Whitehill chosen to head Neotel

Edcon is the largest clothing, footwear and general merchandise retailer in South Africa, completed by the sale of its Legit business for R637 million.

It operates more than 1 400 stores with nine store formats and annual revenues of R25.2 billion.

The company said it had put the brakes on opening new stores and that there were 120 less stores this year compared with last year as part of the company’s plan to consolidate struggling operations.

“We have more space than any other retailer in South Africa. In some cases we have stores in the central business districts and we have stores in rural areas which are struggling because of the drought.

“We are planning to close struggling stores, and we will change labels in favour of more profitable ones,” he said.

Edcon, whose division includes Edgars, Boardmans, Red Square and mono-branded stores, has decided to exit international brands in favour of local brands. ECONET Wireless Global unit Liquid Telecom has appointed former Vodafone Group executive Kyle Whitehill to head up South African internet provider Neotel and oversee the company’s expansion plans. Whitehill was previously chief executive of Vodafone Qatar and Vodafone Ghana and will replace interim head Nic Rudnick at Neotel, which Liquid acquired for R6.55 billion from India’s Tata Communication last year. Neotel’s plans to boost market share and add services under new ownership makes it a good time to join the Johannesburg-based company, Whitehill said. “Neotel will for the first time become a truly pan-African player,” he said. – Bloomberg GREEN GOALS