The Foschini Group’s online business was one of the few bright spots in a bruising financial year, with its Bash platform driving a 49.2% surge in e-commerce sales across its South African operation even as group profit slumped and the retailer took R1-billion in write-downs against its offshore brands.

TFG, the JSE-listed owner of brands including Foschini, Markham, Sportscene, @home and Totalsports, said group online sales rose 31.7% in the year to 31 March 2026 and now make up 14.8% of total retail sales.

The standout was TFG Africa, the group’s largest division, where online sales jumped 49.2% — a rise the company attributed to the continued strength of Bash, its online marketplace. Online reached 8.2% of the division’s sales for the year and 10% in the fourth quarter. TFG said scale benefits were “continuing to improve profitability”, although it did not disclose whether Bash itself is yet making money.

Group e-commerce revenue climbed to about R9.2-billion from R7-billion a year earlier, with the South African portion rising to roughly R3.5-billion.

That online momentum stood in sharp contrast to the wider numbers. Headline earnings per share fell 33.5% to 675.4c (FY2025: 1 015.6c), dragged down by a weaker second half and non-cash impairments of R1-billion against the Phase Eight brand in the UK and the Tarocash and yd. brands in Australia. Operating profit before those impairments and acquisition costs fell 22.1%; after the write-downs, operating profit slid about 37% to R3.9-billion. TFG cut its final dividend 39.1% to 140c.

Group revenue rose 7.2% to R67-billion and retail turnover 7.1% to R62.4-billion, but stripping out the recently acquired White Stuff, group sales grew just 2.8%. Gross margin narrowed 120 basis points over the year.

Fast-shifting market

In TFG Africa, sales grew 5% and like-for-like sales 3.5%. The division’s gross margin contracted 100 basis points to 41.6% and segmental operating profit fell 14.7% as softer trading produced negative operating leverage. The group’s credit book grew 5.5% to R9.4-billion, while net bad debt rose to R1.7-billion.

The Bash figures come amid a fast-shifting local e-commerce market. Amazon switched on its Prime membership in South Africa this week, Takealot continues to dominate online retail and Checkers Sixty60 has reshaped grocery delivery. TFG’s near-50% online growth – off a still-modest base – suggests its strategy of pulling its stable of brands into a single platform is gaining traction even as the physical retail backdrop sours.

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The group opened 233 stores and closed 242 during the year, trading from 4 914 stores across 18 countries. TFG London sales rose 29.4% in pounds but were flat excluding White Stuff, hurt in part by what the group described as “a significant cyber incident affecting a key online concession partner”. TFG Australia sales fell 1.5%.

TFG said early FY2027 trading was mixed: TFG Africa sales grew 2.2% in the nine weeks to 30 May 2026, while gross margins across all three territories had started the year about 100 basis points higher.

For TFG, the question its results pose appears increasingly to be how quickly Bash and online can scale to offset the pressure on its stores and its struggling offshore brands. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media