While South Africa has been lamenting a potential retail apocalypse since the likes of Stuttafords, River Island, Nine West, Topshop, and the Platinum Group stores all shut their doors for good and left our malls, it would appear Spanish retailer, MANGO, had been doing some work to cement a return to SA.
In 2017, Fin24 reported on the closure of all standalone MANGO and Nine West stores, whose licenses were both held by The House of Busby. The brands reportedly contributed less than 5% to The House of Busby’s turnover.
In that same year, Edcon announced that it would no longer be stocking certain international brands (including MANGO) in their Edgars stores, as the “international brands’ profit margins were not as big as the group’s own brands.”
Despite the economy remaining strong, American retailers continued to struggle this year. Figures from Coresight Research show that just over 9,300 stores shut down.
Since then, SA shoppers have been able to get their hands on MANGO threads via online shopping site, Superbalist.
Fast forward some three years later, and MANGO is a standalone store on our shores once again.
While it’s unclear as to why exactly the fashion retailer is back in Mzansi, with this new opening, the brand is consolidating its presence in Africa, where MANGO is present with 52 retail outlets, four of which are megastores.
MANGO was one of the first European fashion brands to expand in Africa when MANGO opened the first store in the continent 18 years ago, and is planning to expand its retail offering in South Africa into 2020.
Located in one of South Africa’s elite shopping centres, Sandton City, the new store has a sizable selling space.
This store features the new MANGO interior design concept, which aims to create a larger and more dynamic space, significantly improving the customer experience. The use of materials such as marble, concrete, wood and natural stone gives the store its own personality.
And your sartorial personality can also look forward to slight renovations, as this new store offers its customers the full MANGO women’s line.
Images supplied by Styling Concepts