TFG’s Bash is booming in South Africa

The Foschini Group (TFG)’s online shopping platform Bash is expected to break even ahead of schedule.

In its annual financial results for the year ended 31 March 2024, the group said that it continued demonstrating its operating strength despite macroeconomic headwinds in all territories.

“I am pleased that the Group was able to deliver a very strong performance in another challenging year,” said CEO Anthony Thunström.

“Through our aggressive growth of revenue, at the expense of our competitors, and the effective management of costs, we have delivered compelling positive operating leverage.”

“In many cases, revenues, margins, gross profit and EBIT have been at record levels in Rand terms across all of our territories, demonstrating the strength of our diversified business.”

TFG Africa’s retail turnover grew by 10.4%, driven mainly by clothing, with a strong performance in Sport and Womenswear, as well as Homeware.

With continued investment in Bash, online retail turnover grew by 44.4% and now contributes 4.2% to retail turnover.

amidst Bash’s strong performance, Thunström said that the breakeven point for the e-commerce platform has been brought forward.

“Bash is now the number one South African fashion and lifestyle app and saw a 45% increase in first-time shoppers.”

“Significantly, full price sales increased 63%, and multiband sales increased 83%, demonstrating the cross-shop opportunity and power of a single platform for customers to shop the group’s much-loved brands.”

TFG Africa saw a record gross profit of R16.1 billion and record EBIT performance, increasing 24.9% to R4.2 billion.

Thunström added that TFG Africa delivered year-long market share gains across all of its key categories.

“In a low growth environment, this ability to continue to grow at the expense of competitors is critically important and speaks to the strength of TFG’s unique retail ecosystem.”

TFG London continued experiencing elevated inflation and interest rates, which put the UK consumer under pressure. However, it still increased its retail turnover by 10.4% to R7.6 billion (in rand terms).

Gross profit margins were maintained at a record level of 62,1% via careful inventory management and an increase in own-channel mix, delivering a record gross profit of R4.7 billion.

TFG Australia also experienced higher inflation and interest rates following a strong post-COVID-19 recovery performance. Revenue increased by 0.2% to R9.4 billion (in rand terms).

Overall, headline earnings increased by 0.8% to R3.1 billion.

The group thus declared a 33.33% to 200 cents per share.

Outlook

“The Group has purposefully strengthened its balance sheet and, given the ongoing tough consumer environment, we see significant opportunity to build out our investment and brands, particularly in the value segment,” said Thunström.

“We will also seek out strategic adjacencies and high-quality acquisitions to bolster our retail portfolio. We are confident in our strategy and are keenly focussed on its execution to capture additional market share from competitors and continue to deliver profitable growth.”

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