Operational overview

Jordan & Co

Jordan & Co has been in existence for over 100 years and has been a division of Feltex Holdings (Proprietary) Limited since July 2004.

It supplies fashion and sports footwear mainly to the men's domestic markets through the entire spectrum of retailers, being credit and cash chain stores, discounters, wholesalers, mini chains and independents. Efforts continue to identify niche export markets despite the current strength of the Rand. Until the start of the current decade, Jordan's business primarily consisted of manufacturing its own brands of Jordan, Bronx and Olympic, as well as shoes for other companies such as Adidas, Nike and Woolworths under their brands.

Recognising that there were certain products that could be sourced much more cheaply from China, the company has supplemented from China sales of its own existing brands at better margins.

As importing bulk product inevitably leads to surplus stocks, the company has successfully established five factory shops which now contribute significantly to total sales.

For over 10 years, the company has had the distributorship rights to the leading international running brand of Asics and its associate leisure brand, Onitsuka Tiger. As part of its strategy to increase branded business, distributorship rights have recently been acquired for a number of international casual and fashion brands including Fubu, Dr Martens, Tommy Hilfiger, Sperry and Keds. It is expected that, over the next three years, these brands will contribute increasingly to divisional profitability.

The company's operations are based in Elsies River, where it has a four-storey factory employing 900 people. Plant and machinery are modern and well maintained while manufacturing methods, scheduling and material requirements planning are controlled by extensive computer systems and computer aided design and development. The factory is the only one that is Nike-accredited in sub-Saharan Africa.

Strong retail demand in the last few months of 2004 had a significant impact on demand for Jordan products. Jordan will continue to build on its strong brands and will launch a ladies' fashion division in order to grow market share. Management will also continue to add value by supplying superior service to customers involving range building, sourcing, strict monitoring of quality procedures and on time delivery.

Jordan & Co - Cape Town