JSE-listed Pepkor is pleased to announce the acquisition of Choice Clothing, a discount retailer with over 100 stores across South Africa and Namibia, which trades under the Choice Clothing and Big Daddy retail brands, respectively.
Choice Clothing provides quality fashion apparel at the lowest prices, with an adult-focused product offering.
Strengthening Pepkor’s customer reach
With Pepkor’s strong market share in babies and kids wear, the acquisition of Choice Clothing builds on its strategy to expand participation in adult wear, where the group’s market share is under-indexed.
Choice Clothing is positioned at the bottom-end of the discount market, a high growth segment that bridges the gap between the formal discount and informal markets. This acquisition is therefore highly complementary to Pepkor’s current expansive retail footprint and will further strengthen the group’s ability to reach customers in the formal and informal market with the absolute lowest prices.
The Choice Clothing business is scalable with expansion potential as it benefits from Pepkor’s scale and core competencies in merchandise, sourcing, supply chain, distribution and properties.
The transaction is subject to the fulfilment of conditions customary for a transaction of this nature, including the relevant regulatory approvals.
Sean Cardinaal, chief operating officer of Pepkor, said: “The acquisition of Choice Clothing represents an exciting opportunity for Pepkor to reach even more customers in the discount and informal space, enabling us to grow our share in the adult wear market. While the Choice business may be small in comparison to other Pepkor businesses, this is a business which we can grow aggressively by leveraging our scale and capability to potentially triple the retail footprint in the medium term.”
