Business

The man who copied the Royal Family to build a South African clothing empire

Kirsten Minnaar • 30 November 2025

Sydney Press took Edgars, a single clothing store in Cape Town, and transformed it into one of South Africa’s largest retailers.

Despite only being a teenager when he joined the business, Press managed to modernise and transform the entire retail industry in South Africa.

Sydney Arnold Press was born in Cape Town in 1919 as the third child of Philip Press and Annie Hoffman. The entrepreneurial spirit was deeply ingrained in his family, explained researcher Johanna Cathrina Dos Santos.

His great-grandmother ran a goat farming and exporting business in Lithuania, and his father opened and owned a hotel and farm in Klawer in the Western Cape on the border of Namaqualand.

This is where Press and his siblings grew up and attended school. The family later moved to Cape Town to give their children a better education.

While in Cape Town, Press attended the South African College School junior and high school from 1926 to 1935.

Unfortunately, the family soon fell on hard times. When they moved to Cape Town, Philip sold his Klawer hotel and used the proceeds to start speculating in wool and buy some houses in the city.

However, the Great Depression caused wool prices to plummet, which meant the family had to rely on other income.

Even though Philip tried to supplement their income, his health was deteriorating. This period was a turning point for young Press, who vowed to one day make his family secure.

Press showed tremendous talent at school, playing first team rugby, and being part of the athletics team. He wasn’t just gifted at sports, either.

Ten days before the school’s production of Shakespeare’s Richard II, the lead fell ill. Press decided to step in and woke up at 5:00 every morning to learn over 1,000 lines.

When Press graduated from high school, he did so with a first-class matric and was awarded a bursary to attend the University of Cape Town.

However, his older sister was already studying to become a medical doctor, and he didn’t want to strain the family’s finances even further.

So, instead of studying, 17-year-old Press decided to work for his uncle, Morris Ross, who had a fashion retail company, Edgars.

Edgars

Edgars was founded in 1929 by brothers Morris and Eli Ross, who opened the first store on Joubert Street in Johannesburg.

The name was inspired by Swan and Edgar, a famous London-based department store known for supplying silks to the Royal Family.

Eli is credited with introducing the innovative “six-months-to-pay” credit option during a spring sale, a pioneering move in South African retail at the time.

This essentially happened by accident at a shop the brothers owned before Edgars. They were trying to get rid of winter stock when a woman was interested in a suit.

Eli agreed to let her pay it off, and every month, the woman came back on time to pay 10 shillings. He realised then that they had stumbled upon a massive untapped market of working women.

These women wanted to be fashionable, but were earning meagre salaries and simply didn’t have the cash to buy items upfront.

So, when they started Edgars, they continued putting tickets on clothing advertising that pieces could be purchased for “10 shillings per month”. This credit scheme was interest-free and built entirely on trust.

This innovative concept was the fuel behind Edgars’ growth. However, it was Press, not the Ross brothers, who took the retailer to the next level.

In 1935, Edgars relocated to Cape Town, where Press joined the company as a temporary employee for the Christmas season. Eli was happy with his one Cape Town store, but Press wasn’t.

Even though he was still incredibly young, he recognised the store’s potential and became deeply involved and eventually took ownership.

Immediately, Press set his sights beyond Cape Town. Under his leadership, Edgars expanded rapidly, opening a second store on Eloff Street in Johannesburg in 1937.

It was an instant hit and quickly started outperforming the original Cape Town store. By the end of that same year, he had opened three more branches in the East Rand, in Germiston, Benoni and Springs.

By 1938, he had secured a partnership, and by 1942, he managed to negotiate Eli’s complete exit from the business, giving him 50% control. A 25% share was held by his brother, Hubert.

Although his father passed away in 1941, before the deal was finalised, Press had managed to uphold his vow of making the family secure.

Creating a retail empire

Press focused purely on expansion and strategy, while his brother handled all of the day-to-day operations of the business.

By 1946, Edgars was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), marking its transition into a major retail player.

Following the listing, Press moved to New York, where he lived for 7 years, from 1947 to 1954. During this time, he acted as a buyer for the company and learned more about modern retailing and manufacturing methods.

The company continued to expand geographically under Hubert’s leadership, opening its first store in Zimbabwe in 1949.

Hubert left the company not long after Press returned to South Africa, leaving him to run the entire Edgars operation.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Edgars diversified its product offerings beyond women’s fashion to include men’s and children’s clothing, footwear, fabrics, and jewellery.

By 1960, Edgars operated nearly 140 stores, and this number more than doubled by 1965. The company acquired several other retail brands, including Sales House and Jet Stores, aimed at the growing black consumer population.

In 1969, Press founded Edgars Consolidated Investments Limited (Edcon), a pyramid control structure through which the Press family maintained control of the company.

In the 1970s, the strategy shifted towards opening fewer stores, which were larger and better located. The average store size increased from 150 to 745 square meters.

In 1982, while Press was recovering from open-heart surgery, control of Edgars was taken over by South African Breweries (SAB), and Press left the company soon after.

Under SAB’s ownership, Edgars continued to flourish, with CEO Vic Hammond leading the company to unprecedented growth. By 1990, Edgars had established itself as a South African retail empire with sales nearing R2 billion.

In 2007, a United States-based private equity firm, Bain Capital, acquired Edcon, the parent company of Edgars, and delisted it from the JSE.

Today, Edgars has a footprint of more than 130 stores in all major locations throughout the country. The retailer still offers credit and financial services products, which it now extends to millions of customers.