Tradehold Limited
Registration No. : 1970/009054/06
SHARE CODE : TDH
ISIN CODE : ZAE000026902
BROWN & JACKSON
At the annual general meeting of the Tradehold subsidiary, Brown & Jackson,
held in London today (15 November), the chairman, Dr Christo Wiese, made the
following statement:
The slight improvement in current trading we reported, when we announced our
preliminary results in August 2001, is continuing. However, trading
conditions remain challenging and much remains to be done. The total sales
growth for the first 19 weeks of the new financial year to 10h November is
8% while like-for-like sales were flat but nevertheless represent a
considerable improvement on the 10% decline for the same period we reported
last year. Margins remain under pressure due to relatively high markdowns
especially at What Everyone Wants (WEW) and The Famous Brunswick Warehouse
(TFBW). Management is focusing all its efforts on bringing performance in
line with that of other companies in the group.
The Board has decided to considerably strengthen the management team of the
group by appointing Mr Carel Stassen as executive vice-chairman. He will
take over from Mr Johan Visser the day-to-day responsibility for the group.
Under Mr Visser's leadership, Brown and Jackson experienced strong expansion
and sales have more than doubled. His knowledge and experience will not be
lost to the group as he will continue for at least 12 months to be
responsible for the Your More Store (YMS) and Poundstretcher chains. He
remains a director of the boards on which he serves.
Mr Carel Stassen was previously managing director of Pepkor, the controlling
shareholder of B&J until control of it passed to the South African based
Tradehold last year. Mr Stassen is well-known to the South African
investment community, and has extensive experience of the international
retail trade.
He has maintained first-hand knowledge of B&J since its acquisition by
Pepkor in 1994 and has lately worked closely with Mr Visser in respect of
WEW. Mr Stassen will continue on the board of Pepkor as a non-executive
director and will also join the board of Tradehold.
In a further move the Board is appointing Mr Daan Venter as managing
director of WEW, which operates 133 stores. Mr Venter, a seasoned retailer
and another senior executive from the Pepkor group, is a specialist in the
middle-income value market, with a proven track record as managing director
of the highly successful Ackermans chain that trades from 256 stores in
Southern Africa.
Francis Marra, currently group managing director responsible for WEW, is
appointed as managing director of Your More Store.
We will continue to implement our strategy of genuine discounting to meet
the needs of consumers with lower discretionary spending power. To this end
we are still expanding, and since the start of the new financial year on 1
July we have opened 15 stores and closed three. At the same time we have
further increased our focus on stock management and cost control.
We remain optimistic and look towards the future with confidence.
For further information contact:
Brown & Jackson Johan Visser, : chief executive 01355 249282
: Hennie Roelofse, finance director 01132
406406
Brunswick : William Cullum / Simon Sporborg 020 7404
5959
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