African Adventures with Mr. Price Group: Mr. Price

Today was my first day at work for Mr. Price. Therefore, I thought this would be a good time to talk a little bit more about the company and what I will be doing for the next 10 weeks.

Mr. Price started as an apparel manufacturer, but over the years has transitioned into a fashion oriented value retailer. In the 26 years since they started, Mr. Price has opened nearly 1,000 stores and has over 17,300 employees. Their group now consists of 5 separate stores selling everything from everyday apparel to sporting goods. These stores include Mr. Price, Mr. Price Home, Mr. Price Sporting Goods, Miladys, and Sheet Street. One of the really neat parts about Mr. Price is that they manufacturing the majority of the items that they sell. Since the Southern hemisphere is one season behind the Northern, they are able to track the latest trends and fashion and incorporate the designs they find into their own line of clothing. The tricky party about the whole thing is they will only have appx 4 months to design, manufacture, and the prepare to sell them in the stores for the upcoming season. This allows Mr. Price to be fashionable and priced at a value for the consumers. This is probably one of the reasons they have really been so successful in the market. Another reason has to be their young, energetic, and entrepreneurial environment they have in the home office. It was inspiring to walk around and watch everyone at work today. Even though at some points it seemed quite chaotic, you could really tell that everyone was passionate about what they were doing and really enjoyed their job. No wonder Mr. Price has been named the best place to work in South Africa and South Africa’s most loved brand. They really have something going here!

Hopefully, in the next 10 weeks I’ll be able to learn just a little bit about what makes this company so special. At the same time, I hope that I will be able to contribute to the team. This summer I have been assigned to the Sheet Street division. Sheet Street is a store that sells bedroom, living room, and bathroom products. They have currently had great success over the past few years and want to make sure that they continue in the same direction. This is where I come in (hopefully! haha). It is my job over the summer to analyze their strategy over the last couple of years. More importantly, I need to identify what parts of the strategy have made Sheet Street so successful and what parts need further development. I’ll look at areas such as the product, marketing, people, locations, systems, suppliers, and logistics. Wow! It’s going to be a big task, but I know I can do it!

Lucky more me, I won’t just be working all summer. Mr. Price has put together a fun-filled itinerary for Jason and me. This includes going to Mr. Price Pro (a world-wide surfing competition), various trips across South Africa, going to a game reserve, and maybe even going to a rugby game! Mr. Price sponsors the local professional rugby team, the Durban Sharks, and if they continue to the playoffs I might just get to go to a game. I’ll keep my fingers crossed! Below, I have put down just a few of the events I will have the opportunity to go to over the summer.

1^st week

Tour the Home Office and Distribution Center

Get oriented in role and begin working

2^nd week

Meet the CEO, Stuart Bird!

Begin work on the summer long project

3^rd week

Travel to Cape Town

Meet with the former CEO of Mr. Price, Alastair McArthur

Explore the city and surrounding tourist destinations

4^th week