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Johannesburg - Taste Holdings [JSE:TAS] said on Thursday that its jewellery division had concluded a deal with one of its major competitors which will see four stores situated in prime sites transformed into NWJ outlets.
On Tuesday, the Galaxy & Co stores situated at Fourways Mall, Waterfall Shopping Centre in Rustenburg, Clearwater Mall and Garden Route Mall in George became NWJ outlets.
"NWJ has finalised a sale agreement with Galaxy and has subsequently signed franchise contracts with existing NWJ franchisees, who have taken over the current leases at the specified sites and stocked the stores with NWJ merchandise.
"Due to the fact that the four new stores are franchised, there will be no capital outlay from NWJ," said Taste Holdings CEO Carlo Gonzaga.
In its interim report released in October, Taste committed to opening three new NWJ stores before the end of the year. Following this transaction, it will have opened seven new NWJ stores - exceeding its target for the second half of the year.
In terms of system-wide sales, NWJ is currently the third-largest competitor in the jewellery market.
"Ultimately, the opening of these new stores will bring the group closer to becoming the third-largest entity in the market with regards to the number of operating stores - an achievement we are aiming to accomplish in the near future," said Gonzaga.
NWJ is a vertically integrated national retail outlet.
The Taste Holdings jewellery division, which purchased NWJ in 2008, sources, distributes and manufactures 100% of the range the stores stock, of which about half is manufactured by its in-house facility.
"We are extremely satisfied with the continued growth of NWJ and, together with our existing stores, look forward to a robust festive trading period," said Gonzaga.
