31 JANUARY 2019
ISSUE04
QUARTERLY
BRANDS WE LOVE Everyday Gifting Made Easy
EDGARS TEAM MEMBERS Kelso Fragrance Training
Send your comments or queries to: EdgarsBuzz@Edcon.co.za
EDGARS RINGS THE CHANGES Welcome Home
Message from CE: Mike Elliott
THE YEAR TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE At the time of writing this message we have just come out of the very important December month of trade and everyone would have returned from the summer break. A huge thank you to the store teams and head office teams who worked over this period and for those that had a break, I hope you are back to full steam after a restful and safe break. As is always the case, the summer break is a good time to reflect on where we are and December sales performance is an important measure. From a sales perspective we ended the month and quarter with a comparable sales and gross margin growth that was positive. This was better than recent trend and also better compared to the results reported by our key competitors except for 1. This was a pleasing result. In analysing the detail there were some uncontrollable factors that hampered our growth but unfortunately, also too many controllable factors that negatively impacted sales. There were too many examples of where we simply did not execute our plans precisely enough. We need to fix this going forward and we can build on the results achieved in Q3. The December period was also unfortunately impacted by some sensational press that would have caused unnecessary distress for customers, staff and suppliers. By the time you read this note I am confident our funding issues and debt burden will be a thing of the past. This leaves us in a re-capitalized position where we have largely stopped our decline, stabilised our position and are now in a position to start a period of growth. In order to do this we need to “do what we say we are going to do” and start executing our plans with urgency and precision. I look forward to everyone’s commitment and focus in tirelessly ensuring that this is exactly what we do. I have no doubt, it is in our hands to start winning and growing again. I look forward to a great 2019. Best regards,
Mike Edgars makes a difference
REFLECTIONS ON THE 16 DAYS OF ACTIVISM The 2018 16 Days of Activism campaign was launched on 25 November in Melmoth, KwaZulu-Natal under the theme: #HearMeToo: End Violence against Women and Children! From 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, Human Rights Day, the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign is a time to galvanise action to end violence against women and girls around the world. Edcon was honoured to take part in many of the events. On 25 November we kicked off with an Installation at Edgardale to mark the start of the 16 Days of Activism.The Edgars UNiTE ‘16 Day’s Garments” exhibition at Edgardale was set up to mark not only the start of 16 Days of Activism but also sought to take staff on the Edgars UNITE journey and the women’s stories of survival, presented through the use of black knitted fabric. At the invitation from the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Edcon staff were privileged to attend the “Is’thunzi Sabafazi” tribute and dialogue held at the University of Johannesburg, Soweto Campus on 29 November. Oprah Winfrey delivered a keynote address. The Nelson Mandela Women of Dignity Dialogue, facilitated by Radio 702 Redi Tlhabi, included conversations on how we can build a caring society that treats women equally and justly. The panelists included UN Women Executive Director and Under-Secretary-General; Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Mrs Graça Machel and Josina Machel who is a survivor of gender-based violence and founder of Kuhluka Movement, an advocacy vehicle fighting genderbased violence. The Global Citizen Festival took place on 2 December and the Edgars UNiTE “16 Days Garment” Exhibition formed a side event on 3 December held in partnership with UN Women at the African Leadership Academy. It enabled conversations with young women on “gender equality in a changing context”. The dialogue session was attended by UN Women Executive Director and Under-SecretaryGeneral; Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and led by actress and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, Danai Gurira. On 6 December, Edcon staff attended the Nelson Mandela Tribute by a renowned African author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie held at the UNISA Ormonde Conference Centre. Chimamanda’s voice provided an international perspective on the many challenges facing those who promote Madiba’s legacy. Key questions framing the conversation explored the relevance of that legacy in contexts where declarations of human rights, constitutions and legislation too frequently do not translate into a lived reality for the great majority of people.
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Brands we love
BLOOMING MARVELLOUS
Kelso Beauty knows that its customer base is comprised of unique women. The exciting new range of beautiful fragrances has been uniquely crafted, specifically for the South African woman. Each fragrance delivers a sense of true optimism, personal discovery and home-grown pride. The new range consists of fresh citrus and chocolate tones in Cosmos; the complex subtlety of jasmine and vanilla in Arum; and the sublime undertones of mandarin and cedarwood in Disa’s delicious, oriental-woody flowers.
COSMOS
ARUM
Cosmos by Kelso recognises who you are, and elevates your essence in a vibrant burst of sophisticated and glamorous femininity. Whimsical and playful, every drop becomes a liberating symbol of the fresh and delicate flower that reminds every South African woman of our beautiful and unique flora.
Arum takes you to a secluded cloud of woody flowers that awakens the soul and stirs the imagination. As a modern South African woman, you express your individuality by creating a beautiful world around you. Arum by Kelso is created to be a part of who you are by enhancing your passion.
DISA Disa by Kelso is created to be a true reflection of who you are, by culminating all the many different forms of this fresh and beautiful flower into a complete expression of your individual essence. It delivers an airy and cooling velvety dose of energy – a daring approach that’s larger-than-life.
The Kelso Fragrance range is sophisticated, generous and is a celebration of what modern South African womanhood stands for. Discover each of these beautiful fragrances in selected Edgars stores from 17 September 2018.
Edgars team members
KELSO FRAGRANCE TRAINING Kelso Beauty was launched in November 2017 to celebrate the diversity of beauty in South Africa. A trusted homegrown brand, Kelso previously only offered a range of colour cosmetics, beauty tools and accessories, as well as bath and body products. The next exciting addition to the Kelso Beauty stable is the launch of three uniquely created fragrances – Cosmos, Arum and Disa. To support the launch of these fragrances and ensure that our beauty consultants have the knowledge and skills to successfully market and sell these products, we hosted training sessions in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, with a total of 97 delegates attending from across South Africa. During the training, delegates learned about the fragrance architecture of Cosmos, Arum and Disa, and were coached on how to present these phenomenal fruity, woody and oriental fragrances through #KelsoBeauty gestures. Learners were given an opportunity to practice their newly acquired selling skills by means of role-plays that reinforced the importance of planning, teamwork and communication to all attendees. Learners also got to spend an entire day in the company of our very own celebrity #KelsoBeauty make-up artist and trainer, Londie, learning about the amazing features and benefits of our truly South African #KelsoBeauty Colour Cosmetics. Some of the feedback received from our delegates below: “The training was a success and we had the chance to communicate with our colleagues and they all benefited from this because we empowered them with the Kelso Skin, Colour and Fragrances. The delegates enjoyed the practical side of how to apply make-up for different occasions, as well as learning about the fragrance undertones, selling techniques and cross and link selling. Our team is inspired to go back and represent the brand.”
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Edgars in the spotlight
ICON BRANDS
The Ask Afrika Icon Brands survey is the largest benchmark of its kind in South Africa. It’s a massive project – 30 000 consumers are surveyed via continuous face-to-face interviews to establish brand and product loyalty across 158 product categories. The Icon Brands index is essentially a weighted usage and loyalty index calculated to ensure that iconic status is universal across the population. Icon scores are calculated based on different metrics for different product categories, as loyalty metrics differ from market to market. The Icon Brands winners were celebrated at the Ask Afrika Icon Brands conference at The Venue in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg in August. Thousands of brands were included in the initial analysis, with only 40 Ask Afrika Icon Brands emerging in 2018/19. This year, 158 product category winners were celebrated and 53 brands were classified as platinum by Ask Afrika. Not all of the 158 product category winners have Icon status, but these product category leaders often dominate their space and are mostly iconic among the consumers who have access to them. Edgars was proud to emerge as the winner in seven of the Shopping Retail categories: jewellery, lingerie/ ladies’ underwear, men’s clothing, shoes, women’s clothing and sports clothing. This shows just how effectively Edgars is implementing the three key pillars of our strategy: Own our unique position, Show up differently and Make it clear for our customer.
Edgars on-trend
ACCESSORIES WATCHES As part of our strategy to remain competitive and profitable within our watch brands, we saw an opportunity to offer our customers an additional hangsell within our brands. This collection is easy to pick-and-go, as they are packaged as hangsell to promote self-service models that are available at selected stores at a lower price, ranging from R299 to R579, to keep up with the times while still completing your look. BRANDS IN THE HANGSELL RANGE Tomato hangsell watches – ranging from R399 to R499 Bad Boy and Bad Girl hangsell watches – ranging from R299 to R579 SUNGLASSES Leap into summer in style, with the coolest new collection of our private-label sunglasses. With different brands such as Free 2BU and JX Eyewear, young girls and boys can keep up with the trends and look cool – at affordable with prices, ranging from R99.99 to R149.99. We also offer sophisticated and classy looks from our Kelso and Stone Harbour eyewear collections, which range from R99.99 to R149.99.
Tomato hangsell watches
Stone Harbour sunglasses
JX sunglasses
Kelso sunglasses
Tomato hangsell watches
Edgars team spirit
CHAMPIONS CHALLENGE The month of October brought in an all-new sales incentive campaign for Edcon Financial Services. The Financial Services team embarked on a journey to develop a sales campaign that would allow closer engagement with the ECM and cellphone agents and track engagement against sales results. The campaign was designed to provide gamified insurance product content, incentive rules and weekly updates sent to their cellphones on a weekly basis through a user engagement platform called URUP. The campaign aims to encourage a positive approach towards offering insurance products to our customers and meeting sales targets while earning exciting weekly incentives. The weekly incentives range from airtime vouchers, cellphone handsets and cash prizes for store teams and individual top performers. This exciting campaign will run until the end of the financial year in March 2019. The sales incentive titled the ‘Financial Services – Champions Challenge’ also recognises and rewards top insurance sales performers who have met their individual sales targets, with a benchmark of four insurance sales a day, over five days. Since October, the in-store airwaves have been all about who has made the cut and what the staff needs to know about becoming Financial Services Champions. We encourage all ECM and cellphone Agents to get in on all the action and keep a look out for the weekly communication. The game is on!
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Edgars rings the changes
WELCOME HOME Edcon, the largest non-food retailer in South Africa, has been listening closely to what customers have been saying, and in response Edgars is proud to announce the launch of Edgars Home. When customers started asking for more options and a bigger choice – and for all of it under one roof – Edgars sat up and took notice. Already known for its distinctive range of Homeware, the brand is now showing up differently and taking it to the next level for décor, foodies and home enthusiasts. Edgars CE Mike Elliott says, ‘Edgars Home has been created for the South African consumer. After all, we’re all decorators and lifestyle enthusiasts who love our homes and love sharing experiences with friends and family in a space that expresses who we are. The Edgars Home range of products is beautifully curated and sourced just for you.’ A key differentiator for Edgars is the complete customer offering of private and third-party brands, both local and international, which Edgars Home perfectly articulates. Edgars Home fine-tunes the way people can express who they are with its unique in-house premium labels, like the luxurious and graceful Hotel Collection, the fun and fashionable Private Collection, as well as with much-desired, third-party brands like Tefal, Jamie Oliver, and Noritake. For the bedroom, there are stunning ranges of duvet covers, linen and bedding. There are accessories, bath mats, and luxuriously soft towels for the bathroom. The living room section offers everything from curtains and lighting to scatter cushions and ornaments. The dining room selection includes dinnerware, drinkware, serve ware, and table linen. And the kitchen range boasts everything an at-home chef could possibly desire. The first Edgars Home store launched on 26 October. By early November there were seven new format stores launched in Sandton City Shopping Centre, Menlyn Park Shopping Centre, Clearwater Mall, Canal Walk Shopping Centre, East Rand Mall, Eastgate Shopping Centre, and La Lucia Mall, where the first ever Edgars Home new concept store opened on the 9 November 2018. Mike says, ‘Our core purpose remains the same: to provide self-expression for all South Africans for all occasions. This has been interpreted through all aspects of our refreshed home strategy resulting in an entirely different shopping experience. Our new-generation home offering will be an exciting addition to the Edgars destination.’ He adds, ‘We also recognise that the South African consumer is under increasing pressure and we strive to offer them fantastic everyday value in price, quality, and fashion and to delight them with exciting promotions on the products that they love.’
Edgars training
BEAUTY SCHOOL As Edgars, we are on a mission to show up differently and ensure every customer has an awesome experience when shopping in our stores. Edgars Beauty plays a critical role in enabling this strategy. We partnered with Imbalie Beauty to equip our generic beauty consultants with the knowledge and skills required to ensure our customers have a beauty experience like none other. The Edgars Beauty School consists of four modules, namely: All about Service All about Skin All about Colour All about Fragrance Learners were given ample opportunity to practice their newly acquired skincare, make-up, and fragrance layering skills in the classroom. Check out some of the comments received from our learners: “I loved the practical application of what we learned.” “I feel more comfortable and confident with the products and how to apply makeup” “I loved learning how to apply eyeliner, this was the tricky part of the course.” “I loved the demo’s. The facilitator was friendly and made it easy to understand. The activities were amazing.” We have trained 172 Generic Beauty Consultants to date, and that is just the beginning. Look out Edgars! These generic beauty consultants that attended this course will be showing up differently – one makeover at a time!
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Edgars in the spotlight
AWARDING EXCELLENCE The 2018 Sunday Times/Sowetan shopper survey conducted by Kantar TNS South Africa, has announced South Africa’s favourite retailers. The survey, now in its 11th year, provides retailers with deep insights about what consumers really think of their brand – where they’re winning, and where they should be doing more. The final results were weighted to represent the population according to StatsSA 2015 mid-year population estimates. This year’s survey also took into account the new Socio-Economic Measures (SEMs). More than 2 750 respondents over the age of 18, from both metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas of the country, were randomly selected and interviewed face-to-face. As an indication of how competitive the retail market is, this year’s survey registered 34 new players across 12 categories. Of those 34 additions, 10 were new entrants to the Online Store category, with many of them being established retail brands. Retailers that placed in the top three of a category were awarded custom-made trolley trophies created by the Reaboka Foundation, an NGO committed to the empowerment of rural communities. Edgars proudly emerged as a leader in the following categories: Men’s Clothing Stores; Shoe Stores and Women’s Clothing Stores. Reardon Sanderson, GM: group sales and marketing at Tiso Blackstar, says, “We believe the research delivered to the market through the Sunday Times/Sowetan shopper survey allows the country’s retailers and advertisers to ‘get inside the heads’ of consumers and learn what drives their preferences for one retailer over another.”
Brands we love
EVERYDAY GIFTING MADE EASY Whether you want to spoil yourself or anyone else, Edgars Beauty has the solution. Edgars Beauty has relaunched bath and body to add a complete luxury gifting and an invigorating everyday bath and body experience, with quality products and service that exceed our customers’ expectations. Some of the brands our customers will be treated to are L’Occitane, Beauty Factory, Nesti Soaps and our own Kelso brand. We will also be introducing four new and exciting brands that include essential oils, all of which are free from parabens and sulfates
1. NATURALLY EUROPEAN Naturally European, exclusive to Edgars, takes inspiration from the rich landscapes that Europe has to offer. This collection of toiletries offers nourishment and protection for all skin types, including but not limited to sensitive skin. Formulated using fragrances and nourishing essential oils, its products contain high levels of moisturising Shea butter and are free from parabens and SLS. 2. AROMAS ARTESANALES DE ANTIGUA Our most affordable brand, which is exclusive to Edgars, Aromas Artesanales De Antigua – affectionately known as AAA – is inspired by the vibrant culture and natural beauty found in Antiqua, Guatemala. AAA offers a wide selection of bodycare products in a variety of classic floral fragrances. While this brand might be affordable, it does not compromise on quality, as it also contains Shea butter and is free from parabens. 3. TROPICAL FRUITS COLLECTION Exotic fruit fragrances and fun flirtatious packaging, this exclusive-to-Edgars’ range is designed to entice the senses and invoke dreams of a far-away tropical paradise. Free from parabens and SLS. 4. COWSHED Cowshed is a fun brand that has evolved into a holistic range of products and treatments, through Cowshed’s continued use of natural botanicals from sustainable resources containing the highest-quality essential oils. In addition, Cowshed guarantees ethical products that are free from parabens, mineral oils, silicone, animal ingredients and animal testing (therefore suitable for vegetarians).
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Edgars Training
PLANNING AHEAD There are five key principles that merchants live by: to get the right products in the right place, at the right time, at the price and in the right quantities. Making sure this happens optimally depends on effective planning, which in turn depends on the skill and knowledge of a business’ planning team. When our Head of Planning, John Fraser, saw an opportunity to improve business efficiencies through elevating and deepening the existing knowledge and skills of the Edgars Planning team, the result was the creation of the Edgars Planning Academy. The Academy was launched on 23 July 2018. It was an intense four days of learning which culminated with a graduation ceremony on 26 July 2018. Thirty learners were selected from our specialist and assistant planners. Attendees were given an overview of the planning strategy followed by a deep dive into the world of merchant finance, effective analysis, merchant financial planning, the GP matrix, localisation, location planning, allocations, replenishment, store imbalances and progressive clearance. The course was filled with interactive and engaging activities to give planners a chance to practically apply the skills they gained throughout the course.
Judging from the learners’ feedback, the academy was a great success, and we plan to run it twice a year going forward. Below are some insights from the delegates: “A wealth of knowledge was shared, and best practices across chains were discussed. Having a network to engage with and the group size was perfect. Activities and examples were relevant to the topic.” “It was good to get exposed to the expectations of a planner, to learn about best practice and how other teams work in the landscape.” “Great vibe and atmosphere.” “I have gained extra knowledge in terms of how to look at my business going forward and how I am going to approach business challenges.” “It was very informative and made me think outside the box and understand the calculations behind everything.” “The wealth of knowledge and insight, particularly John Fraser’s lecture, was brilliant.”
OWN THE LOOK 6