Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
epresent and promote South African-designed content), for whom this agreement should<br />
be little short of life-saving. To date, the Cape Town Fashion Council has also remained<br />
silent.<br />
In a letter to the media written by this author (see Appendix 1) it was argued that the<br />
implementation of the quota restrictions could be beneficial to South African independent<br />
fashion designers if they, and the various bodies set up to support them, worked<br />
collectively to promote local content to South African consumers.<br />
4.6 The Retail Sector in South Africa<br />
The major retail companies dominating the South African apparel retail market are: Edcon;<br />
Mr Price; Foschini Group; Truworths and Woolworths (Wooltru). All of these retailers have<br />
taken advantage of globalisation and the changing face of production; retail buyers can<br />
now source their products from various foreign companies, or establish factories in<br />
favourable low labour-cost countries, which has resulted in the commodity chains being<br />
buyer-driven (Doel, 1996 as cited by Kenny, 2003:171; Gereffi, 1999). The development of<br />
such buyer-driven chains has a substantial link to the concept of fair trade, which submits<br />
that workers in the developing world are being exploited by the buyer-driven international<br />
corporations in a persistent search for cheaper production and labour costs in order to<br />
procure higher profit margins (Sengenberger and Campbell, 1994, cited in Barrientos,<br />
1999:8 and Starr, 2000:17).<br />
Surveying the value chain from manufacture to retailing, and exploring the growth of retail<br />
sales and profits reflected by Statistics South Africa, the indications are that sales in<br />
garments have grown significantly during the past years, while production volume has<br />
declined, compounded by employment losses within the industry (The Shop Steward,<br />
2005).<br />
Analysis of these retailers’ Annual Reports for the years 2002 – 2004 and of the 2005 annual<br />
results for Edcon, Mr Price and Foschini Group (Figure Three) shows that these companies<br />
made a combined profit of R8.3 billion before tax (The Shop Steward, 2005). The following<br />
table reflects these companies’ rapid growth in profits:<br />
41
Change language