PEP Clothing

INSIDE CAPE TOWN’S PEOPLE-CENTRIC GARMENT MANUFACTURER

PEP CLOTHING

2 | Africa Outlook issue 84

MANUFACTURING

I have a love affair with fabrics, and I love working for the group. Even though we are a publicly listed company, it feels like a family business and a family entity, with people at its heart and values that I closely identify with personally. I’ve been on an exciting journey and touched almost every part of the business over nearly 30 years.�

Marthie Raphael was destined to enjoy a long career in the garment industry at Pep Clothing.

Having funded a degree in Consumer Science from Stellenbosch University by making and selling her own evening and bridal wear, a passion inspired by consecutive creative generations in the family, the now-CEO has only worked at one organisation and its affiliates since graduating in 1992.

The organisation in question is Pepkor, a holding company which owns the largest retail store footprint in Southern Africa, with Pep Clothing operating as its garment manufacturing arm, based at a factory just outside of Cape Town for more than 50 years.

CLOTHING WITH CULTURE Pep Clothing has been producing carefully crafted garments for more than 50 years, its longevity a product of a company culture that puts people at its heart Writer: Tom Wadlow | Project Manager: Kyle Livingstone

Africa Outlook issue 84 | 3

PEP CLOTHING Raphael began her career as a Quality Engineer at this division (then known as Pep Manufacturing), moving to a Pepkor joint venture site in Malawi

PEP CLOTHING AN INTRODUCTION Pep Clothing is an apparel manufacturer supplying garments, flip flops to leading retailers across the Southern Africa region, and medical PPE to local South African hospitals.

Established more than 50 years ago, its main line of business continues to be school clothing (seven million items made per year), including trousers, shorts, shirts and dresses, with other key lines being in the underwear category (two million items).

The company strives to continually improve its production methods and quality of output, with all products subject to random daily audits using a statistical model known as the Pep Clothing Defect Classification List.

For more information on Pep Clothing and parent company Pepkor, visit: www.pepkor.co.za

for four years before returning to South Africa in the retail wing of the group. In 2003, she moved back into the Pep Clothing business, working her way up through business development and logistics roles, becoming CEO in 2006.

Today, the company produces around 15 million high quality items a year for retailers all over Southern Africa, including those within the wider Pepkor group and external customers.

Its main product lines include school wear, underwear, flip flops and the recently added medical garment category, these carefully crafted products produced by a workforce of around 2,000 dedicated personnel.

And many of these employees share Raphael’s passion and love for the business. The CEO’s long career with Pep Clothing is by no means occurring in isolation – staff turnover is extremely low, and hiring only tends to occur in batches when a new production line is launched.

“People are our business,” Raphael says. “Values drive behaviour and culture, and our entire organisation, both at Pep Clothing and Pepkor, revolves around relationships and caring for our people. We are all based at one site, and therefore the relationships between us are critical to productivity.

Savino Del Bene South Africa Savino Del Bene South Africa is part of the Savino Del Bene SpA; a global company that specialises in logistics and supply chain management, offering a variety of services in the form of ocean, air and road freight around the world. In South Africa we have offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth.

Our parent company was founded in Italy more than 100 years ago and has 174 owned branches and 108 subsidiary offices across the globe; and employs over 4,400 people, worldwide.

We offer advanced shipping services, customs clearance, warehouse management and a wide range of logistics support services and solutions. We have longstanding relationships with all the key carriers in air and ocean and we have global reach. At Savino Del Bene we constantly strive to ensure that we deliver value through impeccable service with flexibility and agility at the most competitive price for our clients.

As a successful, growing business, we are driven by the desire to raise the standard of living for all South Africans by making a positive contribution to our clients’ business.

We aim to facilitate their trade and achieve mutual success so that we can create jobs and growth opportunities for our people in South Africa.

We are passionate about our people and we make every effort to ensure that our company is a great place to work and that they are equipped with the skills to make them successful in our field, so that they too can make a positive contribution to their communities.

The company has achieved B-BBEE level two status with 125 percent preferential procurement recognition.

We are committed to diversity in the supply chain and logistics industry and our BBBEE status incorporates 26 percent black women equity.

Marthie Raphael, CEO

4 | Africa Outlook issue 84

www.savinodelbene.com

Savino Del Bene South Africa is part of the Savino Del Bene SpA; a global company that specialises in logistics and supply chain management, offering a variety of services in the form of ocean, air and road freight around the world. In South Africa we have offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth.

Our parent company was founded in Italy more than 100 years ago and has 174 owned branches and 108 subsidiary offices across the globe; and employs over 4400 people, worldwide.

We offer advanced shipping services, customs clearance, warehouse management and a wide range of logistics support services and solutions. We have longstanding relationships with all the key carriers in Air and Ocean and we have global reach. At Savino Del Bene we constantly strive to ensure that we deliver value through impeccable service with flexibility and agility at the most competitive price for our clients.

JOHANNESBURG HQ Tel: +27(0) 11 437 3000 headoffice.jhb@savinodelbene.com Eastport Logistics Park, Building 1, Cnr R21 Expressway & R25, Witfontein Ext. 75, Kempton Park

CAPE TOWN Tel: +27(0) 21 951 4117 capetown.za@savinodelbene.com Cnr Symphony & Robert Sobukwe Rd, Steel Park, Bellville South, Cape Town

As a successful, growing business, we are driven by the desire to raise the standard of living for all South Africans by making a positive contribution to our clients’ business. We aim to facilitate their trade and achieve mutual success so that we can create jobs and growth opportunities for our people in South Africa.

We are passionate about our people and we make every effort to ensure that our Company is a great place to work and that they are equipped with the skills to make them successful in our field, so that they too can make a positive contribution to their communities.

The company has achieved B-BBEE level 2 status with 125% preferential procurement recognition. We are committed to diversity in the supply chain and logistics industry and our BBBEE status incorporates 26% black women equity.

DURBAN Tel: +27(0) 31 579 8660 durban.za@savinodelbene.com 14 Mahoganyfield Way, Springfield Park, Durban

PORT ELIZABETH Tel: +27(0) 41 373 1556 portelizabeth.za@savinodelbene.com 118 Cape Road, Mill Park, Port Elizabeth

PEP CLOTHING

Traderplus Traderplus, a division of FineLine Technologies, is the premier provider of quality swing tickets for the African continent.

As of 2018 the combined synergies of Traderplus and FineLine put to use FineLine’s RFID encoding and printing expertise, alongside Traderplus’ industry leading printing processes and capabilities that have become a global benchmark of swing ticket supply for brick and mortar and e-commerce retailers and their vendor networks.

FineLine Technologies is an international provider of barcode, and RFID integrated labels, tags and stickers to major retailers of apparel, footwear, fine jewellery, watches, eyewear and other hard-to-tag items.

“We have a very active culture calendar to reinforce our values, and actively seek to make a difference in our people’s lives. Our care committee helps employees who face difficult situations such as a flooded home, and we rally round to help each other. It is a testament to our culture because, even though individual staff may not have much, they are always there to help others in need.”

Indeed, culture is as important as competency when Pep Clothing does engage in recruitment, the CEO also explaining a preference to train new recruits from within, leveraging the considerable practical and virtual resources of Pepkor, which includes several modules on the culture and values underpinning the organisation.

ADAPTING TO THE NEW NORMAL For Raphael, this emphasis on values not only explains why she has stayed with the group for so long, but is also the single most significant factor behind its sustained success over more than half a century.

And today, during a time dominated 6 | Africa Outlook issue 84

by the COVID-19 pandemic, this sense of togetherness is more important than ever.

Pep Clothing, a people intensive operation used to working at close quarters with one another, has had to adapt more than most in order to safeguard its employees and comply with regulations issued by South African health authorities.

“We actually had a bit of a head start here in Cape Town,” Raphael states.

“This is because hand sanitising has been in place here for around three years due to Cape Town’s water shortages. Scaling that up has therefore been fairly straightforward, but we’ve faced other challenges in terms of wearing masks and especially social distancing.

“For our production lines to run effectively, people need to be close as we don’t have machinery which passes a garment from person to person. We have installed screens in the canteen and production line to reduce the risk of transmission, but we’ve not been able to avoid the need for people to get up and move products, so productivity has of course been affected.

Headquartered in the United States, FineLine owns and operates manufacturing hubs in North America, South Africa and the APAC region.

Established in 1998, FineLine remains focussed on providing our international supply chain with the highest quality service and products. Pioneered on the 36-48 hours turnaround, and worldwide delivery within five days, supply chain efficiency is our business.

Aligned in much the same way, our partnership with Traderplus gives many of South Africa’s top retailers, the maximum benefits of complete visibility of their swing ticket programmes via FASTtrak – FineLine’s sophisticated, rules-based data management platform.

Our cloud-based portal gives retailers and their suppliers 24-seven online ordering, tracking and analytics that our customer base uses to support their business needs and decision making.

We are helping over 300 retailers and 50,000 vendors consistently and efficiently manage their supply chains, printing over seven billion tickets every year. Labelling innovation is our business, and we can help you.

www.traderplus.co.za

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PEP CLOTHING

Fibertex Fibertex Nonwovens is a leading manufacturer and supplier of a comprehensive range of nonwovens and performance-based materials.

The Fibertex team has worked closely with customers around the globe for over 50 years, offering the finest solutions in acoustics, automotive, building, composites, concrete, filtration, furniture, geotextiles, Medico and wipes.

The Medico range comprises a wide selection of fabrics used for woundcare and dressings. Quality filter media is combined with advanced filtration technologies – including nanofibres - to ensure dependable filtrations solutions for a safer environment. Highperformance wipes are used for critical cleaning in many industries, including healthcare services, vital in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

www.fibertex.com

“We’ve also developed a detailed contact tracing system, so if one of our employees tests positive, we can identify who they have been in contact with and quarantine those people. It has certainly been a challenge, but we have acted quickly and handled the situation well.”

Indeed, the introduction of the medical garments line is also a direct consequence of the coronavirus outbreak, which has struck South Africa particularly hard in comparison to the rest of the continent.

Pep Clothing will produce around 500,000 disposable gowns over the next financial year beginning October 2020, in addition to those currently in production, with plans to diversify into coveralls (boiler suit-like garments) around February 2021 once new waterproofing machinery has been installed at the Cape Town factory.

“Historically South Africa has relied on imported medical clothing, especially in the disposable segment, 8 | Africa Outlook issue 84

but we plan to keep this production line in operation permanently once the pandemic has passed,” Raphael says. “It has required a lot of collaboration between various stakeholders to create a suitable product, but we’ve developed a fabric with our textiles partners and are supplying local hospitals.”

ON THE FRONT FOOT The medical line of business joins flip flops as a new venture for Pep Clothing, which has carved a niche in this part of the footwear market after an extremely productive foray over the past 18 months or so.

Raphael reveals that 90 new hires were required to kickstart the operation, which currently produces around five million pairs of flip flops a year.

Such has been the success to date, the company received a Disney Award for the best product in Africa last year in the flip flop category, what the CEO describes a major confidence boost.

“The award was tremendous recognition for the team and is a huge feather in their caps,” Raphael says.

“Being a clothing factory, we’ve never ventured into the realm of footwear before, so to create a whole new division from scratch with brand new people was a big task. The fact they’ve managed to win an award within eight months of production starting is a massive motivation for them – I am extremely proud.”

Growing output of both the flip flop and medical categories is a major priority for Pep Clothing over the coming year, these avenues seen as opportunities to offset any slowdown in business in more conventional product lines as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 impact on the national and regional economy.

This is one of three key objectives for Raphael, another being to develop more customers within the Pepkor group.

The third is to drive continuous improvement and build further

MANUFACTURING

At Fibertex, we work closely with our customers to create high-performance and sustainable solutions that improve the quality of life for us all.

MEDICO

AUTOMOTIVE

FILTRATION

CONSTRUCTION

SPECIAL SOLUTIONS

Head Office +27 31 736 7100 | salesza@fibertex.com | www.fibertex.com

PROUD LOGISTICS PROVIDER TO

PEP CLOTHING

TP

TECHPAK CARTON MANUFACTURING

Committed Supplier to Pep Clothing

• Freight Forwarding • Customs Clearing • General & Bonded Warehousing • Transportation by Air, Sea & Road • Bespoke Supply Chain Solutions info@primelog.co.za | +27 21 447 2599 | www.primelog.co.za

P.O. Box 390, Maitland 7404, Cape Town, South Africa Tel +27 21 593 0882 | Email faseeg@techpakcarton.co.za Digital +27 877025796 | Mobile + 27 824421651

Africa Outlook issue 84 | 9

PEP CLOTHING

PEPKOR

BY NUMBERS Pep Clothing is part of Pepkor Holdings Limited, which has the largest retail store footprint in Southern Africa. Its presence can be summarised by the following key numbers:

R69.6 billion – annual revenue

56,100 – number of employees

5,415 – number of stores 2.4 million square metres – amount of retail space

>400 million – number of transactions per year

Pepkor’s revenue is split between: clothing and general merchandise (65 percent); furniture, appliances and electronics (13 percent); building materials (12 percent); fintech (10 percent).

10 | Africa Outlook issue 84

efficiency within its operations, an ongoing goal which highlights the crucial nature of relationships with partners up and down the supply chain.

“We cannot afford to have any bottlenecks, and so our supply chain is critical, from packaging and admin to transportation and distribution,” Raphael says. “We therefore invest heavily in this area, not necessarily purely financial, but also in terms of time, effort and education.

“For the past six years we have run a very successful supply development programme, which has enabled us to massively improve our on time and in full performance across the supplier network – from about 66 percent up to 99 percent – with all of our suppliers.”

The CEO goes on to describe the personal nature of these relationships, the company opting not to use an agent and deal directly with partners – whether based in South Africa or internationally, Pep Clothing will visit supplier premises at least once a year.

Again, people are key to finding the winning formula, both inside

and outside of the company. And for Raphael, the future hinges on the motivation of employees, their wellbeing continuing to be front and centre of considerations as the firm navigates its way through this extraordinary period.

She signs off with optimism, looking ahead to a bright future.

“I am confident about what the year ahead has in store. While we are not expecting, for obvious reasons, to see much growth, there are many focus areas that are cause for excitement.

“We have a saying here that we have to do something better today than we did yesterday, and that philosophy will carry us through the times ahead.”

PEP CLOTHING Tel: +27 (0) 21 937 2300 sales@pepclo.co.za

MANUFACTURING

Cape Town 21 Thor Circle, Thornton Tel: + 27 21 532 0102 Rajesh Raghunandan: +27 83 678 3863 Durban 10 Monaco Place, Westmead Tel: +27 31 705 1643 Rabin Nagesar: +27 84 402 2927

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Africa Outlook issue 84 | 11

PEP CLOTHING 36 Stellenberg Road Parow Industria Cape Town Tel: 021-9372300 sales@pepclo.co.za PRODUCED BY AFRICA OUTLOOK MAGAZINE