South Africa’s largest clothing retailer snaps up 462 stores

Pepkor has entered into a deal to buy Legit, Swagga, Style and Boardsmans for less than R2 billion as the retailer looks to expand its share in the adultwear market.

Pepkor is one of South Africa’s largest retailers and the country’s biggest clothing retailer.

It owns many of South Africa’s most well-known brands, including Ackermans, Tekkie Town, Refinery, Rochester, HiFiCorp, Incredible Connection and Shoe City.

The retailer informed shareholders on Tuesday, 25 March 2025, that it has entered into an agreement to expand this portfolio by acquiring four brands from Retailability.

Retailability is an unlisted South African-based group of retail brands, including Edgars, Legit, Beaver Canoe, Swagga, Style, Keedo and Boardmans.

This deal will see Pepkor acquire the Legit, Swagga, Style and Boardmans businesses.

These four businesses operate 462 stores across South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini. 

Pepkor specified that Edgars, Edgars Beauty, Red Square, Kelso and Keedo are not included in the transaction and will continue to be operated by Retailability.

It explained that the total purchase consideration for this transaction represents less than 2% of Pepkor’s market capitalisation. 

At the time of writing, Pepkor’s market cap was R96 billion. This means the purchase price for these four brands was less than R1.92 billion.

The retail giant explained that this transaction is in line with its intention to expand its market share in adultwear through organic and acquisitive growth strategies. 

“This is based on the group’s underindexed market position in adultwear categories compared to its dominance in babies’, kids’ and school wear,” it explained.

Therefore, this transaction is the next step in expanding Pepkor’s presence in the adultwear market.

The acquired businesses will be incorporated into Pepkor’s Speciality business unit. 

Pepkor Speciality provides a range of adult apparel, footwear and accessories across seven retail brands, including Tekkie Town, Shoe City, Dunns, Refinery, CODE, SPCC and Ayana.

Pepkor Speciality’s total store base comprises 941 stores across South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini.

The retailer said this transaction will add significant additional scale to Pepkor Speciality and expand its product offering in the adult market, especially in womenswear through the Legit brand. 

It added that the acquisition of Swagga and Style has strong synergistic benefits, expanding the group’s store portfolio and providing the opportunity to further grow the group’s share in the adultwear market.

The Boardmans online brand, which operates in the homeware product segment, will become part of the Pepkor Lifestyle business.

“Pepkor will unlock value through its extensive scale in sourcing, supply chain and back office functions, in addition to leveraging its capabilities in credit and other financial services,” it said.

Pepkor Emerging Businesses CEO Tyrone Vieira said the retailer is excited to welcome the Legit and other Retailability businesses into Pepkor Speciality.

He said this will form an integral part of its strategy to grow its market position in adultwear. 

“These businesses are a natural fit for Pepkor Speciality, and we are looking forward to integrating them and unlocking benefits from the added scale,” he added.

Pepkor COO Sean Cardinaal said the acquisition of these businesses represents a major milestone in the execution of Pepkor’s strategic growth model by accelerating growth in the group’s Traditional Retail core. 

“This, in turn, will enable strategies in our other growth pillars of Financial Services & Connectivity, Omnichannel, and Leverage & Efficiency – contributing to Pepkor’s delivery of compelling and sustainable long-term performance and returns,” he said.