{"id":817293,"date":"2025-03-18T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=817293"},"modified":"2025-03-18T15:54:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T13:54:53","slug":"crime-forces-major-south-african-company-to-shut-down-stores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/817293\/crime-forces-major-south-african-company-to-shut-down-stores\/","title":{"rendered":"Crime forces major South African company to shut down stores"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Crime in South Africa costs businesses billions of rands annually, and it’s reached the point where some are having to relocate or even close stores as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was highlighted in Italtile’s results for the six months ending December 2024, which noted the challenges operating in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Italtile is a South African manufacturer, franchisor and retailer of tiles, bathroomware and other complementary home-finishing products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group’s retail brands are CTM, Italtile Retail and TopT, represented through a total network of 211 stores, including seven online stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the challenges the manufacturer faces is the rising cost of combating escalating crime in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Ensuring that our customers, staff, and stores are secure is a primary concern for management and a growing expense for the business,” the company said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As criminal behaviour and illegal activities flourish, we are continuously committing significant effort and investment to bolster our security ecosystem.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Italtile added that as a result, in extreme cases, it has had to relocate or even close stores in unsafe areas over the reporting period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Italtile is one of many businesses battling crime in South Africa. The World Bank and commercial insurers have highlighted the increasing risk of businesses to crime in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World Bank estimates that crime costs the South African economy at least 10% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is lost through stolen property, protection costs through increased security and insurance, and missed economic opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, it is estimated that one in eight businesses in South Africa has fallen victim to some form of crime, most of which resulted in financial losses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rise in crime in certain areas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Data from the South African Police Service (SAPS) shows a concerning number of crimes in certain categories, including those committed at business and commercial premises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the latest crime statistics, 12,412 robberies and thefts at commercial premises occurred in the last three months of 2024, equating to 138 incidents per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These trends are most pronounced in provinces with larger shopping centres, such as Gauteng, the Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal. Gauteng leads in commercial crime cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allianz Commercial, a business insurance company, also highlighted last year that it witnessed an increase in commercial crime claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This increase is evident across all the sectors that we insure and without a doubt tells us that any business, regardless of the industry within which it operates, may fall victim to a crime of this nature,” it said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other challenges Italtile highlighted are the regulatory hurdles and the tough competitive environment for local manufacturers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“South Africa is viewed as a difficult and unsupportive location for the manufacturing sector, undermining its confidence in and contribution to the local economy,” it said <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In contrast, many of our neighbouring countries offer attractive investor-friendly environments and incentives for manufacturers, which has encouraged the recent spate of new investment by large global Chinese tile producers across our borders.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Italtile added that these companies are not governed by the regulatory framework South African companies are subject to, including extensive labour-related and environmental taxes and costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, while SADC-manufactured exports to South Africa are exempt from import duties and tariffs, some SADC countries with tile production facilities have implemented excise duties to protect their local producers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is incumbent on the government to consider the impact of this uneven playing field for South African manufacturers.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the reporting period, Italtile\u2019s revenue stayed flat, decreasing by a modest 0.33% to R4.78 billion, while the company\u2019s cost of sales also remained largely unchanged at R2.82 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, its profit for the six-month period grew by 4% to R866 million, and its earnings per share increased by 5% to 70.6 cents per share.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crime in South Africa costs businesses billions of rands annually, and it’s forcing some to close or relocate stores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":817358,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[22052,21906,853,17501,22053],"class_list":["post-817293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-allianz-commercial-2","tag-italtile","tag-south-africa","tag-the-south-african-police-service-saps","tag-the-world-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817293"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":817505,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817293\/revisions\/817505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}