COMPETITORS

1.Jo Borkett

2.Mango

3.Jenni Button

4.Marion and Lindie

JO BORKETT

JO BORKETT is lifestyle career driven, for successful women, who seek current fashion trends and good quality classical pieces, in order to build an investment wardrobe.
Classical design and quality product, for those who believe in making a lasting impression. “Classics are always in fashion”

Interview with Jo Borkett

  • Turnover

Approximately R1.2 m per store per month

  • Gross profit

45%

  • Growth rate

25% per annum year on year

  • Discussion on the Value Chain

Primary

Jo Borkett buys fabric every 6 weeks in the East. Patterns are primarily designed in South Africa based on latest fashion trends identified in London and Paris.

Some of the designs are made in the East whilst certain items are also made in South Africa.

She distributes the items from a central warehouse in Johannesburg.

Marketing is primarily done nationally in fashion magazines.

Secondary

She currently employs one store manager as well as a number of sales assistants depending on the store size.

  • Expansion strategy

Jo Borkett currently has two stores, in Sandton and Rose Bank respectively. A third store will open in the Waterfront in October.

She aims to keep the company relatively small and have a maximum of a further five stores in the pipe line for South Africa.

  • On-line shopping

She believes that online shopping for fashion clothing items will be big in South Africa in a couple of years. However, she does not envisage the brand to be first to market with on-line shopping.

  • Competition

She lists the competitors as primarily being Mango, Jenni Button and Marion and Lindie.

She believes that she differentiates from competitors with the excellent quality fun clothing at affordable prices.

  • Areas for improvement

-To finalise and perfect the shop fitting of her new store in Sandton.

-To improve the website of the company and customer data base.

-To expand on online customer service.

MANGO

Our concept is what marks us out. The MANGO concept springs from the alliance between a product of our own design, quality, and a brand image which is both coherent and unified. Dressing the urban and modern woman, meeting her daily needs, is the formula which we have analysed, adapted and applied to each country we operate in: this has been, and continues to be, one of the keys to our commercial success and our international prestige.
MANGO finalised a logistics system stamped with its own personality, acquiring
and adapting the latest technology, making it possible to classify and distribute
30,000 garments an hour. In order to achieve a full implementation of its system,
MANGO decided to establish a sale-or-return system with its franchisees.
The SLM (MANGO LOGISTICS SYSTEM) is based on speed, information and
technology. Its aim is to ensure that each sales outlet (over 950 shops around the world
at the end of 2006) has, at any given moment, the stock it requires to meet turnaround
speed and sales forecasts. We guarantee continual renewal of merchandise, and
production at the pace set by market demands, not only in variety but also in volume.

Mango opens its first store in SA - The new store will open in Johannesburg in October

Barcelona, 24th August 2006 –

MANGO, Spain’s most international fashionbrand, is to open its first store in Johannesburg, as part of the expansionplans the firm announced at the beginning of summer. The first of severalstores will be a 450m2 MANGO flagship store located on the ground level ofSandtonCity, one of the most prestigious shopping malls in the city. Thestore, which will open to the public in October ‘06, will feature Hollywood A-list

star Milla Jovovich as the image for its campaign.

The actress and model of Ukrainian origin perfectly reflects the image of the

woman that MANGO wishes to dress: a very modern urban woman, with

personality and self-confidence. The store will house the latest MANGO

collection, offering accessible style and a variety of trendy choices to dress

the fashion forward woman at any occasion of the day.

Isak Halfon, Director of the MANGO Expansion Department, said: Opening in

South Africa is a very positive step forward for the brand. South Africa is a

growing market with lots of future possibilities on fashion.

MANGO, which currently has more than 920 stores in 84 countries, continues

to grow in both the domestic and the international market. The Spanish

company, which witnessed 8% growth over the previous year, closed 2005

with a total turnover of 1.144 billion euros, 75% of which corresponded to

sales on international markets. During 2005 the company opened 118 stores,

and now plans to exceed these results during 2006.

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