Young Designers Emporium: Growth and the Entrepreneur

In the nine years since the inception of Young Designers Emporium (YDE), its founder, Paul Simon, had seen his vision of providing cutting-edge fashion and lifestyle products created by hopeful young South African designers, grow into a successful chain of ten stores in South Africa’s premier shopping malls. Having started with a R10 000 loan from his father, and his mother’s retirement policy as surety, Simon had trusted his instincts that the reward from his kubbitz-style operation would be greater than the risks. Now, at the end of 2003, Truworths, a leading fashion retailer with 257 stores in South Africa and 14 franchise operations in Africa and the Middle East, was offering to purchase 75% of his company, thereby providing the credit facilities that YDE needed to help it grow further. Simon needed to decide whether closing this deal was really the answer to unleashing YDE’s true potential.

No. Pages: 8

Main Topics:
- Entrepreneurship
- Strategy

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