Dear Friends
Most retailers in South Africa have a Edgars / Edcon story, Edcon has been the retail training ground for Southern African retail for many many years. You will remember places like Broederstroom and the Edcon Retail Academy. Just look at any South African Retailers CV and you will see JMDP (Junior Management Development Program), Conflict Management and the list goes on. My CV is filled with them and those training’s got me into my MBA program at NMMU with RPL at the age of 40 🙂
The history books are being written as we speak with Edcon un-bundling, Jet going to Foshini in Cape Town and Edgars going to Retailability in Durban. As part of this process hundreds of stores are being closed around the country with thousands of jobs being lost. In the current economic climate this is understandable but still very sand. Seeing the retail giant of the past taking a new shape. One could say this is basic economics – supply and demand. Wishing all those out of work all the best.
My story starts in 1994, I was unsuccessful applying at Edgars but got into Jet in East London as Trainee manager. Len Malinson was my first boss at Edcon. I moved a lot from there so stay with me. Six months later to King Williams Town as Assistant manager, Back to East London as Supervisor working for Clint Hardiman (rest his sole). My first store manager job was Queenstown (my home town) where I worked for Andre van der Berg. In late 1996 I was promoted to my first Edgars store, Edgars Knysna. From there I managed Stellenbosch, Upington, Rustenburg and Pietersburg Region (1997-2001). In these years I worked for late Pieter Bruwer, Marius Bender, Leon van Heerden and Theo Swart. All amazing retailers who loved Edgars.
I left Edgars for 2 years to rejoin in East Gate with Rob Scott and Johan van Belkum. We opened second floor of V&A Waterfront between 2004 – 2007 adding killer Cosmetic shop, Leadership was Van Niekerk, Wood and Fowler (now closing down, what a legacy that store has). I left to Woolworths for 7 years rejoining Edgars for 3de time in 2014 as Area Manager for Eastern Cape. Worked as Regional in Gauteng, Managed Edgars Four-ways and then opened Edgars Mall of Africa. MOA was the best time ever, the store made money from day one and was ranked no.4 when I left for short stint as Trade Manager for Edgars Africa.
Looking back over the 14 years broken service with Edcon there were good and bad times, good and bad leaders but more important lasting friendships and relationships that have stood the test of time. My daughter hates walking in malls with me as we all know each other. Working in Saudi for the past 2 years my colleagues were ex Edcon, Randomly stopping in Montana today I bumped into Romy, we go back 25 years. Some of the most inspirational people I know, have worked with me at Edcon, Terry-Lee, Sudesh, Emannual, Gigi, Sandy and the list goes on. Thanks Edcon for shaping and grounding me.
Wishing the Edcon people all the best no matter if you staying or going. Thanks for your friendships.
Yours in Retail
Charles
Recent Comments