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Retail presence
—Truworths

Truworths has continued to follow its strategy of introducing new fashion brands, investing in digital commerce, utilising retail space productively and reducing excess trading space on expiry of leases. At the same time management has focused on improving the efficiency and productivity of the Group’s real estate portfolio by consolidating stores, rationalising trading space and closing under-performing stores.

Store footprint reduced to

793 stores

(2020: 794 stores)

26 new stores

opened across all brands (2020: 14 stores)

Successful launch of

Primark and Fuel brands

76 stores expanded, converted,
consolidated or closed

Reduction in total retail trading space

1.1%

Growth in e-commerce sales of

127%

Refer to Material issues, risks and opportunities for more detail.

Store trading patterns were impacted by changing customer shopping behaviour during the pandemic, with stores in small regional shopping malls and neighbourhood centres performing well as customers chose to shop closer to home and avoid high traffic areas. Stores in super-regional malls and city centres were impacted by the decline in foot traffic negatively affecting the performance of the largest stores in the portfolio. However, sales in large malls showed an improving growth trend in the last quarter of the reporting period.

COVID-19 protocols continue to be rigidly applied in all stores to ensure the safety of employees and customers. This includes the closure and cleaning of stores when positive COVID-19 cases are detected, social distancing requirements in queues, wearing of masks at all times and a limit on the number of customers permitted in stores. Trading hours in certain stores were restricted by curfew regulations.

Expanding kidswear offering

Store presence in South Africa

The launch of the Primark and Fuel brands (refer to Aspirational Fashion for further detail) accounted for 17 of the 24 stores opened across all brands in South Africa.

Eleven Primark stores were opened, with an average store size of approximately 100 m². Eight of these stores have been positioned within the footprint of Identity stores while three are stand-alone format stores.

Six stand-alone Fuel stores were opened during the launch phase of the brand, with Fuel also being included as a department in nine Truworths Emporium stores and in one Uzzi store.

New stores were also opened for Truworths Emporium (two), Truworths Man (two), Identity (three) and Office London (one).

A total of 25 under-performing stores were closed, including nine stores which were relocated within the same shopping malls. A further 49 stores were renovated and reprofiled, with certain of them being rightsized through either the expansion or reduction in trading space, while additional merchandise brands have been incorporated in other stores.

During the period Truworths invested R201 million (2020: R223 million) in new store development and renovations.

Space consolidation by several major retailers is placing pressure on landlords, providing an opportunity to negotiate lower escalations and in some instances rental reversions, or a combination of both.

Electricity load shedding continued to disrupt trade in the South African stores. Management continues to experiment with cost-effective alternative sources of power supply in all key stores. Currently about 50 top stores are linked to alternative power supplies.

Growing kidswear presence

Kidswear is a strategic growth opportunity for Truworths. Truworths currently has 87 Kids Emporiums within Truworths Emporium stores (2020: 74) housing the LTD Kids, Earthchild and Naartjie brands. In addition there are five stand-alone Kids Emporium stores. A new store design concept was developed and introduced in three Kids Emporium stores. ID Kids, the boys’ and girls’ wear brand within Identity, has been expanded to 117 stores nationally.

Growing kidswear presence

DEFINING THE FASHION COURT

Truworths always aims to trade from the best positions in fashion courts of all key shopping malls and to be recognised as the fashion anchor tenant. This positioning strategy also applies to stores on main streets and in towns where Truworths strives to be located at the heart of the fashion retail zone.

Enticing stores and internationally-styled merchandise position Truworths as an appealing destination for quality fashion apparel. Creative merchandise displays in wide window frontages showcase the latest fashion trends, and are designed to entice customers.

Store footprint in the rest of Africa

Following the opening of an Identity store in Botswana and the closure of two Identity stores in Namibia, the store base in the rest of Africa reduced to 35. The majority of the non-South African stores are located in the neighbouring countries of Namibia (13), Botswana (9), Eswatini (5) and Lesotho (2).

Multiple store formats

Truworths Emporium stores

Truworths’ 346 emporium stores house a portfolio of exclusive, market-leading brands. The store format encourages customers to cross-shop between the mainstream brands such as Truworths, Truworths Man, Uzzi, Daniel Hechter, LTD, Earthaddict, LTD Kids, Earthchild and Naartjie. These brands, together with their sub-brands, retain their unique identity and fashion styling within the emporium.

The brands available in each emporium depend on the size and location of the store. Following the expansion of the Truworths brand portfolio in recent years, four specialist emporiums are now offered within the greater emporium store: Truworths Ladieswear, Truworths Menswear, Truworths Ladieswear Designer and Truworths Kids Emporiums (refer 'to Market-leading Brand Portfolio for detail on the brands included in each of the emporium formats).

Emporium stores are located in central positions in shopping malls and generally have three to five entrances, with maximum shop frontage and windows showcasing the wide range of brands and merchandise.

Identity and YDE stores

Identity and Young Designers Emporium (YDE) operate from stand-alone stores and are not incorporated in emporium stores as they target a different customer profile to Truworths’ shoppers. There are 254 Identity stores and 19 YDE stores.

Identity appeals to the fashion-forward and value-conscious youth market, offering high fashion merchandise at affordable prices. Stores are vibrant, edgy and fun to appeal to younger customers.

YDE showcases the fashion of emerging South African designers and targets young, fashionable customers wanting designer labels and styling. The store design is a strong point of differentiation from competitors.

Office London stores

Office London, the South African offering of the Group’s UK fashion footwear brand, operates 17 stand-alone stores in central positions in shopping malls, often adjacent to the Truworths Emporium. The Office London stores are modern and energetic and are located in the top retail locations in South Africa.

Retail presence in 2022

Trading space is expected to be unchanged in the 2022 financial period with continued store consolidation and rationalisation of trading space and with a marginal increase expected in the store footprint. Store openings will focus mainly on three new Truworths Emporium stores and the expansion of the Primark brand, with R227 million committed to store development.

The Identity brand will be enhanced with the introduction of a large-format Identity Superstore which will be launched in the first half of the financial period.

The online offering will be extended with the launch of the Identity digital commerce platform early in the new financial period to grow sales in this younger customer segment and capitalise on the expansion of online shopping in South Africa.