Edcon CEO in tears, Edgars and Jet might not open after lockdown

Retail 28 March 2020

Edcon's Chief executive officer (CEO) Grant Pattison announced via a conference call on The Money Show, hosted by Bruce Whitfield that the company is unable to pay its suppliers.

Pattison got very emotional and started sobbing because many of their suppliers are SMMES and that the company only has sufficient liquidity to pay salaries at this time.

He said: "The failure to meet the March sales targets, and the expected drop in collections of the debtor’s book, will mean that the business only has sufficient liquidity to pay salaries, which it deems a priority during these extremely uncertain times. As a result, Edcon is unable to honour any other accounts payable during this period."

He also said that Edcon, which is one of southern Africa's largest non-food retailers, may not be able to open at the end of South Africa's national lockdown to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

The presidential lockdown order means that Edcon is projecting to lose a further R800m in turnover during the 21 days of lockdown, resulting in an additional significant shortage of cash by the end of April.

Pattison said that Edcon is unable to make any promises to suppliers other than to keep them updated of developments or plans that the board approves.

“For your own planning, it would be pertinent for you to consider that orders already placed with you may be cancelled,” he said.

That’s according Edcon CEO Grant Pattison who told suppliers on the eve of the lockdown that March revenue will be R400-million below forecasts.

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Written by: Staff Writer.

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