2. 2
Table of Content Page
1. Introduction 3
2. Background information 3
3. Contact details 3
4. Products and services offered 4
5. Management Profiles of company 4
6. Estimated number of employees 5
7. Estimated turnover 5
8. Estimated profit 6
9. Conclusion 6
10. References 7
3. 3
1. Introduction
Competitive Intelligence is the gathering or acquiring and use of knowledge about the external
environment in which firms operate (Gray, 2010). Competitive Intelligence can help one to decide on
the actions to take in the business or organisation for a way forward. It will help in positioning a
company in challenging times so as to know what to do based on information gathered from outside
the organisation and from competitors. The information is not only gathered, but to make it useful it
needs to be analysed into useful knowledge to make well informed decisions and take precise
action. This research report will take a position as a Competitive Analyst for a South African for a
South African furniture and appliance retail store. The research that was done is on the JD Group
Ltd and a competitor strategy has been formulated based on the background informationon the
company, contact details, products offered, management profiles, estimated number of employees,
estimated turnover and the estimated profit. Lastly the report will conclude on the basics that have
been discovered.
2. BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE JD GROUP LTD
JD Group Limited is a public company that is listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange. By
public company, it means that JD Group is a company whose shares are traded on a major stock
exchange(Oxford English Dictionary, 2007).
The JD Group Ltd is a business that specialises in furniture and appliance retail. It provides financial,
insurance, microlendingand debt recovery services and contact centre solutions. The group acquired
the South African retail assets of Steinhoff International, namely Unitrans Auto and SteinBuild
(Mogoera, 2011). In its furniture retail, the group functions through eight chains in Southern Africa
and one in Poland. However, this international chain has been sold to Steinhoff International(their
shareholder).
JD Group did not just emerge as the „JD Group Ltd‟. It goes back to July 1983 when a company
known as Price „n Pride (Pty) Ltd was establisehed. This company attained another company known
as Joshua Doore (Pty) Ltd. These two companies came together as one and incorporated into a
Shelf Company called Consure Insurance Holdings Ltd. This name was then changed to Joshua
Doore Ltd and in 1989, the company went through a name change to JD Group Ltd (McGregor,
2012).
For a Company to operate it should have a vision, philosophy and values. JD Group Ltd‟s vision is
“to be world-class in our fields of expertise”. The mission of this group is to lead in chosen sectors by
satisfying customers‟ needs and stakeholders‟ expectations through the delivery of consistent,
sustainable profit growth. The company also has values, and these are honesty and integrity; valuing
diversity; responsibility and accountability; urgency; and performance driven.
This company has and is commited to making a difference in their stakeholders‟ lives. By
stakeholder it means all the people that are affected by the company. This is done through their „Art
of Service‟ culture. As a group, the way they handle their stakeholders is at the heart of everything
that they do. This is done and achieved by positioning each retail brand to focus on a specific target
market based on brand identity, store layout, merchandise range and market profit (JD Group,
2011).
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3. CONTACT DETILS FOR THE JD GROUP LTD
The JD Group is found on the 11
th
floor of JD House, 27 Stiemens Street in Braamfontein South
Africa. This is the Gautend Province. The company has a postal address which has been provided
with the information above and a telephone line on +27 11 408 0408. They can also be found online
using their email (info@jdg.co.za) or visit their website at www.jdgroup.co.za. The last optopn is
using their fax line and their fax number is +27 11 408 0604.
For directed information, on the company page, there are contact details for each department. These
are the Investor Relations, CEO, and Independent Accountants, Group HR, Company Secretary,
Group Marketing, Group Merchandise, Investor Relations, Communications, and CSI Initiatives.
4. PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED BY THE COMPANY
The JD Group Ltd has six divisions. These divisions are the Automative Retail, Building Supplies,
Cash Retail, Financial Services, Furniture Retail and New Business Development. The JD group has
different brands of certain retailers (JD Group Ltd, 2011). The furniture retail division has brands like
Barnetts, Bradlows, Electric Express, Joshua Doore, Morkels, Price „n Pride, Russels and Supreme
furnitures. These places offer a wide range of household furniture and appliances to different target
markets. Under the cash retail, there are brands like HiFi Corp and Incredible Connections. These
places are retailers of electronic goods and household appliances to different markets also. The third
retail outlet is the automotive and under it there is only Unitrans. Unitrans is a motor vehicle
servicing, vehicle parts rental and wholesale and short-term car rental. Also standing on its own is
the Building Supplies division where they deal with building materials. Under the building division is
SteinBuild retailer. The last division under the JD Group is the “New Business Development”. This
division offers services of developing tailored contact center sales and services solutions. It deals
with debt collection, inbound and outbound sales and social media solutions (JD Group, 2011).
5. MANAGEMENT PROFILES OF JD GROUP
The JD Group has non executive directors, executive directors, company secretary and the
executive management. The most important that will be focused on is the executive directors,
secretary and the executive management.
The group has 6 executive directors. The big boss is David Sussman who is the executive Chairman
and founder of the JD Group. He is 64 years old and was appointed chairman in February 1989. He
studied BCom and also a director on the board of Homestyle Group Plc. Next in line is Grattan Kirk
who is 47 years old and is the Chief Executive Officer. Kirk was appointed 17 September, however
he joined the group in 2005. He studied auditing and done Chattered Accounting in South Africa. He
is also a director on the board of various other internal JD Group subsidiaries. Then is Richard
Chauke, 44 years old who is the director in transformation, Tax, Risk, Internal Audit and Compliance.
He did his honours in BCom, MCom in South Africa. He joined the group in February 2006 but was
appointed 17 September 2007. He has 12 years‟ experience in auditing and taxation, four years‟
lecturing and four years‟ experience in retail. Fourth in person is Ian Thompson, 44 years old and is
the Director of finance and Corporate Affairs. Mr Thompson joined the group in September 2003 and
was appointed as Director 13 November 2008. He did his education as a Chartered accountant in
South Africa and was born in Malawi. Bennie Van Rooy, 36 who is the youngest in the executive
directors is the Group Financial Director. Bennie joined the group as Group Financial Controller in
January 2012 and climbed the ladder in a space of four months as he was appointed Director in 1
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May 2010. He did his BCom Honours and also qualified in South Africa as a Chartered Accountant.
Last in line under executive directors is Dr Hen Greeff, 52 who is the Director of Strategy and Human
Resources. He is the most educated as he did his Med, PhD, Programme in Strategic Change at
Stanford in USAand Programme in Advance Strategic Management at the IMD Business School in
Switzerland. He joined the group in 2003 and was appointed as director on 17 September 2007 (JD
Group, 2011).
The Company‟s Secretary is Johann Pieterse, 56. He has been a professional secretary for 24 years
and joined the JD group on 9 September 2008. He did his BA and BCom in Law. Next is the
executive management. First in line under the executive management is Pamela Barlett who is 42
years old and is the Group executive of Human Resources. To get this position, she did Dip Labour
Law and Dip Human Resources Global Executive Development Programme. Pamela came to the
group in 2007 and was appointed in September 2008. David Hirsch, 41 is the Group Executive in
Merchandise and Marketing. David has 19 years‟ experience in retail and has been under the JD
Group for years before he was appointed this position. Then is Phillip Kruger, 49 and has 20 years‟
experience in retail. He has a BCom qualification qualification and joined the organisation in 1997 as
Debtors Executive for the Bradlows chain. Komani Mfuni who is 45 years of age is the Group
Executive in Strategic Research and Business Intelligence. He worked hard for this position as he
has an honours qualification in BSc Quantity Surveying at the Reading University in UK. He also has
an MBA at Maastricht School of Management in Netherlands. Mr Mfuni joined the group in January
2009 and has three years‟ experience in financial services and ten years in strategic development
and business intelligence. The Groups‟ Chief Information Officer is Andrew Murray. Andrew is 50
years old and has a BSc in Eng(Mech/Ind). He has 23 years‟ experience in a number of fields. He
was appointed this position in May 2009 but joined the group as IT Executive in December 2008.
Theodore de Klerk (42) and Brynn Stephenson (56) are the Managing Directors of SteinBuild and
Unitrans respectively. Next is Pat Kimmince (48) who was appointed into this position recently in
January 2012. He was appointed after being the Chief Executive of JD Supply Chain Services.
However, not much is known about her as her biography is not available on the company‟s website.
The last two members‟ profiles are not available. These are Yondela Ndema, 38 years old who is the
Group Legal and Compliance Officer and Renee Griessel who is the CEO JDG Insurance (JD
Group, 2011).
6. ESTIMATED NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES
The number of employees of the JD Group according to Insurance Business Review (2013) is
25 718. The key employees however stands at 13 people. The JD Group has 3 625 employed at the
JD Group Cash Retail, 4 809 at the Financial Services, 9 038 at the Group‟s furniture Retail and
1 646 at the new business development. Each of these employees in each division has a head who
oversees them.
7. ESTIMATED TURNOVER
According to the page on Who Owns Whom, the JD Group had a turnover of R15 741.00m in 2011.
This turnover came from sale of merchandise which stood at R11, 740.0m; finance income at
R65.0m and R5.0m from Investment Income. Information is dated year end of 2011 and was issued
in 2012. This is confirmed by their 2012 integrated report that shows the revenue standing at +61%.
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According to the Integrated Report (2012), the furniture retail generated sales of 4.6 billion for the ten
months. There was a 15% increase in the turnover and operating profit of R311 million. Under the
cash retail, the turnover stood at 3.5%. the Automotive retail recorded an operating profit of R411
miillion.
8. ESTIMATED PROFIT
The operating profit for the JD Group as of June 2012 stands at R1445m, profit before finance costs
is R1451m. the operating profit before taxation was up 36.7% to R1.4 billion (Kirk, 2012). According
to the integrated report (2012), net profit in 2011 stood at R705.0m. This profit is after costs were
deducted. Before any expenses and debtors costs, the profit was R1734m.
9. CONCLUSION
This research report has provided information on the JD Group as a Competitive Analyst. As an
Analyst, information was gathered on this company to help in improving the business by making the
right decisions. These decisions can only be made once information has been gathered and
analysed by an Analyst. From the JD Group‟s information a strategy can come up on how to avoid
future disruptions and draw up SWOT analysis. This information now needs to be analysed and
presented to the managers on the way forward.
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References
Gray, P. (2010). Competitive Intelligence. Business Intelligence Journal, 15: 31-37.
Insurance Business Review. (n.d). Available from: http://www.insurance-business-
review.com/companies/jd_group_ltd (Accessed 07 March 2013).
JD Group Integrated Report. (2012). Available from:
http://jdgroup.co.za/2011/downloads/integrated%20Report%202012.pdf (Accessed 7 March 2013).
McGregor, R. (2012). SA Sector-Company Profile. Journal of Essential Business Information
Mogoera, N. (2011). Audited Annual Financial Statements. Available from:
http://jdgroup.co.za/2011/downloads/Group_financial_statements_2011_11_30.pdf (Accessed 7
March 2013).
Oxford English Dictionary. (2007). London: Oxford University Press.
