Expensive fashion brands at bargain prices

Fancy a treasure hunt at 32 Clothing? You could pick up a brand-name garment at a bargain price if you do.

Fancy a treasure hunt at 32 Clothing? You could pick up a brand-name garment at a bargain price if you do.

Published Aug 24, 2015

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Johannesburg - Cruising down Rissik Street in central Joburg, dodging taxis and pedestrians, is an unusual start to a designer fashion shopping experience.

The dark subterranean car park and untrustworthy-looking lift to the first floor are also a little beyond most fashionistas’ comfort zone.

Then you step into a bright, expansive shopping floor with row upon row of clothing racks, shelves of shoes and displays of belts and bags.

 

This is 32 Clothing, a discount store stocked from containers that deliver new but unsold clothes from European and American labels like Diesel, GAP, Zara and H&M.

The end-of-line, end-of-season nature of the incoming supplies means there may be only two or three of each item, so if you like a shirt, but need a bigger size, they probably don’t have it.

Owner Dave Fine doesn’t like it when I say it’s a bit like a jumble sale, where you rummage around until you find something that suits you in a size that fits. He prefers to call it a treasure hunt. The clothes have their original swing tags attached and he pulls out a jumper priced at £35, but now costing R299.

Fine’s 32 Clothing is the first African version of the off-price retail stores established overseas by chains like TJMax. It has done so well since its launch in Rissik Street in April last year that Fine opened a branch in Pretoria earlier this year and has opened bigger stores in the Westgate and Southgate malls in the past month.

 

Fine was born in South Africa, but grew up in Australia, where his family ran a discount retail business.

“I worked in the stores from 14,” he says. “In 2010 I came back to South Africa for the first time for the World Cup and it was a wonderful experience. I fell in love with the country again and I thought there’s a great opportunity here.”

Fine moved back and set up a wholesale business importing toiletries and confectionery. Further research into market demand led him to form 32 Clothing.

“I wish I had a great story about the name, but the first office we had was in unit 32 and we needed a name to register the company,” he says.

He boasts of selling brand name garments and accessories at 40-80 percent off the recommended retail price charged overseas.

He buys parcels of assorted clothes directly from brands around the world, and benefits from fashion designers making the wrong predictions or optimistic buyers who overstock. Buyers and manufacturers must predict which brands, colours and styles are going to be popular a season in advance. Get it wrong and excess stock is created.

“Predicting sell-through rates to consumers is nearly impossible. There’s been surplus stock in fashion since fashion started,” Fine says.

Also, brands like Zara and H&H have a policy of flipping their entire stock within six weeks, so if an item hasn’t sold, it is hauled off the shop floor.

That’s where Fine comes in. He doesn’t mind that his customers must rummage around to find something that suits them and fits them, nor that each of his stores will stock different items.

It’s unfair to say these clothes weren’t good enough for consumers in London or Paris, he says.

They might not have sold in the high street boutiques, but they would have sold in the off-price outlets in those cities if 32 Clothing hadn’t jumped on the stock first.

Fine does most of the buying, but he’s guarded about how he sources, selects and figures out the pricing, aware that rivals may be watching the rapid growth of the business and try to muscle in.

“It’s traded openly as clearance stock, so we are alerted to parcels from particular brands and we get the opportunity to examine it and buy it,” he says. “It’s all original merchandise, but at first we had to convince our market that it’s not ‘Fong Kong’ fakes.”

The Rissik Street branch has about 8 500 items on display. New stock is delivered every week, and items that aren’t sold quickly are marked down again to clear them out and make space. “But by the time we have been through our mark-down policy it’s such great value that it tends to sell.”

Fine hates the word “cheap”, preferring the term “value”. “We don’t sell cheap clothes. We sell expensive international brands at affordable prices. We’re not concerned whether we have blue or red T-shirts, but we are concerned about the value we can offer.”

The range is kept large to ensure there is plenty of choice in every size and every category of clothing, so people will find items they like.

Fine believes the Southgate outlet has caused trade at the Rissik Street branch to dip to the extent that he’s wondering if this shop is sustainable. It’s hardly in a prime location, and the rejuvenation of Newtown and Maboneng hasn’t extended to this grittier part of town.

“Coming back to South Africa I found one of the saddest things is that most people don’t get to enjoy the amazing city centre we have. There’s so much history and the architecture is beautiful,” he says.

“I absolutely love this store.”

Rissik Street was certainly useful in testing whether this was a South African business or a continental business. You might think the customers would be in a certain wealth category, or be northern suburbanites, but the aisles are full of Nigerians, Zimbabweans and Congolese who live in the city centre, as well as white shoppers from the suburbs.

At 35, Fine says he’s young and energetic enough to expand the brand enormously, and he believes it will work across Africa as well as in South Africa.

“It’s easy to criticise off-price outlets, saying they are full of stock that didn’t work for anybody else, but there’s a need for consumers in different LSM groups to be able to buy branded clothes that are fashionable,” he says.

“That’s particularly true in Africa, where the majority of people don’t have much money, but have the aspiration to dress in a manner that shows they are progressing in life.”

Sunday Independent

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