I once bumped into Truworths boss Michael Mark at the Slow Lounge at Cape Town International Airport. I was down there to interview Karl-Johan Persson, the Swedish billionaire CEO of H&M, the cheap&chic retailer that had just opened its first store in SA.We got to talking (Mark and I) about the expansion of global retailers in SA, and the role that credit plays within the industry.Some 101, if I may: Truworths’ operating metrics are matchless; one of their core competences is their culture of frugality. Mark’s 24-year tenure makes him the longest-serving CEO in the retail sector.He basically took the job ... when I had just learnt to write my name, when the iPhone was just a twinkle in Steve Jobs’s eye and almost a year before Clinton (Bill, that is) became the president of the US. He is no lightweight, then.On that day in October, he said that most South Africans couldn’t afford to buy things like clothes using cash, that credit was still a vital part of the sector and internationa...
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