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The Foschini Group (TFG)

Known for Charles & Keith, Donna, Exact, Foschini, Hobbs London, Jet, Phase Eight, Whistles, Connor, Fabiani, G-Star Raw, Markham, Johnny Bigg, Relay Jeans, Taro Cash

The Foschini Group is one of the largest South African retailers in clothing and homeware with a portfolio of 27 retail brands. The company employs nearly 30,000 people in more than 4,000 outlets and operates in 32 countries across five continents. In 2020, the company had US$2.3 billion in revenue.

Summary

The Foschini Group (TFG) is among the weakest performing companies, ranking 28th in this year’s Gender Benchmark with a low score of 10.8 out of 100. It displays leading practice in 2 out of 34 indicators and is among the better performers on representation, particularly in the supply chain. However, the company lags behind industry peers in all measurement areas overall, most notably governance and strategy and compensation and benefits.

In addition to having a woman chief financial officer, TFG maintains a gender balance (between 40-60%) among senior executives and senior managers. In the supply chain, the company supports its suppliers in offering professional development opportunities to women workers through its “Sew Good Initiative”. It also requires its suppliers to have a non-discrimination policy that explicitly protects both pregnant and married women workers. Furthermore, TFG has made a public commitment to gender-responsive procurement through its Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) which features women-owned businesses.

However, TFG lacks an overall commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment across its full value chain. It has not established gender-related targets, nor does it engage with employees or external stakeholders on gender issues. Moreover, the company fails to provide childcare or other family support to support employees with their unpaid care burden or offer them flexible work options. In the supply chain, there is no evidence that TFG supports its suppliers in ensuring workers receive formal contracts, a living wage or family-friendly benefits.

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Ranking position: #28 /35
Total score: 10.8 /100

Measurement area	Score	Rank (0-35)
Governance and strategy	0.5 /20	#31
Representation	4.4 /17.5	#18
Compensation and benefits	0.0 /17.5	#30
Health and well-being	1.1 /17.5	#23
Violence and harassment	1.1 /17.5	#30
Marketplace	0.0 /5	#19
Community	3.8 /5	#7
Total score	10.8 /100	#28

Value chain element	Score
Workplace	1.1 /41
Supply chain	5.5 /41

See results for

2020
2023

More about the company

Headquarters: Cape Town, South Africa
Revenue: US$2.3 billion (2020)
Total number of employees: 29,776
Ownership structure: Publicly listed
Website: https://www.tfg.co.za