@home and our recently-opened two @homelivingspace stores, which sell a full range of contemporary furniture to complement our existing homeware offering, has now reached a store base of 51 in total. We continue to service the LSM 8 - 10 market segment by being positioned in South Africa's leading metropolitan shopping malls and destination centres in the case of @homelivingspace.
| 2007 | % change 52 versus 53 weeks |
% change 52 versus 52 weeks |
2006 | |||||||||
| Turnover (R million) | 412,4 | 26,3 | 28,6 | 326,3 | ||||||||
| Number of stores | 51 | 24,4 | 41 | |||||||||
| Floor Area (gross m2) | 21 906 | 17,6 | 18 624 | |||||||||
| Number of employees | 848 | 13,0 | 750 |
@home opened a further ten stores in the year under review. The majority of these stores opened in the last six months of the year.
Our two @homelivingspace stores located in Design Quarter in Johannesburg and Willowbridge in Cape Town have been well received. These stores, selling a full range of furniture and larger décor items, have had a same store growth of 30% for the period. @home enjoyed comparable turnover growth of 28,6% for the period.
The homewares arena is becoming more competitive as a large number of homeware stores roll out across the country.
Our staff training academy continues to focus on our people to ensure organic growth for our future staff needs, including new store expansion.
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |||||||
| Markdown value (Rm) | 8,7 | 16,5 | 16,0 | 27,1 | 39,3 | ||||||
| % to sales | 6,3 | 8,0 | 5,6 | 7,5 | 8,3 |
Markdowns were in line with expectations and are at an acceptable level, while trading densities remained largely constant at R25 000 per square metre.
@home has a further ten stores planned for the coming year as well as enlarging certain stores to add an extra décor element, similar to that offered in our @homelivingspace stores.
@homelivingspace has a number of new stores committed across the country, with a 2 000 square metre store being opened in Loch Logan, Bloemfontein later this year. We see expansion into specialist shopping complexes around the country and our current plans are to have at least ten @homelivingspace stores country-wide.
@home has certain exclusive international brands that differentiate us in the marketplace. We will continue to focus on bringing our customers a quality homeware offering with exceptional in-store service.
We will continue to maintain our acceptable margins and focus on profitability with tight expense control.
@home and @homelivingspace will grow to more than 60 stores in the near future and at the same time will enlarge certain stores where the trading densities indicate additional space is required. Our Menlyn and Cavendish @home stores will be the first enlargements in the next year, adding a décor element whilst at the same time being revamped. We continue to look for suitable sites to grow our homeware business well into the future.
| Projection | |||||||||||||||||||
| Store statistics | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |||||||||||
| @home | 8 | 15 | 24 | 34 | 39 | 49 | 56 | 63 | |||||||||||
| @homelivingspace | - | - | - | - | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | |||||||||||
| Total no. of stores | 8 | 15 | 24 | 34 | 41 | 51 | 59 | 70 | |||||||||||
| Closure | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||||||||||
| Floor area (m2) | 3 670 | 6 611 | 10 001 | 13 405 | 18 624 | 21 906 | 25 801 | 36 143 | |||||||||||
