Mr Price pauses third market plans to focus on SA, NKD

Mr Price Group CEO Mark Blair says a plan to enter a third geographical territory, after Europe, is off the table for the next “couple of years’ as it focuses all its attention on South Africa and the NKD business in Europe, which it acquired for R3.6 billion in March.

- Hilton Tarrant

Blair first referenced a potential third market at its capital markets day in mid-March, where it provided an in-depth look at NKD’s historical trading performance and shared a medium-term outlook.

In that presentation, he said the group identified central and eastern Europe, along with one other region, as “attractive” in its initial research on expansion.

He added that Mr Price remained interested in that other region, which was not disclosed, in which it has done some work.

Even after the debt raised to buy NKD, executives were confident that the group had sufficient headroom for another deal.