PHILLIMON MHLANGA
The new CEO of Edgars Stores Limited, Savious Mushosho, isn’t one to dodge the tough questions.
When asked in an interview on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of Edgars’ newest location at Ascot shopping centre in Bulawayo , why Edgars was expanding at a time other apparel retailers were closing multiple locations due to the detrimental effects of the surplus of second hand clothing flooding the market, Mushosho told Business Times: “ As far as we are concerned, that (second hand clothing) is not our market, we believe that our customer deserves clothing, decent space to shop and good environment. All of our clothes are original. We sell original, high quality garments and our prices are not that bad.
“We are trying to make everything affordable, to make our customers buy clothes from us, high quality clothes from us. Apart from our own brands, we are bringing world class brands, creating convenience for our own people in this country.
“We believe we have a business case because in the whole country we have decent shops, garments and so forth.
“So, we believe we have got the capacity. We believe we can produce world class garments and we can create a shopping experience that one can find anywhere else in the world,” Mushosho said.
In addition, he declares with buoyancy that Edgars was back.
“We are back, the Edgars you used to know are back, it’s coming back better and bigger,” Mushosho told Business Times.
He added: “You see what we have done here in Ascot, it’s better than even Sandton (in South Africa). It’s just as good as Dubai, as Singapore, just as good as any. So, we are back. We are taking our customers more seriously than ever before.
So, as Edgars, we believe that formal retail and fashion is not dead. It’s alive and we are prepared to be very agile, very innovative remain relevant to our customers and play our part in this economy.“
According to Mushosho , Edgars intends to procure machinery worth US$1m for the clothing retailer to be able to manufacture clothing for the Zimbabwe market that is comparable in quality to that of European apparel.
Edgars is also exploring exporting clothing to the South African market, according to Mushosho.
“We are trying to learn more from the world. So, our designers sit and follow international trends . We believe we have the capacity to do that.
“So, what we saw in Europe is that there is some modern fabrics, something we can adopt and bring to Zimbabwe. We have identified some fabrics there (in Europe). So, we are bringing machines that can also do that. So, we are procuring machines worth US$1m dollars to be able to produce the same for our market here. And to also export into South Africa.
So, that was very important for us to get that exposure.”
Although it was considered a “controversial” move to relocate Edgars headquarters from Bulawayo to Harare, Mushosho didn’t shy away when Business Times brought up the issue.
He said the measure was part of a larger push to remodel its business to take advantage of new prospects and concentrate on cost conservation in order to guarantee the company’s long-term stability as the group looks to grow geographically.
“Look, most of our stores are in the northern region or in Harare. So, 65% of our sales are coming from Harare. More than 75% of sales are coming from Harare and satellite towns and Bulawayo make 25% of sales, which was not making sense for management. “Apart from that, competition is intense in Harare. All key stakeholders , such as banks, ZIMRA, among many others, are in Harare. Engaging key stakeholders in Harare increases the speed of decision making. It has also allowed us to execute decisions better and faster.
“So, for us it was the obvious thing to do (to relocate head office to Harare). And we have taken competition by surprise.”
Rumour swirling in the market was that Edgars was seriously contemplating closing its factory in Bulawayo largely as a result of the deteriorating state of the economy.
But, Mushosho allayed the fears saying:
“There were never plans to close it (Edgars factory) but production had definitely gone down,” Mushosho told Business Times.
He added: “In fact, as we speak right now production has been up 5 folds. We used to produce between 4 000 -7000 units per month now we are producing between 35 000- 40000 per month, we are targeting to get to 100 00 units per month. And there will be a massive fabric production. So, our plan is that our production should supply 50% of what is in our stores. That will help us control our supply chain, control quality and so forth.
When asked why Edgars was opening a posh branch at Ascot, a quiet area, with low traffic, Mushosho responded,
“Edgars started in 1946, it started here in Bulawayo, so it fits that. Every progress that we make starts in Bulawayo. So, Bulawayo has never had its store out of town.
So when we wanted to add an upmarket store, Ascot was the obvious choice. We believe in space and free parking.
“When we started talking about Ascot, the interest has been quite huge. Most customers were complaining about clamping in town so, coming to Ascot, we realised that people were comfortable. You will find that the majority of our customers here in Bulawayo will come and shop here.
“We are not only targeting people in the suburbs but we are also targeting all including those in the high-density suburbs. People said they were getting tired of getting clamped in town. So, this is an obvious choice to bring a peaceful environment as some were going shopping in South Africa, but we are bringing that ambiance here.”
Mushosho also revealed that the company has set aside about US$1.5m for the purpose of expanding and renovating its outlets across the country.
“Yes absolutely. After this (opening of Ascot branch) we will be renovating all the stores across the country. We are opening six chain stores before June this year in Harare alone.
“The whole idea is to set the standard and replicate it across the country. We have put aside US$1.5m to renovate the stores.”
When asked what his current priorities were, Mushosho replied,
“Our strategy now is to grow our market share. So, our focus is to bring satisfaction to our customers. Our focus is to bring back old customers we lost some years ago. And our focus is to convince those customers to buy from our boutique and get credit for nine months. In the past we had grown our customers from 80 000 to 123 000 . We want to bring the old customers back.
“And the excitement in the market is just huge. So, it just tells you that there could be problems in the country but out there, people are hungry for good things, they are hungry for success. We are just providing that, including the experience of modern shopping and all that.”
