Re: The Business of Luxury in South Africa

This piece is by Vuvu Nqezane, Managing Director at Vuvu Creative Consulting, and Author of Vuvu On Style.
It has been written in response to an Op-Ed by Johanna Colins-Wood, published on the Business of Fashion (BOF) on the 8th of June 2014.
The piece was centred around the argument that “Luxury brands are mistaken if they believe that there is no market from them in Africa.”

I live in South Africa and have had the honour of working for both Louis Vuitton and Salvatore Ferragamo in Johannesburg and there is by no means a shortage of customers. We did very well and I believe this is a case of image and to some extent, environmental issues.

It’s no secret that a lot of African countries are underdeveloped and infrastructure and logistics are a problem;

1. At Vuitton, about 50% of our customers were South African, 15% were touring Asians, and the other 40% were people mostly from Nigeria and Angola.
2. At Ferragamo a lot of our customers were Nigerian people.

Both Louis Vuitton and Salvatore Ferragamo in Johannesburg have by no means a shortage of customers.

I remember this one particular Nigerian lady who used to come in to the store (Ferragamo) every other month and spend well over $50 000 every time. A lot of Nigeria and Angolan customer’s regularly take trips to Europe, New York and South Africa for shopping simply because the luxury retailers aren’t in their country.

At Vuitton, about 50% of our customers were South African, 15% were touring Asians, and the other 40% were people mostly from Nigeria and Angola.

There’s most certainly a big existent luxury market on the continent at as a whole and it continues to grow every year. Africa is the next frontier, it’s the next Asia, and by that I mean it’s going to experience a major boom and it’s going to be interesting watching the brands that aren’t already here all trying to get through the door when earlier, African money wasn’t good enough.

South Africa is a perfect example of the future of Africa….

It’s no secret that a lot of African countries are underdeveloped and infrastructure and logistics are a problem

At present we have Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Bally, Tommy Hilfiger, Salvatorre Ferragamo, Fendi, Cartier, Dunhill, Burberry, Montblanc, Patek Phillipe, Hublot, Porsche, Lamborghini and many more.

What of the recent insurgence of Fast Fashion retailers, who are also staking their claim on the South African market?

Fast retailers Mango, Zara, Topshop, Thomas Pink, GAP, Karen Miller and Wolford have also taken note with River Island, Forever 21 and H&M on the way. 

Luxury brands should wake up and take notice.
The only luxury brand that hasn’t been able to sustain itself in South Africa, and in extention (sic) Africa, was Christian Lacroix.