Articles: General Articles

South Africa’s biggest toy and baby products retailer, Redgwoods, expects sales to grow by 10 percent in real terms this festive season. A highly competitive pricing model and a strong customer centric focus, and new stores opened last year are expected to spur the growth in sales.

The owner of Reggie’s, Toys R Us and Baby and Company, has in the past 24 months refurbished nearly half of its Redgwoods stores and opened 14 new stores.

“New stores normally have an 18-month gestation period before showing positive results and we are confident that this growth coupled with our competitive pricing and extensive range of product will yield positive results for us,’’ said Issy Zimmerman, Director Redgwoods.

“We have been buying aggressively in the Far East and managed to take appropriate foreign exchange forward cover to insulate ourselves against some of the volatility of the rand. As a result, we have been able to provide our customers with prices that offer real value for money.”

Zimmerman said turning their shops into hybrid stores offering a one-stop baby, toy, gaming and gifting solution for families was a major plus in the company’s favour.

The launch of two online stores for the Reggie’s and Baby and Company chains a year ago is already showing positive returns, growing into the biggest online toy and baby offering in South Africa. The new online stores are proving popular with parents-to-be, parents, children, aunts, uncles and grandparents stretched for time as they offer hassle free shopping in the comfort of their homes. The stores were also attracting considerable traffic from expats wanting to send gifts to their loved ones in SA.

About Redgwoods

Redgwoods is South Africa’s largest toy and baby retailer owning Toys R Us, Reggie’s, Baby & Company and Little People -stores. Redgwoods also has Babies R Us stores within all their Toys R Us stores specializing in baby products. Currently it sells toys, games and baby merchandise through;
• 24 Toys R Us stores
• 36 Reggie’s stores
• 1 Baby & Company
• 3 Little People -stores.