New big player on retail scene

The first in what promises to be a new major player in the South African sport & leisure retail scene recently started trading in the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, although the official opening is only in March.

This classy Lillywhites store with its exclusive fittings (sourced with care and taste at a cost of about a million each) is nothing like its UK namesake, Leonard Erlank, MD of owner Retailcorp SA, store PR and jewellery designer Melanie Miotti and store manager Waheeda Pansari are at pains to emphasise.

Instead of the ‘stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap’ image, this is more in line with Harrods, where the off-spring of the polo and pearl set will enjoy the luxury of winding their way along 1 250 sqm of floorspace along shop-in-shop grouping and branding of exclusive product offering from international lifestyle names.

This is also the vehicle for introducing their own 14 well-known international brands like Lonsdale, No Fear, Voodoo Dolls and Antigua into South Africa with a splash.

The first of five Lillywhites planned in South Africa for this year (ten in total) will compliment Retailcorps’ 27 Sports Direct stores planned for the next two years. Including brand concept stores, they could open as many as 200 stores in South Africa within the next five years – but that would depend on the market, says Erlank.

While Lillywhites is more aimed at the mall lifestyle shopper – with top end technology concentrated in the boot room and golf section - Sports Direct will concentrate on volume driven sales of technical performance product, whether in malls or value marts. The first Sports Direct store is due to open in the new Zevenwacht mall in June.

Retailcorp, who develops, leases and stocks shopping malls, recently bought the V&A Waterfront – and are looking at other SA properties. They are owned by Nakheel (developers of the unique palm and The World islands in the bay of Dubai). They are part of the Dubai World Group (the world’s 4th largest company), in turned owned by the Dubai Government.