South African retailers would have to increasingly look for growth outside South Africa if they did not want their margins eroded in an ever more competitive environment where “dog eats dog”, Christo Wiese, the chairman of listed retail group Pepkor, said last week.
The logical answer on where to go was elsewhere in Africa, he told an SA Council of Shopping Centres congress. Wiese said low and negative inflation posed a massive challenge to retailers, because it made it easy to show strong turnover growth and at the same time conceal whatever shortcomings lurked in the business.He said the potential to increase the number of up-market regional shopping centres beyond the present figure in South Africa was limited, adding that the country did not have sufficient growth in the number of higher-income consumers to sustain many more of them.-Business ReportWiese said low and negative inflation posed a massive challenge to retailers, because it made it easy to show strong turnover growth and at the same time conceal whatever shortcomings lurked in the business.He said the potential to increase the number of up-market regional shopping centres beyond the present figure in South Africa was limited, adding that the country did not have sufficient growth in the number of higher-income consumers to sustain many more of them.-Business Report
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