Edcon pins revival hopes on ‘strategist’ Pattison
CEO-in-waiting's restructuring may involve sale of assets
Apparel retailer Edcon is readying itself for a strategic overhaul, following the appointment of Grant Pattison, the current chief operating officer, as CEO from February. Pattison - who has been punted as a strategic thinker by industry peers, given his previous interaction with the world's largest retailer, Walmart - has been given the green light to revive the Edcon business, a move some say is long overdue. Atiyyah Vawda, an equity analyst at Avior Capital Markets, said Edcon's business model for the past few years had been stagnant and in need of an overhaul, which was why the sale of the group's noncore assets would be on the cards. Vawda said that although it was possible that Pattison was fixing up CNA and Boardmans for a sale, "there's a lot you need to fix from a strategic aspect and [to] reverse some of the issues that caused the downfall at the start of it". A sale "would be on the cards for any reasonable strategist. It all depends on how he goes about executing it. We'...
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