Edgars is a

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

-based chain of stores present all over

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

. The

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

was previously selling clothing, shoes, homeware & beauty and under new leadership has recently shifted its focus to mass-market fashion and beauty products. The chain had just around 200 stores, with multiple locations in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

and

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

as well as in the capital cities of

eSwatini Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where i ...

(Swaziland),

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

, and

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

when it was sold to

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

based, private fashion company Retailability in 2020.

History

Edgars was founded in

in 1929. Its was named after London based Swan and Edgar. Eli Ross opened his first Edgars store in Joubert Street. It relocated to

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

in 1929 before returning to Eloff Street, Johannesburg in 1937, now owned by Sydney Press. 1979 saw the company open its new head office called Edgardale and a distribution centre at Crown Mines.

South African Breweries South African Breweries (officially The South African Breweries Limited, informally SAB) is a major brewery headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa and was a wholly owned subsidiary of SABMiller until its interests were sold to Anheuser-Bu ...

would purchase Edcon in 1982. As part of Edcon, Edgars was included in an ill-fated buyout by U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital Private Equity LP in 2007, which burdened the parent company with debt just as the economy suffered from the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

after the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

. In 2014 Edgars opened at a new 50,000 square meter shopping centre in

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. In 2018 Edgars introduced a new, larger 8,000 square meter store in

Fourways Mall Fourways Mall is a large shopping mall in South Africa located in the Fourways area of Sandton, in suburban Johannesburg. It is the largest shopping mall in South Africa by floorspace, with a total of 178,000 square meters. Originally constructed ...

in Johannesburg, featuring trees, play areas, a coffee shop, “beauty rooms” where customers can get makeovers, and a section that allows customers to print their own text or images on clothing. Edgars promoted the new prototype store design as "a bit like a town square, a multi-sensory, tree-lined central social space". In January 2020 it announced it would close its 6,000 square meter store in the upscale Rosebank Mall in Johannesburg suburb Rosebank. In June 2020 Edcon put the chain up for sale due to economic difficulties stemming from the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. 7 July 2020 it was announced that Edcon has signed an agreement to sell the chain to

-based Retailability, which operates 460 stores across Southern Africa and is the owner of brands Legit, which Edcon had sold to Retailability four years prior, Beaver Canoe, and Style. Retailability acquired 130 of 194 Edgars stores. In September of the same year, the company under the new leadership announced to be repositioning Edgars as a mass market brand focused on fashion and beauty products, shifting from its previous homeware portfolio.

Corporate affairs

Organizational structure

Edgars Stores Limited is a separate company operating the businesses in Zimbabwe: Edgars and Jet department stores, as well as Edgars Financial Services and Carousel, its

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; ) is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council claimed it to be about ...

-based manufacturing arm.

In Zimbabwe

Edgars entered the

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing British Crown colony in Southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally known as South ...

(now

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

) market in 1946. It was listed on the Southern Rhodesian Stock Exchange, now the

Zimbabwe Stock Exchange The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, or ZSE, is the official stock exchange of Zimbabwe. Its history dates back to 1896 but has only been open to foreign investment since 1993. The exchange has about a dozen members, and currently lists 63 equities. The ...

in 1974. in 2011 it opened a new store in Joina Centre mall in

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

. A store opened in Kadoma in 2019. There are four Edgars-branded stores in

: ZB Centre, Westgate Shopping Centre, and Sam Levy Village in

Borrowdale Borrowdale is a valley and civil parish in the English Lake District in Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland, England. It is in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, and is sometimes referred to as ''Cumberland Borrowdale'' to distinguis ...

, Robert Mugabe at Angwa, as well as a store in

Masvingo Masvingo, known as Fort Victoria during the colonial period, is a city in southeastern Zimbabwe and the capital of Masvingo Province. The city lies close to Great Zimbabwe, the national monument from which the country takes its name and clos ...

. In 2023, the store left the

and listed on the Victoria Falls Exchange.

References

External links

Official website"What do future department stores look like? The big question that underpins the new Edgars' Fourways store design", "Retail Design", Design Partnership website
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118182355/https://www.dp-group.com/edgars-department-store/ , date=2022-01-18 Department stores of South Africa Retailing in Zimbabwe Retailing in Ghana Retailing in Namibia Economy of Lesotho Economy of Eswatini 1929 establishments in South Africa