Online retailer the Takealot Group is eyeing profitability within the next two to two-and-a-half years unless the company decides to start investing in a new business, Takealot chief executive Kim Reid said this week.
The Takealot Group consists of three businesses: general retail website Takealot.com, clothing website Superbalist and food delivery unit Mr D Food.
Takealot.com started in 2011. Reid said in the first year of the company’s existence it turned over R50 million and in 2016 the Takealot Group’s turnover was R2.5 billion.
Takealot Group employs 1200 people mainly over two warehouses in Johannesburg and Cape Town as well as a call centre.
Takealot started with Black Friday, which is an American phenomenon and it signals the start of the Christmas shopping season, retail promotion in 2012. During the 2015 Black Friday, Takealot earned R17.5 million in turnover and that turnover figure grew to R56 million in 2016.
“We are expecting anything between R80 million and R130 million this coming Black Friday,” Reid said. Black Friday will be happening on Friday, November 24.
The Takealot Group will be offering discounts worth as much as 80% on certain items over Black Friday. “We are expecting quite a frenzied period,” Reid said.
Naspers, which owns City Press, has a 54% stake in the Takealot Group.