Johannesburg - The Shoprite/Checkers Group has confirmed it has ended it's relationship with Unilever’s TRESemmé brand and will be removing the products from their almost 3000 stores on the African continent.
In a short statement to IOL on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Shoprite/Checkers Group said: “We can confirm that TRESemmé products have been removed from sale in our stores”.
The Shoprite Group, which owns stores such as Checkers, Checkers Hyper, Shoprite and the U-Save brands, is the second group after the Clicks Group announced on Tuesday that it was dumping the TRESemmé and replacing it with a local haircare products.
This comes after a TRESemmé advert on the Clicks website depicted black women’s hair as frizzy, dull, dry and damaged, while it described white hair as normal, fine and flat.
The ad spurred the EFF to descend on hundreds of Clicks stores around the country in protest.
On Wednesday, Clicks stores around the country were shut to allow workers counselling after some had allegedly been intimidated during protests.
Also on Tuesday, Clicks secured an interim court interdict which prevented the EFF from threatening or intimidating Clicks staff and customers. The interdict allows for peaceful protest.
Clicks has also committed to work with the government to develop the local beauty market.
An unnamed senior executive at Clicks resigned on Tuesday, while non-executive director Nonkululeko Gobodo, called on the company to name the senior executive and also implored Unilever to name the ad agency and TRESemmé executives who were responsible for the ad which has had damaging consequences for several brands - not least Clicks, TRESemmé and Unilever.
IOL