Online sales at The Foschini Group’s African business grew 53.3% in the six months to 30 September, driven by its Bash platform, even as the retailer closed 120 stores in the region.
Online now contributes 10.9% of TFG Africa’s sales, up from 7.4% a year earlier, the JSE-listed group said in its interim results on Friday. E-commerce revenue in the division’s retail business rose to R2.2-billion from R1.4-billion.
The pace is picking up. TFG Africa’s online sales grew 40.2% in the first half of the previous financial year and 49.2% for the full year to March, when online reached 10% of the division’s sales in the fourth quarter.
Physical retail is moving the other way. TFG Africa closed 120 underperforming stores in the half, mostly as their leases expired, and opened 41, cutting its trading space by 2.6%. It now trades from 3 585 stores in six countries and plans to close another 60-80 in the second half.
TFG Africa’s online sales grew 40.2% in the first half of the previous financial year and 49.2% for the full year to March.
“Leveraging Bash and our fulfilment capability” is one of the four priorities TFG set for its African business, alongside cutting costs, closing weak stores and building out its credit operation. Its outlook says the group remains focused on “capital-light growth through its digital channels”. The group has also put Bash under unified leadership with its credit and rewards businesses.
TFG Africa’s overall sales grew 3.8%, ahead of the 1% market growth reported by the Retail Liaison Committee, which tracks clothing retailers’ sales, and its segmental operating profit rose 2.7%. Like-for-like sales, which exclude store openings and closures, grew 2%.
The results do not say whether Bash is profitable.
Trading has since softened. TFG Africa’s sales fell 0.7% in the five weeks to 31 October, against growth of 3.7% a year earlier. TFG expects consumer spending to stay constrained, citing higher fuel prices and the resumption of interest rate increases.
At group level, revenue was flat at R31.4-billion and headline earnings per share fell 6.8% to 272.8c, dragged down by TFG’s UK and Australian businesses.
Cyberattack hits UK sales
The results also give the first measure of the damage from the cyberattack on TFG London, which TFG identified on 11 October. Demand on the Phase Eight, Hobbs and Whistles websites was 30.2% lower in the five weeks to 31 October, and their stores traded “at reduced levels”, the group said. White Stuff, which was not affected, grew sales 4.8% over the same period.
TFG said the three brands are recovering and that it has cyber insurance. It has reported the incident to UK authorities, but the results do not say whether customer data was compromised. Because the attack came after the reporting period, it is not reflected in the interim figures. – (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
