{"id":878699,"date":"2026-10-10T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=878699"},"modified":"2026-10-09T16:33:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T14:33:25","slug":"iconic-retailer-founded-by-two-brothers-is-making-a-comeback-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business-opinion\/878699\/iconic-retailer-founded-by-two-brothers-is-making-a-comeback-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic retailer founded by two brothers is making a comeback in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Edgars has recently undergone a revival after entering into voluntary business rescue, with plans to expand its footprint across South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edgars has been part of South Africa’s fashion scene since 1929, when it was founded by brothers Morris and Eli Ross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, the company struggled to stay afloat after being acquired by Bain Capital, an American private equity firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the acquisition, the business struggled with mounting debts and an increasingly competitive environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edgars ultimately entered voluntary business rescue in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic added to its growing list of challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African retailer was removed from business rescue later that year when the majority of its stores were acquired by Retailability, a Durban-based company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retailability spent years pursuing a turnaround at Edgars, eventually returning the brand to a strong position and planning for growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retailability CEO Norman Drieselmann spoke to BusinessDayTV<\/a> about the Edgars expansion project, which aims to add 50 stores to its South African footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said plans to grow the business had been successful so far, with all of its newly opened stores “hitting the business model targets we set.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The early indications are that we’ve got a model that customers are responding to,” he said. “They walk in, and it still feels like an Edgars store.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the strategy for new Edgars stores is to reduce their size to between 500 and 600 square metres to improve affordability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drieselmann said that, while the stores were now smaller, they still “had to feel like an Edgars” if the growth strategy was going to be successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The sales numbers are telling us that we’re ticking the boxes in terms of what customers are expecting,” he said. “The strategy is working nicely so far.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A competitive industry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While the clothing sector is a competitive market in South Africa, Drieselmann said Edgars is well positioned to gain market share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re in a fortunate position of being able to take market share across the board,” he said. “Our business is built on the back of fashion and beauty”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that Edgars was also a late entrant into e-commerce, giving it a chance to continue growing in this industry to catch up with its competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another area in which market Edgars is involved is the cellular industry, but Drieselmann said it is difficult to compete with some of the other companies in this sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Cellular is an interesting one for us, Drieselmann said. “It’s a massive game where you need a serious footprint.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s a commodity-led product, which is probably why the likes of Pepkor do so well based on their footprint and access to market.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that Pepkor’s position in the cellular market was impressive and that his business couldn’t compete with them in this area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I can’t compete with them on that, every now and then just stand back and say ‘well done chaps, you’re really good at this,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pepkor group, comprising businesses such as Pep and Ackermans, has a massive footprint in South Africa, with 6,657 stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group has a hand in the cellular market through the sale of physical devices and through FoneYam, which offers device rentals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its 2026 interim period, which ended on 31 March, FoneYam activated roughly 1.3 million accounts, bringing its client base to 2.4 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Pep stores, the group sold 4.9 million cellular devices, while Ackermans sold 1.6 million, both increasing from the prior period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pepkor group has increasingly sought to expand beyond traditional retail in recent years and has even received regulatory approval to provide banking services in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Edgars has recently undergone a revival after entering into voluntary business rescue, with plans to expand its footprint across South Africa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":853820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2108920759536001382","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2232611684225897","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4711,959,4076,18135],"class_list":["post-878699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-edgars","tag-pep","tag-pepkor","tag-retailability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878699","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878699"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":878914,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878699\/revisions\/878914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}