Kalahari.com and takealot.com, two of the leading general etailers in South Africa, have announced that they are merging their operations.

The move was driven by the fact that, without scale, SA etailers simply can’t compete successfully against the local brick and mortar retailers and foreign companies such as Amazon and Alibaba. “After many years of losses on Kalahari and 4 years on takealot, we realise we have to work together if we are to survive and prosper”, said Oliver Rippel, senior executive responsible for Kalahari. “If you also take into account an uneven playing field against foreign operators who do not pay tax in South Africa, and the fact that high broadband costs are impeding the speed of growth in local online shoppers, combining forces gives us a better chance of success”.

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“Often, in relationships, there comes a time when partners go their separate ways. It’s not always a lack of love that kills the relationship, but sometimes it’s a focus on one’s own interests and, more often, there is also a lack of respect for the other’s position. Unfortunately, all too often these days, publishing is starting to look like a bad relationship,” writes Ed Nawotka in his latest editorial on Publishing perspectives.

Hentie Gericke, Treasurer, Education and Southern Region Chairperson, goes up to receive his award for Educational Bookseller of the year 2014, voted for by publishers.

Eastern region:
With the ever changing procurement methods of the Department of Education many booksellers are concerned and it remains a trying time for booksellers and stationers. In 2013 numerous meetings took place with the Department of Education and the publishers to contribute inputs and secure business. Many booksellers were selected as distributors to deliver pre-packed textbooks to schools. The deliveries to schools started as early as July 2013 and were completed successfully. Read more

The past twelve months have been difficult for the Book Trade, as the recession continued to affect consumers and the weakness of the rand against the pound and dollar pushed up the prices of imported books. Sales in the second half of 2013 were lower than 2012 for every week including Christmas week. The first 10 weeks of 2014 were difficult weeks, with revenues down on 2013. From mid March, however the situation started to improve, with revenues improving every week on the 2013 sales.
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Attending SA Booksellers executive members at the Sefika awards this year. Front row: Mohamed Kharwa, Samantha Faure, Sydwell Molosi, Riaz Hassim, Back row: Peter Adams, Richard Hargraves, Guru Redhi, Hentie Gericke

The August meetings are always the highlight of the SABA year. They not only bring together our members but they enable us to exchange information and learn from the best informed speakers on some critical subjects and they give your executive guidance on what to do in the coming year.
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