakfast on 11 April 2018. Our new Chief Executive, Mike Elliott, took this opportunity to address the team and share the business strategy. Mike also took some time to recognise our Edgars Heroes who contributed in key areas of the business. We extended a warm welcome to the International Brands team into the Edgars Division. The team socialised while enjoying a selection of breakfast treats. Employees were also given the opportunity to ask Mike burning questions that he responded to in an enthusiastic and transparent manner. It was a very successful morning.
Edcon Design Innovation Challenge
SHOWCASING YOUNG SA TALENT It’s been an extremely exciting and busy time for the winners of the Edcon Design Innovation Challenge, an initiative by Edcon that supports young South African designers as part of our commitment to developing local talent. The talented designers who form part of the Edgars DSGN EDT collection are Kea Maphologela of Kea.M, Michelle Dindi of Scarlett x Haze, Maps Ralephenya of Court 95, Hlengiwe Gavu of Redemption Loyalty and Noxi Helu of Helu, who were thrilled to see their designs on the racks at selected Edgars stores under the brand name Edgars DSGN EDT. The range is available at the following Edgars stores: Sandton City, Mall of Africa and Eastgate Shopping Centre in Johannesburg; Menlyn Park and Kolonnade Shopping Centre
in Pretoria (Tshwane); Mall of the North in Polokwane; Gateway Theatre of Shopping and Westville Mall in Durban; Canal Walk in Cape Town; and Loch Logan Waterfront in Bloemfontein. The Proudly SA Summit and Expo, took place on 14 &15 March 2018 and is a platform that highlights and promotes local business and talent. Edcon, currently the only retailer who is a member of Proudly SA, used this opportunity to showcase not only the local brands within each of our retail outlets but also our young emerging designers who form part of the Edgars DSGN EDT Capsule. To close off the summit, our talented young designers showed off their collections on the ramp alongside well-known South African designer David Tlale in a fashion show that represented all that is Proudly South African. Twelve of the students have also started their 12-months internship at Edcon (Edgars and Jet) in April 2018.
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Edgars changing lives
MAGICAL MOMENTS AT ORLANDO CHILDREN’S HOME
Edgars continues to give back to the community. A team of volunteers from Edgars Head Office made their way to the Orlando Children’s Home (OCH) in Soweto on 28 March 2018 to spend a fun afternoon with the children. The afternoon started off with a magician entertaining the children with a mesmerising display of tricks. The room was filled with amazement and laughter. We’re not sure who enjoyed the show more – the kids or our volunteers! After tummies were filled with a delicious meal, it was time for the Easter-egg hunt. The children could hardly contain their excitement as they ran off to find the eggs, which were hidden in the courtyard in and around their jungle gym and sandpit. The day ended with a note of thanks from the Edgars team to Ma Mirriam, Directress of OCH, for allowing Edgars to be part of the children’s lives. Finally, the children were presented with gifts that included teddies and books for all ages (sponsored by CNA), Easter eggs, and a donation of R30 000 from Edgars to assist with much-needed gym equipment for the home’s newly-built recreation centre.
Edgars makes a difference
CASUAL DAY Casual Day is one of South Africa’s most loved fundraising campaigns and in 2017, through customer support, we managed to raise R2.1-million for persons with disabilities. Casual Day takes place on the first Friday of September each year and from mid-August stickers are sold in Edgars, Jet and CNA stores. Edcon has been the anchor sponsor for the annual Casual Day campaign for the past five years and has thus far contributed more than R20-million through its sponsorship. The funds raised from the campaign go towards organisations working with and for persons with disabilities throughout the country. In order to motivate store staff to sell the stickers we run an internal competition and the store that raises the most money through sales of the stickers wins a grand prize of R10 000.
We would like to thank all of the store staff members who participated so enthusiasticly, and congratulate the top-selling store this year – Edgars Menlyn. Well done!
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