Fashion and home goods retailer Mr Price, a publicly-traded company based in Durban, South Africa, announced that it is acquiring 70 percent of the shares in Studio 88 Group, a major retailer of sneakers and apparel from Nike, Adidas, Vans and many other sportswear brands in South Africa, for 3.3 billion South African rands (€207 million). The current owner of Johannesburg-based Studio 88 Group is Blue Falcon Trading 188 (Proprietary) Limited, also from Johannesburg. The 21-year-old group had sales of ZAR 5.6 billion (€353 million) last year and operates more than 700 stores in South Africa and surrounding countries under the brand names Studio 88, SideStep, John Craig, Skipper Bar and others. To news portal news24.com, Mr Price described the Studio 88 Group as the “largest independent retailer of branded leisure, lifestyle and sporting apparel and footwear in South Africa.” Mr Price Group generated ZAR 22.6 billion (€1.42 billion) in sales in its last financial year across a range of retail sectors in apparel, homeware and financial services. Studio 88 founder Laurence Wernars will reportedly continue to run the company along with his management team. If the acquisition is successful and the conditions are met, the group’s inclusion would increase Mr Price’s annual sales to more than ZAR 28 billion (€1.76 billion) and the company’s footprint to more than 2,400 stores. The Mr Price Group would then employ over 25,000 people.

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