Latest news with #Ackermans
Zawya
6 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
Pepkor's fashion chain Ayana aims for hundreds of stores in South Africa
Recently-launched fashion chain Ayana could have hundreds of stores, the CEO of its owner Pepkor told Reuters, as the South African retailer targets trendier customers and embraces the fast-fashion model of some rivals. Pepkor, the owner of the budget Pep and Ackermans clothing chains, is underrepresented in the adult clothing market, especially in women's wear. Recently it has been expanding in that market with the acquisition of fashion businesses Legit, Style and Swagga. In February, it launched 32 Ayana stores by converting discontinued Ackermans womenswear stores. The brand is more fashionable than Pepkor's core chains and aims to refresh its ranges more frequently, with some shoppers comparing its style and store layout to Inditex-owned Zara. "This is not like a thousand-store chain. It will be, I suppose, a couple of hundred if it's really successful, maybe two or three hundred," Pieter Erasmus, chief executive officer of Pepkor, told Reuters. Ayana is targeting fashion-conscious young women with its waistcoats, bow mini dresses, and collarless jackets, "but at a price that is affordable," Erasmus added, compared to international brands like H&M. "Customers have responded well in the store, in sales, but also on social media. So we think that there's an opportunity for this brand in South Africa to do, again, I don't like using this word, 'Zara-type' aspirational (fashion)," he said. He added that Ayana was also trying to tap customers that "are currently buying from some Chinese (retailers like) Shein. There's an opportunity to really address that... So we're going to put a big effort into it." Online-only retailers Shein and Temu have grown rapidly by shipping inexpensive products directly to consumers, forcing local retailers to find new ways of differentiating themselves. Ayana currently sources its stock from Asia, particularly China, and locally in order to respond faster to changing trends, Erasmus said. All rights reserved. © 2022. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Reuters
27-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
South Africa's Pep owner Pepkor reports 12.4% earnings rise
JOHANNESBURG, May 27 (Reuters) - South African discount retailer Pepkor Holdings (PPHJ.J), opens new tab reported on Tuesday a 12.4% rise in half year earnings, while revenue grew 12.8%. The owner of PEP and Ackermans clothing brands said headline earnings per share (HEPS) from continuing operations rose to 84.3 cents in the six months to March 31, up from 75 cents a year ago. Normalised HEPS grew by 18.9%.
The Citizen
13-05-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
Where do you shop for jeans? Survey reveals Mr Price is SA's most loved store
The survey reveals the top five loved stores as Mr Price, Ackermans, Pep Stores, Sportscene and Markham. The survey reveals that due to the affordability and accessibility of Mr Price, most consumers buy their jeans there. Followed by Ackermans, Pep Stores, Sportscene and Markham. But premium brands like G-Star and Levi's hold aspirational value. Picture: Supplied There are many reasons why interest in denim has consistently remained at the forefront of fashion; the primary one is its versatility. Men can wear jeans with a shirt and still look professional while going to work. The same outfit can be worn to a bar, and it would still be suitable. Similarly, women can wear jeans with high heels and still look respectable. Change the heels to sneakers, and go run errands. Another reason for the interest in denim is its affordability. During difficult economic times, South Africans prioritise ways to save money, and buying jeans is one of them because you can get multiple outfits for different occasions from one pair of jeans. Eighty20 and MoyaApp conducted research to understand the prevalence of denim in the country. Most jeans bought at Mr Price Andrew Fulton, director at Eighty20, said jeans are one of the most bought clothing items in the country. Premium brands like G-Star and Levi's hold aspirational value. However, it is the affordability and accessibility of retailers like Mr Price that drive volume and keep jeans in everyday wardrobes. According to the latest Maps dataset, a survey of 20 000 people released quarterly by the Marketing Research Foundation, showed the top five clothing stores in terms of number of shoppers are Mr Price, Ackermans, Pep Stores, Sportscene and Markham, with nearly one in five people shopping at one of these stores in the past quarter. 'Just like their large international counterparts (H&M, G-Star, Zara, Gap and others), it is impossible to imagine not finding some form of denim product on the shelves of any of these stores.' ALSO READ: Things getting better? Growth in consumer spending recorded 12 million adults bought jeans To get the information, 20 000 registered research panellists on MoyaApp were sent the survey. Research released in April indicates that 12 million adults in the country have purchased clothing in the past three months, with women's outerwear and children's clothing being the most popular categories. The results are based on 55% women, 45% men, and individuals between the ages of 25 and 44, with a significant proportion of younger adults (18–24). 98% of the respondents said they wear jeans daily, and 80% had purchased denim within the past six months. Most like skinny The survey also asked about preferred fit, with 58% of the respondents choosing 'skinny'. 'This strong preference appears to be driven largely by younger consumers, particularly those aged 25 to 34. 'This age group, which made up 44% of the respondents, accounted for nearly half of all skinny-fit selections and shows a clear leaning toward fitted, fashion-forward styles, solidifying their role as denim trendsetters.' ALSO READ: Research shows what SA consumers want most when buying products and services What about straight denim? The survey shows that older adults love looser fits, such as straight and relaxed styles. Meanwhile, the bootcut, once a denim staple, has fallen almost entirely out of favour. In terms of style preference, 32% opted for a dark wash, followed by 26% who preferred a light wash, and 21% who favoured a ripped or distressed look. Earlier this year, Mr Price saw gains in cash sales and online growth amid improved consumer spending. The retailer's retail sales grew by 10.6% to R14.6 billion for the third quarter of its financial year, which ended on 28 December 2024. NOW READ: Are Hermès, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci made in China? How to tell real luxury from fakes
New York Times
07-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
One Fire, Two Burned Homes — and Wildly Different Insurance Outcomes
Before the fire, the two couples, and the homes they loved, were nearly identical. The Ackermans and the Spaldings bought their houses — a few hundred feet apart, framed by windows facing dramatic views of the Rocky Mountains — 15 years ago. Both homes in Louisville, Colo., were roomy, each with three stories, four bedrooms and a finished basement. And the couples grew their families to fill them, welcoming their first children — daughters who later served in the same Girl Scout troop — around the time they moved in. Two years later, each couple welcomed a second child, another daughter for the Ackermans and a son for the Spaldings. On Dec. 30, 2021, as smoke descended over the cul-de-sacs dotted with maple trees, the families escaped a wildfire that destroyed more than 1,000 structures. Both couples returned the next day to find that their subdivision had been obliterated, the destruction so complete that they had to rely on street signs and charred trees to identify the plots where their homes once stood. Each family soon reached out to their insurers to begin rebuilding their lives. And that's when their paths diverged — sharply. The Spaldings received a check for $311,810 from their insurer Safeco in seven weeks to cover the belongings lost in the blaze, after little more than a phone interview with the adjuster. More than a year later, State Farm, the insurer for the Ackermans, offered just $131,275 to cover their contents, and only after the couple produced an exhaustive, 50-page Excel spreadsheet including items as minor as the Lego set and Barbie dolls their daughters had lost. Though the Ackermans eventually received over $850,000, the money was paid to them in drips and drabs, following a yearslong fight, and it was far short of the $1.1 million they spent to rebuild. They sued State Farm last year arguing that the insurer acted in bad faith and intentionally delayed their claim. The lawsuit is still pending. 'If you're standing on our lot and there's like literally nothing here, just pay out the policy. Like why? Why drag it out over years?' said Lara Ackerman, 48, an administrator at the University of Colorado. The contrasting experiences of the neighbors with their insurers offer a window into an industry in crisis. As climate change has fueled a growing number of natural disasters, the spotlight is on the onerous requirements that delay or deny the claims of policyholders. Tens of thousands of more people are now wading through processes that were once isolated to the single neighbor down the street or the nameless residents of a small town ruined by a flood. In Los Angeles, where over 16,000 homes and structures were destroyed in January, insurance companies have already paid $6.9 billion in claims, according to a tracker from the California Department of Insurance. That figure is only a small share of the estimated $35 to $45 billion in total insured losses, according to data firm CoreLogic. In 2021, Louisville, Colo., which is northwest of Denver, was decimated by the Marshall Fire — 115-mile-per-hour winds pushed the inferno across a freeway — that resulted in $1 trillion in losses. As many as two-thirds of the households were underinsured, according to a report from the Colorado Division of Insurance, meaning that even if insurance companies had paid the full coverage limit, many would have struggled to rebuild. 'A Moonscape' and Milk When the Ackermans and the Spaldings returned to their subdivision where the streets curve like commas, they saw nothing but destruction. 'A moonscape,' Ms. Ackerman said, describing how she had to count the lots from the corner to recognize which one belonged to her family. 'Like the surface of the moon,' said Jennifer Spalding, 45, a marketing director, who could only recognize her lot because of a maple tree — her children's swing still hanging from a branch and the holiday lights her husband had put up still wrapped around the trunk. Ms. Spalding, her husband, Ryan, and their two children initially moved in with her in-laws. They called Safeco, a subsidiary of Liberty Mutual Insurance, and were told that the adjuster would call them for a 'lifestyle interview.' On the phone, as she broke down crying at times, the adjuster asked her what she could remember from each room of her house: What brands did she have? How many items of each object? When she got off the phone, Ms. Spalding sent receipts for some of the big ticket items and pictures of each room. The family's premium was around $3,000 a year. Like other homeowner's policies, theirs consisted of a Coverage A, for the structure, Coverage B for detached buildings like a garage, and Coverage C, for the contents, which she was told to think of like this: If you could flip your house over and shake it real hard, the contents policy would cover anything that fell down. They received the contents check less than two months after the fire, at the end of February 2022. Lara and Trevor Ackerman paid less for their premium — $2,000 in the year before the fire — but were insured for nearly the same amount: Just under $326,000 for their contents. And the thought of the coverage comforted them, even as they found nothing more than four pools of aluminum sitting underneath where one of their cars had been left inside the garage, the silver puddles representing where the car's wheels had been. 'We both turned to each other and said, at least we have good insurance,' said Mr. Ackerman, 52, a software engineer. It took them months to complete the bulk of the inventory — a voluminous spreadsheet containing 2,483 items, from expensive purchases like their refrigerator, to the most minute, including the half-gallon of milk that was cremated inside the fridge. To be credited for each line item, State Farm required not just a description of the object, but also how much it cost and its condition. The total cost they tallied for their lost belongings: $322,624. It was now more than a year since the fire, and they waited another month for State Farm to send the spreadsheet back. With no explanation, the insurer had changed nearly every item in their list to 'average,' even though many items, like the milk, had been entered as 'above average' or as 'new.' Next, the insurer depreciated nearly everything in their inventory, concluding that the couple was owed just over $131,000. It was the beginning of a yearslong ping pong between the couple and the insurance company. From a sofa in the rental where the family moved, Ms. Ackerman would review a printout of the exhaustive list and circle what she believed were errors. Weeks later when the new inventory arrived, some of the errors had been fixed, only for new ones to be introduced, the couple said. For example, the large, potted ficus tree which the couple had been given as a wedding gift decades earlier had been depreciated to $94, even though it would cost $500 to buy a new potted one of that size. 'I don't think trees depreciate,' Ms. Ackerman said wryly. Depreciation One of the little understood clauses in many insurance contracts involves 'depreciated value' — a measure of how much an object has lost in value since its purchase. Decades ago, State Farm limited the depreciation of any given item to 50 percent, said Stephen Strzelec, who spent 17 years working for State Farm, including as the section manager in the company's Alaska division in the 1990s. For example, a $1,000 couch could be depreciated to no lower than $500. The company has since then increased the depreciation all the way to 90 percent. Now a $1,000 couch can be turned into as little as $100, said Mr. Strzelec, who has testified in dozens of insurance lawsuits since he left the company in 2002. The reduction in what the insurer pays out was part of an overhaul in the industry that began before the Allstate Corporation became a publicly traded company, according to the research of investigative journalists Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe in 'When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm.' Allstate hired the consulting firm McKinsey and Company to help it boost profits. As a result of its McKinsey makeover, Allstate instructed its adjusters to settle claims as quickly and cheaply as possible, according to documents revealed in court proceedings. By mid-1995, State Farm — Allstate's competitor — tapped McKinsey, too, and sent its managers instructions on a new claims approach: the Advancing Claims Excellence program, or ACE, Mr. Strzelec said. The program called for adjusters to reduce 'slippage,' 'leakage' and 'shortfall' — terms that denoted the difference between what was paid on a claim and the lesser amount that the insurer could have paid, according to Mr. Strzelec. From the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, insurers paid 70 cents in claims for every dollar they received in premiums. Two years after the McKinsey makeover in 1997, the payout had fallen to 60.2 cents. By 2006, despite the huge number of claims resulting from Hurricane Katrina, the ratio had dropped to 53.2, according to data from the Consumer Federation of America. 'Every company is entitled to make a profit,' Mr. Strzelec said. 'The question becomes, you know, how do you make the profit?' In an emailed statement, State Farm spokesman Justin Tomczak said that the allegations about the company's claims procedures 'do not align with our practices, our values, or our commitment to being there for our customers.' He also said that the company cannot comment on a claim that is in litigation, and that the filing of a lawsuit does not substantiate the allegations. He added that State Farm 'is committed to paying what we owe promptly.' Ribbon Becomes Red Tape For the Ackermans, the claims process caused so much stress and strife that they ended up in marriage counseling. A back-and-forth with State Farm over the costs of three holiday-themed ribbons — green, red and white — pushed them over the edge. In updating the endless inventory of the belongings they lost in the fire, the couple had forgotten to enter the total of $9 for the ribbon, they said. The insurance adjuster had refused to update their inventory because they had omitted the dollar amount of each ribbon, worth $3 each, Ms. Ackerman said. It was a strikingly different experience than their neighbors the Spaldings. Both families moved into brand-new homes in December 2023, days before the two-year anniversary of the fire. For the Spaldings, it was an upgrade: They used a custom builder, and their new house is approximately 1,000 square feet larger than the one that burned down. With no money readily available, the Ackermans took out a second mortgage and started a GoFundMe. 'The process that we went through definitely ground salt into the wound,' Mr. Ackerman said. They ended up buying what they could afford: a modular home that was assembled in a factory and lowered onto their empty lot. It fit together like the Legos they were asked to enumerate.
