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TRUWORTHS

RETAIL
PRESENCE
Truworths has continued to expand trading space, introduce new store concepts, maximise space productivity and invest in its digital commerce infrastructure.
Retail trading space increased by 0.9% with the opening of a net seven stores, extending the store footprint to 802 stores. Truworths invested R236 million (2023: R300 million) in new store development and renovations, bringing the total invested in stores over the past five years to almost R1.2 billion.

802
stores
at period-end
(2023: 795 stores)
20 new
stores
opened across all brands
(2023: 24 stores)
18 stores expanded, converted, consolidated or relocated
0.9% increase in retail trading space
Truworths Emporium Re‑imagined store concept successfully launched

EXPANDING STORE PRESENCE
Twenty new stores were opened across all brands during the year. These include Truworths Emporium (four), Identity (four), Office London (three), and one new store each for Truworths Man and Truworths Kids Emporium. Additionally, seven new Sync stores were opened.
A further 18 stores were expanded, consolidated, converted or relocated. Changes to the existing store footprint usually result in a reconfiguration of the brands within the store, and a decision on including new brands or removing those that are no longer relevant. This analysis considers consumer preferences and purchasing behaviours of customers within the vicinity of these stores and stores are designed accordingly.
Thirteen underperforming stores were closed, including nine smaller-format stand-alone stores where the brands were incorporated into adjacent Truworths stores.
The store presence of the most recently launched brands continues to expand, with Fuel growing to 52 (including seven stand-alone stores), Sync growing to 26 stand-alone stores and Context growing to 18 (including one stand-alone store).
Kidswear remains a strategic growth opportunity. Truworths currently has 132 Kids Emporiums housing the LTD Kids, Earthchild and Naartjie brands, including eight stand-alone Kids Emporium stores. ID Kids, the boys' and girls' wear brand launched within Identity five years ago, is now incorporated in 94% of Identity's 254 stores.
The store footprint in the rest of Africa increased to 33, with the opening of new Truworths and Identity stores in Maun, Botswana. All the stores are located in southern Africa, being Namibia (12), Botswana (12), eSwatini (five), Zambia (two) and Lesotho (two).
Refer to Material Issues, risks and opportunities for more detail.
GROWING ONLINE BUSINESS
E-commerce sales grew by 34%, accounting for 4.9% of total retail sales (2023: 3.5%).
All Truworths products and brands are available on the Truworths, Office London, Loads of Living and Identity e-commerce sites. Customers are able to shop with a single basket across the three Truworths sites (Truworths, Office London and Loads of Living). Together with the extensive Truworths store footprint, this creates an engaging omni-channel experience for customers to shop effortlessly in-store and on digital devices.
The YDE e-commerce site was relaunched on the Truworths platform during the period, with YDE customers now able to shop online with their accounts.
REDUCED IMPACT OF LOAD SHEDDING
While the trading and financial impact of South Africa's electricity crisis was significantly less than the previous financial period, mainly due to a reprieve from load shedding for the entire fourth quarter, electricity outages continued to affect customer trading patterns and store operations, and increased operating costs.
The Group spent approximately R28 million during the reporting period to mitigate the impact of load shedding across its South African stores. This included the installation of additional inverters, generator charges from landlords, maintenance and servicing costs of generators, and investment in uninterruptible power supply devices to avoid trading downtime during load shedding. Total expenditure on alternative power over the past three years has been R50 million. At period-end, 92% of retail sales in South Africa were covered by alternative power sources. The remaining stores either do not experience load shedding or have adequate natural and artificial lighting to be able to trade offline.
DEFINING THE FASHION COURT
Truworths aims to be positioned in the centre of the fashion court in all leading malls and recognised as one of the fashion anchor tenants. This 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, exclusive brands and internationally styled merchandise position Truworths as an appealing and aspirational destination for quality fashion apparel. Creative merchandise displays in wide window frontages showcase the latest fashion trends and are designed to entice customers into stores.
MULTIPLE STORE FORMATS
Truworths Emporium stores
Truworths' 353 emporium stores house a portfolio of exclusive, market-leading brands. The store format encourages customers to cross-shop between the mainstream areas such as Truworths, Truworths Man and the speciality brands Uzzi, Daniel Hechter, LTD, Earthaddict, LTD Kids, Earthchild and Naartjie. These brands, together with their sub-brands, retain their unique identity and ensure variety and a multiple lifestyle offering within the emporium.
The brands featured 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.
Emporium stores are located in central positions in shopping malls and generally have three to five entrances, with maximum usage of shop frontage and windows showcasing the wide range of brands and merchandise.
Stand-alone only stores
Identity, Sync, and Young Designers Emporium (YDE) operate from stand-alone stores and are not incorporated in emporium stores as they generally target a different customer profile to Truworths' shoppers. Office London also trades from stand-alone stores due to its positioning with the third-party footwear brands it sells.
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.
Sync targets the value segment of the fashion market with an aspirational offering for young men and women, with good quality at competitive prices in a vibrant, energetic store environment.
YDE showcases the fashion of both well-established and 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 is the South African offering of the Group's UK fashion footwear brand Office. The brand operates in stand-alone stores in central positions in shopping malls, often adjacent to the Truworths Emporium. Stores are modern, light and energetic, and are located in the top retail locations in South Africa. The brand has increased its presence to 22 stores, with seven stores offering apparel ranges in addition to footwear.
Truworths Emporium Re-imagined
The next-generation store design concept, the Truworths Emporium Re-imagined, was launched with the reopening of the remodelled store at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town early in the reporting period. The design concept was implemented in emporium stores in a further three high-profile shopping malls during the period and in Cavendish Square in Cape Town shortly after period-end. Customer response has been positive and these stores have all reported an encouraging uplift in sales following the implementation of the new store design format.
The Emporium Re-imagined concept comprises a borderless interior where the brands are displayed in one connected space which is light, bright and engaging. Wide open entrances allow for ease of shopping across brands, with highly impactful visual merchandise displays which are constantly changed.
Refer to Market-leading brand portfolio for detail on the brands included in each of the emporium formats.
RETAIL PRESENCE IN 2025
Trading space is expected to increase by approximately 1% in the 2025 financial period with continued new store openings and renovations, as well as consolidation of trading space to improve trading densities and the closure of underperforming stores.
Capital investment of R243 million has been committed to store development for the 2025 financial period.
Stores will be opened in several new mall developments across the country in the year ahead, with many of these locations reflecting the geographically dispersed nature of the store base.
Based on the success of the new concept, the flagship Truworths Emporium Re-imagined design will be extended to at least five further large‑format stores across the country. New store design concepts are being developed for Identity and YDE to be introduced in the new financial year.
