The Foschini Group (TFG) has officially bought 382 stores of the Jet business from Edcon.
In July the group entered into an agreement to buy certain commercially viable stores and selected assets of Jet, a clothing retail division of embattled Edcon, for a cash purchase consideration of R480 million.
On Friday, the group announced that the sale has been successful, and it will take on 4 800 of the Jet stores’ staff.
TFG has 29 retail brands that trade in clothing, footwear, jewellery, sportswear, homeware, cellphones, and technology products, from value to upper market segments, in more than 4 085 outlets across 32 countries.
Group Chief Executive Officer Anthony Thunström says that 2020 has been a year of profound global change, as the Covid-19 pandemic created unprecedented uncertainty and placed tremendous strain on communities and businesses.
He says this purchase represents much more than just an unprecedented business opportunity to help further bolster TFG’s continued growth, as it secures the jobs of the workers.
“Our strategic focus is on driving sustainable economic growth through successful businesses and investment in retail, local manufacturing and digital transformation, as well as skills development in Southern Africa. Jet ticks every one of these boxes – it is a great brand, it will support further localisation of supply chains and the business will be able to benefit from TFG’s advances in digital transformation,” Thunström says.
The group had initially anticipated acquiring approximately 371 Jet stores in five countries, but it will now take on close to 425 stores in total.
TFG’s acquisition in South Africa includes:
- The Jet brand;
- Tenure over 382 Jet stores,
- The acquisition of the associated property, plant and equipment for the agreed Jet Stores and the Durban distribution centre;
- The rights in and to the Jet Club magazine;
- All existing stock holdings;
- The transfer of selected key executives and approximately 4 800 staff of Jet.
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This is good news. 4800 jobs are saved. I hope it works out well.
25
maybe in the short term. But in the long run…efficiency means cutting jobs.
They definitely bought the footprint, which may be way more cheaper than a new setup.
11
That is an excellent deal at R100,000.00 per employee.
To start a comparatively size business one would consider the cost at R500,000.00 per employee it would have have cost R2.4 Billion
Unfortunately given the state of South Africa economy, it’s going to be a tough.
8
Always more staff than customers and so bloody loud !!
3
i agree would have been a good idea to trim more staff with a warning to cut more – SA workers useless and demanding
Thank you to TFG for saving those work opportunities for the country.
Every business that remains open will assist the rebuilding of the economy.
5
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