This is the peak season for retailers to stock school shoes, the unglamorous staple which underpins so much of the SA footwear industry. Palm Footwear is one of the most successful school shoe suppliers, and here MD Rajeev Pattundeen answers our questions about what consumers expect and retailers need from this category, and what the future holds. ...more

Michael Wyatt, Country Manager, Bata South AfricaPinetown, KZN, SA - Overall Back To School was extremely successful from a manufacturing, distribution, and retail perspective. We saw double-digit growth vs. plans, and a strong January top-up demand despite 2022’s inflationary pressure on raw material costs and gross margin. The maj ...more

Palm: Raring to goBy Rajeev Pattundeen, MDDurban, KZN, SA – We open 10.1, hence the silence… been in a quiet holiday bubble!      Our retail partners were adequately stocked in anticipation of a normalised back to school season.      Feedback received,  is that trade has been buoyant with mi ...more

Cape Town, W Cape, SA - The rules imposed on most footwear manufacturers wishing to restart manufacturing under the government's 'Level 4' lockdown "will discourage most from re-opening", SAFLIA executive director Jirka Vymetal said last week. "There are a lot of rules and requests that make it difficult," he said. &qu ...more