CLOTHING AND APPAREL NEWS ON FASTMOVING

The South African wool market held on to last week’s gains and remained steady for this week, Cape Wools said on Wednesday. read more

Johannesburg - Retailer Mr Price on Tuesday posted interim earnings growth of 22% because of sales growth and said it plans to open over 40 stores in the second half of the year. read more

Johannesburg - Truworths International Ltd., South Africa’s largest listed clothing retailer, fell the most in more than four years as inflation curbed consumer spending and slowed its sales growth. read more

Clothing retailer, Woolworths Kenya has signed an agreement with consumer finance firm afb allowing its customers to buy goods on credit to be repaid in six months.  read more

Retail group TFG (The Foschini Group) has increased total retail sales by 9% to R6.7-billion with sales in the rest of Africa growing 25% in the six months to the end of September 2013. Cash sales in this period grew by 12.7%.  read more

Minneapolis – Target Corp. is making a big online push for the holidays, including expanding its in-store pick-up program for products ordered online to all of its U.S. stores by Nov. 1 (the service is now available in about half of the chain’s locations). And for the first time, Target will promote the concept of Cyber Week, with an ad campaign Dec. 1 through Dec. 3 that focuses on Cyber Week deals including Cyber Monday. read more

Mr Price Group Ltd. advanced to a record high after the South African clothing and furniture retailer said earnings climbed 18 to 22 percent even as household budgets tightened. read more

Port Elizabeth - The South African wool market ended softer this week, Cape Wools said on Wednesday. read more

Massmart will open the doors to three George pop up stores today, to give South African consumers a taste of the famous British brand of clothing. read more

Foschini, JSE’s worst-performing clothing retailer this year, said it plans to open 21 new stores on the rest of the continent as consumers in South Africa continue to struggle in debt.  read more

Mall of the North is bringing shoppers more of what they want and improving its shopping experience.  read more

Plano, Texas – Shares of J.C. Penney Company took a beating on Friday after the retailer priced its $932 million share sale at a 7.4% discount and detailed its shrinking cash position.  read more

Edgars Stores Limited after-tax profit for the 26 weeks ended July 6 was up 17% to $1,1 million, buoyed by growth in revenue.  read more

New York – Saks Inc. plans to open seven new Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th stores in 2014: The Outlets at Bloomfield in Pearl, Miss.; Potomac Mills in Woodbridge, Va.; Palm Beach Outlets in West Palm Beach, Fla; Outlet Shoppes at Louisville/Lexington, Ky.; Twin Cities of Eagan in Minneapolis, Minn.; The Mayfair Collection in Mayfair, Wis.; and Easton Gateway in Columbus, Ohio.  read more

Johannesburg - Truworths International Ltd., South Africa’s largest listed clothing retailer, fell the most in three weeks on concern that lending growth is slowing and as monthly retail sales in the continent’s biggest economy shrank. read more

Johannesburg, 10 September 2013 - Edcon has recently confirmed its acquisition of a controlling stake in the companies which hold the local franchise rights to Accessorize, La Senza and Inglot. The group’s acquisition is in line with Edcon’s current strategy to increase its branded content and introduce new international brands to its offering to the benefit of its customers. read more

The United Kingdom intends to double the value of trade with Kenya in the next five years, High Commissioner, Christian Turner has said.  read more

TFG (The Foschini Group) produced its highest ever profits in the past year and continued to gain market share, despite the difficult consumer environment, Doug Murray, CEO of TFG (The Foschini Group Limited), told the 76th Annual General Meeting in Parow today (September 2).  read more

New York -- Swedish fast-fashion giant H&M will open its largest location to date, a 63,000-sq.-ft. flagship in New York City’s bustling Herald Square. Scheduled to open in fall 2014, the four-level store will be located in Herald Center, a JEMB Realty property. The landlord’s broker is CBRE. read more

Highlights • Turnover up 23.2% • Profit before tax up 27.1% • Headline earnings per share up 27.3% (52 weeks: 25.3%) • Return on equity up from 46.4% to 49.7% • Cash dividend of 148 cents declared  read more

Seattle -- Nordstrom is expanding its partnership with Britain’s fashion-forward women’s apparel brand, Topshop, as well its men’s unit, Topman. Beginning in September, Nordstrom will add 28 Topshop departments and eight Topman departments in stores across the country. read more

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Sears Holdings’ second-quarter loss widened as the company was challenged with store closings, weak sales and deep discounts. Its performance was also impacted by the lingering effects from its spinoff of its Hometown and Outlet Stores banner.  read more

Cape Town, 21 August 2013: The V&A Waterfront has reported an outstanding 19.2% year-on-year growth in retail sales figures for the second quarter of 2013. The figures show an increase of more than twice that of South Africa’s year-on-year sales growth of 7.6%, as reported by Stats SA. Quarterly visitor numbers are also up 9.78% and have increased 16.3% over June last year.  read more

Key highlights - Total sales up 8.9% (R32,369m); 2012: (R29,717m) - Comparable sales up 5.5% - African operations sales up 10.7% - 146 cents dividend per share; 2012: 146 cents  read more

Johannesburg - South African retailer Foschini Group said on Friday it had received an unsolicited offer for its majority stake in a consumer finance joint venture it has with Standard Bank. read more

San Francisco -- Gap Inc. reported net sales of $3.87 billion for the second quarter of 2013, up 8% from $3.58 billion for the second quarter last year. Net sales for July of this year totaled $1.12 billion, close to 6% higher than $1.06 billion in July of the previous year. read more

Cape Town - There are indications of a degree of consolitation in the South African manufacturing sector, according to Coenraad Bezuidenhout, executive director of the Manufacturing Circle. read more

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Sears Holdings has selected HighJump Software, a global provider of supply chain management software, to help the company manage its distribution network. read more

A surge in Woolworths’ sales, which bucked the weaker sales growth trend of ailing local retailers, was because the food and fashion retailer was not dependent on credit like its competitors, analysts have said.  read more

New York -- Rabeanco, known for quality leather accessories and fashion forward styles, opened its first American storefront, in the Westfield Santa Anita Mall, Arcadia, Calif. It is the first of three U.S. locations the company plans to open in 2013.  read more

New York -- Cache Inc. announced that Anthony DiPippa (“Tony”) will join the company as executive VP, CFO, on Aug. 7.  read more

Shares of Truworths tumbled more than 7 percent yesterday after the retailer warned profit growth would miss expectations, as debt-laden customers slowed their spending.  read more

Johannesburg - Woolworths Holdings gained the most in a week after reporting an acceleration in full-year sales. read more

London - Kate Bostock, one of the biggest names in Britain's retail industry, has quit ASOS after just seven months, deciding the fast-growing online fashion firm wasn't for her. read more

Stockholm - The world's second-biggest fashion retailer, Hennes & Mauritz, has signed its first lease to open a store in South Africa, according to a press report.  read more

Retail sales shot up in May after April’s growth was the lowest since 2009, but analysts cautioned yesterday that the growth was not sustainable in light of the realities of strikes and sluggish gross domestic product growth. read more

Mississauga, Ont. -- Target plans to open the doors to an additional 20 stores in Canada between July 16 and July 30. The stores will be located in in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario  read more

Paris - French consumer confidence has hit an all-time low, the latest survey showed on Thursday, just as the state auditor warned that a likely economic contraction would knock the government off course on this year's deficit reduction target. read more

Foschini was not proceeding to reduce its stake in unsecured lender RCS Investment Holdings after RCS shareholders concluded that its timing to pull out was not conducive for the lender to realise its fair value.  read more

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores Inc. reported a 27% drop in first-quarter earnings amid a cool spring throughout much of the country and rising costs. But the company, a spinoff from Sears Holdings Corp., pointed to improving signs in late spring. read more

For many young people, fashion sense is what gives them status and dignity. With the diverse clothing lines and brands to choose from, every one of them is able choose a certain brand that they can identify with. David Motawana, or 'Di' has launched a clothing line in Botswana that many of the fashion conscious in Botswana will surely identify with.  read more

San Francisco -- Gap Inc. announced Monday that it will introduce the Gap brand to Paraguay and Hungary through new agreements with existing franchise partners: Neutral for Paraguay and Gottex Brands for Hungary.  read more

Johannesburg - The Foschini Group, South Africa's No.3 listed clothing retailer, missed estimates with an 11 percent rise in full-year profit as debt-laden consumers cut back on spending. read more

Plano, Texas -- J.C. Penney Co. reported a deeper-than-expected loss of $348 million for its first quarter, compared to $163 million in the year-ago period, amid a 16.4% decline in revenue. The results came as the company seeks to undo the damage caused by former CEO Ron Johnson’s costly and largely failed makeover.  read more

Arandis – Dantago Clothing, which manufactures children’s clothing for Woolworths South Africa, will be expanding its services to stores in Botswana and Lesotho this year. read more

Residents of Ibadan metropolis trooped out enmasse on Wednesday, to have a glimpse of a wear outfit located at the newly opened Odu’a Shopping Mall, along J Allen area, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. read more

H&M, the world's second-largest global clothing retailer, made the list of all its supplier-factories public. The list including the factories of Bangladesh, aims to contribute to building a more transparent and, ultimately, a more sustainable 'fashion industry'. read more

Shares of JSE-listed Mr Price gained 3 percent to R118.98 on Wednesday’s early trade after it said figures for the year ended March would be higher than in the previous reporting period. read more

New York - The Dow Jones Industrial Average shook off early weakness on Tuesday and pressed through to another record close, led by strong gains in tech shares Microsoft and Intel. read more

New York -- Ron Johnson is out as CEO of J.C. Penney. In making the announcement, the company also said that that Myron E. (Mike) Ullman has rejoined Penney as CEO, effective immediately. Ullman, who served as CEO of Penney until late 2011, has also been elected to the board of directors. read more

Milan - Family owned Italian fashion house Versace is ready to sell some of the company to outside investors to help fund expansion in foreign markets such as Asia, its chief executive said in an interview.  read more

Elim Mall became the latest shopping mall to open in Limpopo province, on March 28 2013, bringing Elim consumers a new generation premium-grade retail experience. read more

Rome - An Italian court has ordered the Dolce & Gabbana fashion house to pay a fine of €343 million (about R4 billion) plus interest for failing to declare millions of euros in revenue to tax authorities, local media reported. read more

Johannesburg - Consumer goods group AVI [JSE:AVI] has reported an 8% rise in headline earnings per share to 210c in the six months ended December 2012‚ from 194.2c a year ago.  read more

Frankfurt - German sportswear and equipment maker Adidas said that one-off writedowns hit its bottom line in 2012, but underlying profits increased due to higher sales. read more

Johannesburg - Edcon Holdings said trading at its lower-price units has improved in the past two months after a weak third quarter.  read more

Johannesburg - Retailer Woolworths Holdings [JSE:WHL] reported a 21% rise in first-half profit chiefly as a result of contributions from its recent acquisition in Australia. read more

New York -- Although there were some surprising gains among retailers in January, for the most part results were expectedly mixed, as consumers took a hit on their take-home pay from higher payroll taxes but cooler weather gave a boost to others. read more

Johannesburg - Edcon said fiscal third-quarter sales fell as it refurbished 72 stores and experienced stock delivery delays.  read more

New York -- Sears Canada is letting go of 700 workers as part of a plan to "right-size" the operation. read more

Africa-focused private equity firm Actis has said that South African luxury fashion houses Edgars and Foschini are some of the retailers that have booked stores in its Sh12.6 billion ($144 million) 50,000 square metres Nairobi shopping mall which is under construction and expected to be Kenya’s biggest mall. read more

New York -- Australian import Lorna Jane will open the largest store in its U.S. portfolio, a 3,000-sq.-ft. unit in San Francisco, in February. read more

Shares in Mr Price fell more than 2 percent after the South African clothing retailer said quarterly sales grew by 10 percent, disappointing investors who may have been expecting a bigger rise.  read more

Truworths International (TRU) advised on Friday that it expects both basic earnings and headline earnings per share for the first 26 weeks of the 2013 financial year will be between 16% and 20% higher relative to the corresponding period in the 2012 financial year.  read more

Clothing retailer The Foschini Group (TFG) said on Friday group sales for the nine months to December increased by 11.4% from a year earlier‚ with same store sales growth of 5.6%.  read more

With about 225 stores in 15 countries, Max Fashion, a premium clothing chain in the United Arab Emirate (UAE) is set to undergo a major expansion spree this year in Africa among other regions. It is particularly shifting its attention to sub-Saharan Africa among other regions in the world. read more

Shares in Mr Price fell more than 2 percent after the South African clothing retailer said quarterly sales grew by 10 percent, disappointing investors who may have been expecting a bigger rise. read more

Johannesburg - Shares of Woolworths Holdings [JSE:WHL] surged more than 4% on Wednesday after the retailer said it expects first-half profits to rise by as much as 24%. read more

Johannesburg - AVI [JSE:AVI] revenue for the six months ended December was up 10.7% to R4.887bn‚ the company said on Tuesday.  read more

(Reuters) - Shares of Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD.O) fell more than 5 percent on Tuesday after the retailer said Chief Executive Louis D'Ambrosio was leaving the company, raising concerns that the drive to improve its namesake stores could stall. read more

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. said Tuesday it plans to price-match top online retailers year-round, including Amazon.com, Walmart.com, BestBuy.com and Toysrus.com (including Babiesrus.com). read more

Cincinnati -- Macy's Inc. on Friday said that its board has increased its share repurchase authorization by $1.5 billion. read more

New York — Last-minute holiday shoppers will have some help from Macy’s this year, as the retailer plans keep most of its stores open 48 hours straight the weekend before Christmas, from 7 a.m. Dec. 21 through 7 a.m. on Dec. 23. read more

Gap Inc. (GPS) fell the most in 16 months amid speculation the biggest U.S. specialty-apparel retailer won’t follow rivals such as American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (AEO) and Coach Inc. (COH) in paying special dividends or accelerating payments this year. read more

Retailer Edcon posted a loss of R1.012 billion from continuing operations in the 26 weeks ended September 2012‚ from a R1.546 billion loss a year ago.  read more

Foschini Ltd., a South African clothing and household goods retailer with nearly 2,000 stores, said it plans to open its first stores in Mozambique and Ghana as it accelerates an expansion drive outside its home market.  read more

Woolworths Holdings (WHL) on Thursday said group sales for the first 20 weeks of the 2013 financial year increased by 15.9% over the comparable period in 2012. Sales in comparable stores grew by 9.9%. read more

Beaverton, Oregon - Nike is boosting its dividend payment and planning a two-for-one stock split. read more

Johannesburg - South Africa’s biggest-listed apparel retailer, Truworths International Ltd [JSE:TRU], reported a 16% jump in sales for the first 18 weeks of its financial year on Thursday, lifting its shares. read more

Johannesburg - Mr Price Group [JSE:MPC] advised on Thursday that for the 26 weeks ended September 2012‚ its basic earnings and headline earnings per share are expected to increase by between 30% and 35% due to a lower taxation charge as a consequence of no STC being levied on the 2012 final dividend‚ which was paid in the current period. . read more

Retailer Mr Price (MPC) on Thursday announced it expects its headline earnings and basic earnings per share for the 26 weeks ended September 29 “are likely to be higher than the previous corresponding period by more than 20%.”  read more

Johannesburg - RMB Ventures‚ a private equity investor and subsidiary of FirstRand Limited [JSE:FSR]‚ has purchased a significant minority interest in The Studio 88 Group‚ one of Southern Africa’s largest independent footwear and apparel retail chains. read more

Shares in Mr Price Ltd rose more than 3 percent on Tuesday after the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) said South Africa's third-biggest listed clothes retailer would join its blue-chip index next week.  read more

A conceptual plan for a massive redevelopment of Brooklyn Mall brings more leading retail to Pretoria, by co-owners, Growthpoint Properties Limited and Atterbury’s Abacus Property Holdings, is strengthening the high-end regional mall.  read more

Mr Price on Thursday reported an impressive 14.9% growth in sales for the 18 weeks to August 4, proof the fashion retailer has once again read the market right. read more

Johannesburg - Retailer Woolworths Holdings [JSE:WHL] slightly beat forecasts with a 24.2% rise in full-year profit on Thursday, helped by share buy backs and resilient demand for its upscale grocery products. read more

Johannesburg - Retailer Edcon said on Thursday it maintained its gross profit in the first quarter (at 0.9%) compared with the same period a year ago‚ but retail sales were behind expectations and costs negatively impacted adjusted EBITDA. read more

Retailers experienced their biggest one-day fall on the JSE in almost a year on Friday, on negative sentiment towards SA following the deadly labour dispute at Marikana, one of the country’s biggest platinum mines. read more

Johannesburg - Retail shares came under selling pressure on Friday‚ with FTSE/JSE general retailers index falling to its lowest level in three weeks‚ giving credence to caution some analysts have made that the sector might be overheating given the strong run it has had in the last while relative to other areas of the stock market‚ such as resources. read more

Australian retail mogul Solomon Lew has lashed out at Woolworths, accusing the South African company of using the planned acquisition by Country Road of fashion group Witchery to force him out of Country Road, legal letters revealed yesterday.  read more

In line with global trends, pop-up or flash retail stores have hit the streets of Cape Town, and are proving to be a key tool for businesses wanting to gauge different locations and build a market.  read more

FRANKFURT - World No.2 sporting goods maker Adidas said that a summer of sport was boosting demand for its three-stripe products, helping it stay a step ahead of rivals and avoid the worst of a slowdown in sales growth in China and Europe. read more

Johannesburg - Retailer Woolworths Holdings [JSE:WHL] announced on Wednesday that its indirectly-held subsidiary‚ Country Road‚ has entered into an agreement to acquire the Witchery Group from Gresham Private Equity for A$172m. Witchery is one of Australia’s leading fashion brands. read more

Mr Price on Monday went live with its online retail offering, which CEO Stuart Bird says will enable the company to further strengthen relationships with its target customers. read more

With the entrance of British fast-fashion chain Topshop into SA, the local clothing sector could count on a proliferation of new brands coming into the market, meaning more competition, lower prices and narrower margins, an analyst said yesterday. read more

Cape Town - Edcon, together with House of Busby has been granted the South African franchise rights for Topshop and Topman, the UK-based retail chain, businesslive reported on Monday. read more

JSE-listed Woolworths on Friday failed to shed any further light on a possible transaction between Gresham Private Equity and its Australian subsidiary, Country Road.  read more

Timberland recently announced that it has launched an interactive in-store shopping experience using digital signage to help shoppers discover the great outdoors with Timberland gear, technologies and brand storytelling. read more

Fashion retail chain Mr Price hoped to extend trading space by 5% in the coming year and was set to launch an online store to grow market share, it said in its results for the 52-weeks ended March, released yesterday. read more

A US judge said Gucci may recover just $4.66m in its lawsuit accusing apparel retailer Guess of copying its trademarked designs, a small fraction of the more than $120m sought by the Italian luxury goods company.  read more