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Moneyweb reports that despite Edcon cutting its store numbers by around 150 and reducing floor space in others over the last 18 months as part of its turnaround plan, the retailer has managed to save most of the jobs within the group.
CEO Grant Pattison advised that of the roughly 1,000 staff who received retrenchment notices, some 90% of those affected by store closures and store “rightsizing” opted to move to other stores within the group. Only about 100 staff chose not to move, and took retrenchment packages. “We said from the start that we wanted to limit the number of job losses. We had an arrangement with the unions that there would be no forced retrenchments,” Pattison noted. Edcon, which employs around 14,000 permanent staff across the country, has been undergoing a restructure to cut costs and debt. On 1 March, it secured a R2.7 billion recapitalisation lifeline from existing secured lenders, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) through the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), and dozens of its landlords. Pattison said he did not foresee any more store closures. Retail analyst Chris Gilmour commented: “Grant is a great and charismatic retailer, but he still has his work cut out for him. Edcon is not out of the woods yet. He not only needs to get Edcon back to profitability, he needs to claw back its market share in one of the toughest retail environments SA has ever faced.”
- Read the full original of Suren Naidoo’s report on the above story at Moneyweb
- Read too, PIC pressured by Cosatu to rescue Edcon, at Moneyweb
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page