About Boardmans

South Africa’s original homestore, Boardmans was purchased by Edcon from Pick ‘n Pay effective April 1st, 2004.

The integration of Boardmans into Edcon provided the group entry into the table top, kitchenware and home décor segment of the homeware market with an already established brand name and customer base.

“This acquisition extends Edcon’s presence into the homewaresmarket on the back of a well established brand name in Boardmans, a company which had a turnover of R211 million for the year ended February 2003″, says Steve Ross, Chief Executive Officer of Edcon.

Boardmans started out as a hardware store called Sam Newman’s. In November 1982, Tom Boardman bought two retail outlets in Cape Town, and the first homestore in South Africa was born.

The company grew slowly, and by June 1984 Pick ‘n Pay was a financial partner. In June 1986, Pick ‘n Pay took over the whole business and subsequently grew it to 26 stores nationwide.

“The purchase of Boardmans supports our strategy of making select acquisitions of reasonably priced businesses in the non-food retail area and we are very excited about the potential for growth from bringing Boardmans into the Edcon group,” says Steve Ross.

With a similar target market to that of the Edgars chain, Boardmans now has 25 stores in prime locations, selling mainly kitchenware, outdoor goods and soft goods (bedding, towels, curtains and the like)