From bad to worse for major South African clothing retailer

Truworths has reported lacklustre results for the first half of its 2026 financial year, with sub-1% profit growth and a slight decrease in revenue.

This was largely due to a weak contribution from its biggest division, Truworths Africa, and despite a strong performance from the company’s UK business.

Founded in 1917, Truworths is one of South Africa’s oldest and largest apparel retailers, with well-known brands such as Daniel Hechter, Uzzi, Ginger Mary, Naartjie, and LTD Kids in its portfolio.

Truworths has been lagging behind its competitors for the past few years, as South Africa’s apparel retail market has become increasingly competitive.

On Thursday, 26 February, Truworths released its interim results for the 26 weeks ended 28 December 2025.

These results showed a muted 0.4% increase in sale of merchandise to R12.11 billion, while revenue declined by 0.03% to R12.93 billion.

The retailer recorded profit growth of 0.3% to R1.83 billion for the 26-week period, and a 1.2% increase in basic earnings to 494.6 cents per share.

These weak results were largely the result of struggles at Truworths’ Africa division, which saw retail sales decline by 3.6% to R8 billion.

This division is Truworths’ largest, accounting for the lion’s share of its total retail sales of R12.5 billion.

In contrast, its Office UK division recorded retail sales growth of 7.1% in rand terms to R4.48 billion.

Despite lacklustre sales growth across the division, Truworths Africa’s online sales recorded a strong performance, increasing by 23.3% and contributing 7.4% to the segment’s retail sales.

It should also be noted that, despite a decline in sales, Truworths Africa actually saw its gross profit margin increase over the period, reaching 54% compared to 53.6% in December 2024. Office UK’s gross profit margin was 48.0%, down slightly from 48.2%.

Truworths also made changes to its store network over the period, with Truworths Africa opening 22 stores but closing 21, while Office UK opened five stores and closed one.

This resulted in Truworths’ trading space increasing by 0.7%, comprising 0.4% growth in Truworths Africa and 10.7% growth in Office UK.

On the back of these results, Truworths declared an interim dividend of 321 cents per share, up 1.3% from the comparable half-year.