Stuttafords

Adderley Street in ca. 1897, with Thorne, Stuttaford & Co. store, middle

Stuttafords Cape Town 1957

1916 Stuttafords ad printed in Standard Dutch (before Afrikaans replaced it) in Die Huisgenoot magazine

Stuttafords, West at Field streets, Durban, 1926

Stuttafords, Rissik at Pritchard streets, Johannesburg in 1957

How the Stuttafords Cape Town Adderley Street flagship store grew over time with additions

Stuttaford's was a chain of upscale department stores in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia that operated for 159 years from 1858 through 2017. It was nicknamed the "Harrod's of South Africa". At closing it had seven stores in South Africa, two in Botswana, and one in Namibia.^[1] It continues to operate in Namibia only.^[2]

History[]

Founder Samson Rickard Stuttaford opened his first shop in 1857 in Cape Town city centre.^[3][1] His son was Richard Stuttaford (b. 1870) was a prominent businessman and entered the firm in 1886. In 1859 Povall & Stuttaford was established. In 1868 the company Thorne, Stuttaford & Co. was established in collaboration with William Thorne.^[3]

Its main Cape Town store at the corner of Adderley and Hout streets, opened in 1938, was designed by in-house Harrods architect , echoing the style of the London department store's buildings.^[1]

In 1978, Graham Beck's Kangra Holdings bought Stuttafords, which at that point had five stores, for 12 million rand. On 24 August 1979 the company was delisted from the stock exchange. Beck stripped the assets, selling the transport and warehousing operations for 10 million rand.^{[citation needed]}

In 1983 he sold the Durban branch to Garlicks. In 1986 he sold Stuttaford's 45% share in Cavendish Square shopping centre. in 1987 he sold the Cape Town Adderley Street flagship store to Unidev for 11 million rand. The store closed 18 April 1987.^[4]

In 1987, what remained of Stuttafords, which by then also included the remaining John Orr's and Garlicks store branches, was sold to , another department store, which was part of Kirsh Trading, later Tradegro. The John Orr's and Garlicks branches were rebranded Stuttafords which then had 8 branches. Pepkor acquired Stuttafords in 1992 along with Ackermans, Checkers and Cashbuild. In 1998 Pepkor announced that it planned to sell Stuttafords and focus on its core business, serving low- to lower-middle-income consumers. In 2000, taking control in a deal worth 106 million rand were: the management (35%) and staff (15%) of Stuttafords, and African Merchant Bank Private Equity Partners (AMB PEP, 50%): AMB PEP would later sell to the store management.^[5]

In 2000 Stuttafords moved from a model of a complete traditional staid department store to that of a contemporary, specialty department store focusing on apparel, cosmetics and "soft" home goods such as bed and bath linens.^[5]

In 2008, under CEO Marco Cicoria, the store pivoted again, aiming to be the country's leading retailer selling international upmarket brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Ted Baker, Gap and Banana Republic. This proved to be fatal when in 2015 an economic crisis and reduction in the value of the rand versus the U.S. dollar (on top of a 45% import duty) made the upmarket products extremely expensive in the local currency. Attempts at a bailout failed and in July 2017 the chain closed,^[6] except for the Windhoek, Namibia store which was sold off and remains in operation.^[7]

Cape Town Flagship[]

The store at Adderley and Hout streets was the largest and grandest, and formed the central shopping district together with other now-closed department stores such as Garlicks and . In 1957, 993 employees worked here both in the retail store operation and in the head office.^[8]

The flagship was a complete department store, as opposed to the smaller department stores focusing on apparel and soft home goods that it would operate starting around the turn of the 21st century. As of 1970, the flagship carried:^[9]

• Women's and men's apparel and accessories;
• Cosmetics, Childrenswear, Luggage;
• Home crafts (Dress Fabrics, Paper Patterns, Sewings, Notions, Trimmings, Buttons, Wools, Needlework)
• Home furnishings (Carpets, Furniture, Bedding, Garden (including some Sports), Fabrics Lamps, Towels, Napery, Linens, Blankets, Dinnerware, Ornaments, Glassware, Cutlery, Ovenware, Kitchenware, Hardware, Gardening, Electrical, Radio, Gifts, Candles);
• Sundries (Curios, Photographic, Stationery, Books, Records;
• Gourmet food hall selling Groceries, Frozen Goods, Fish, Cakes, Sweets, and Smokers' Requisites.
• There were two restaurants: Adderley Restaurant and the self-serve Bird Cage restaurant.
• There were additional concession spaces.

Branches[]

In 2006, Stuttafords had the most stores in its history, 22 in total. In 2009, to restructure to international standards, it closed smaller stores in Somerset West, Woodhill and Hyde Park.^[10] Some other stores were downsized or closed before liquidation in 2017, as shown in the table.

Source: John Marwood, The History of Stuttafords Department Stores^[11]

Country/ Province/ Metro. area	Community	Shopping centre	Opened	Closed	Notes
SOUTH AFRICA
Western Cape (formerly part of Cape Province)
Cape Town	Cape Town CBD	Adderley Street SW cor. Hout (1938 building) through to St Georges Mall 33°55′22″S 18°25′17″E / 33.9227763°S 18.4214175°E / -33.9227763; 18.4214175		18 April 1987[12]
	Century City	Canal Walk		May 2017[13]	4,336 m2 upon closing in 2017.[14]
	Claremont	Cavendish Square	September 7, 1972[15][16]	2016[17]	March 2013 "Stuttafords Emporium" launched here, 60% larger than the original store.[18]
	Belville			2014[19]
	Somerset West			2009
Gauteng (formerly part of Transvaal)
Johannesburg	Johannesburg CBD	SE Corner of Rissik and Pritchard streets 26°12′12″S 28°02′31″E / 26.2033888°S 28.0418928°E / -26.2033888; 28.0418928	1893/1897	16 June 1973[20]	Firs branch 1893, rebuilt 1897. 10-story building in Pritchard Street erected 1903. Adjacent 6-story building erected in Rissik Street 1928/9.[21] Building semi-abandoned until 2016, now site of Stuttafords House flats.[22]
	Sandton	Sandton City	August 1973		4,645 m2 upon opening (2 sales levels of 1,858 m2 each and one service basement of 929 m2). 6,299 m2 upon closing in 2017.[14]
	Roodepoort			May 2017[13]	3,095 m2 upon closing in 2017.[14]
	Rosebank	Oxford Corner[23]	1958[3]	?	1977[23]
	Rosebank	(1st store)	25 October 1977[23]	1983	Replaced freestanding streetfront store at Oxford Corner.[23]
	Rosebank	Rosebank Mall (2nd store)	31 July 2014[24]	May 2017[13]	2,409 m2 upon closing in 2017.[14]
	Bedfordview	Eastgate Shopping Centre		2017[14]	5,637 9m2 upon closing in 2017.[14]
Hyde Park			2009
Pretoria	Menlyn	Menlyn Park		2017[14]	2,580 m2 upon closing in 2017.[14]
	Brooklyn	Brooklyn Mall		May 2017[13]	"boutique" store
				2009
Randburg	Cresta	Cresta Shopping Centre
KwaZulu-Natal (formerly Natal)
Durban	Durban Central	NW corner West and Field streets (today Joe Slovo & Dr Pixley Kaseme)[25] 29°51′31″S 31°01′19″E / 29.8586860°S 31.0218430°E / -29.8586860; 31.0218430	1926[3]	1983[23]	1983 became a Garlicks; as of July 2020, occupied on ground floor by Markham, Bradlows, and "Garlicks Chambers"[26]
	Umhlanga Rocks	Gateway Theatre of Shopping	2009	2017	replaced Musgrave Centre. 3,795 m2 upon closing in 2017.[14]
	La Lucia
	Westville			2017[14]	2,440 m2 upon closing in 2017.[14]
Pietermaritzburg				1984[3]	Lease taken over by John Orr's[3]
BOTSWANA
Gaborone		Gamecity Lifestyle Shopping Mall[27]		2017
		Airport Junction Shopping Centre		2017
Kenya
Nairobi	Dagoretti		2005[3]	March 2007[28]	originally about 30 employees, later fell to around 15
NAMIBIA
Windhoek		Maerua Mall		(open)	Sold in June 2017 to a 3rd party.[13] Still operating as of July 2020.[29]

External links[]

• John Marwood, The History of Stuttafords Department Stores of South Africa 1858 - 2017: Expansion, Takeovers, Makeovers, Collapse
• "The Story of Stuttaford's" (blog)

Bibliography[]

• (Book) Stuttaford & Co. Ltd., Gill Fraser (ed.), The Story of Stuttafords, Cape Press, 1957. 55 pp.
• (E-book) John Marlow, The History and Evolution of Stuttafords Department Stores of South Africa 1858 - 2015

References[]

• John Marwood, The History of Stuttafords Department Stores^[30]