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Milestones

The Pepkor group has its origins in the discount clothing retail chain Pep Stores. The group, which targeted the lower end of the consumer market from the outset, consists of six wholly-owned subsidiaries focused on the cash value sector of the retail clothing and footwear market. These businesses together operate more than 2 800 retail outlets in Africa, Australia and Poland, and employ almost 28 000 people.

Some of the milestones in the history of the group are the following:

1965	Pep Stores is started in Upington in the Northern Cape of South Africa.
1972	Pep Stores is listed on the JSE.
1979	The company enters food retailing with the take-over of Shoprite which in turn acquires Grand Bazaars.
1982	The name of the holding company is changed from Pep Stores to Pepkor Limited.
1986	The discount clothing chain Ackermans is acquired. The group lists its clothing interests on the JSE as Pep Limited and its food interests as Shoprite Holdings Limited.
1991	Pepkor acquires control of the retail chains Smart Group Holdings, Cashbuild, Checkers and Stuttafords. Checkers is brought in under the Shoprite name. The group extends its interests to the United Kingdom with the opening of the first Your More Store outlet in Scotland.
1992	Pep’s interests in Botswana is listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange.
1993	Pepkor acquires the controlling interest in the British company Brown & Jackson plc with its wholly-owned subsidiary, the retail chain Poundstretcher. Pep’s interests in Namibia is listed on the Namibian Stock Exchange.
1997	Pepkor consolidates its UK retail interests in Brown & Jackson.
1998	The group extends its interests to Australia by acquiring the clothing chain Best & Less with its 84 stores.
1999	Pep Limited is delisted from the JSE.
2000	Cashbuild and Stuttafords are disposed of. The group undergoes dramatic restructuring. Pepkor unbundles its interest in Shoprite and Brown & Jackson to shareholders. Pepkor’s pyramid structure falls away, resulting in the delisting and disappearance of Pepgro, Pepkor’s ultimate holding company. The businesses remaining in the group are the value clothing retailers Pep, Ackermans and Best & Less.
2003	Pepkor acquires the assets of Fashion Africa (Fashaf) and with that the Dunns chain.
2004	Delisted from the JSE. At the end of that year it acquires the stores in Poland from Tradehold.
2005	Shoe City is taken over.
2006	Pepkor acquires the clothing chain John Craig with its 37 stores.