Edcon to partner with Western Cape clothiers

13 Apr '06

3 min read

Christelis denied that Edcon imported most of its clothing from the Far East, saying more than half of clothing it sold was manufactured in South Africa. However, she did accept that Edcon's strategy of pooling its significant buying power in order to achieve attractive buying prices in the East was one of the significant reasons for the company's financial success.

Truworths and Woolworths say they buy more local than imported clothing, with Truworths arguing that as a fashion retailer, it changes its lines too often in order for it to buy more from the East.

Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union general secretary Ebrahim Patel said the local industry needed to exploit the location advantage it had by improving supply chain efficiencies.

Meanwhile, Levi Strauss human resources director Winston Pratt has said his company's local manufacturing improvement in efficiency and quality was due to a combination of investment in technology and people. The investment in people included an incentive scheme signed with workers.

Patel said the industry had lost 61 000 jobs over the past three years. Current employment stood at about 200 000.

Edgars Consolidated Stores Ltd (Edcon) is the leading clothing, footwear and textiles (CFT) retailing group in South Africa trading through a range of retail formats.

Edcon is South Africa's largest clothing retailer by sales. Most of company trade is apparel and footwear but we also sell cosmetics, books, stationery, home fashions and general merchandise.

Edgars Consolidated Stores

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