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The previous owners of the De La Rey group have launched a new, big-box health store under the Wellness Warehouse concept, in a bid to capture this fragmented market.

September 18, 2007 By Tom Robbins Cape Town – The previous owners of the De La Rey group have launched a new, big-box health store under the Wellness Warehouse concept, in a bid to capture this fragmented market. This month the Gomes family, which in 2005 sold the De La Rey home improvement group to Massmart, launched its first Wellness Warehouse store in Cape Town’s City Bowl. It had concluded deals to add another Cape Town store before year-end, as well as one in Johannesburg. Pharmacy group Dis-Chem plays in a similar big-box health and beauty format, but the similarity between the two ends there. Wellness Warehouse is targeted at a higher-end consumer. It hopes to tap into the growing holistic lifestyle trends, from fair trade coffee to a natural medicine dispensary. Managing director Sean Gomes said the intention was to open another five stores next year. The ultimate goal was a total of between 20 and 25 stores by 2010. Wellness Warehouse has backed up its intention to roll out a chain in major metropolitan centres by setting up a distribution warehouse supply chain information technology system, provided by software firm SAP, to manage its stock of more than 20 000 products and variations thereof. Nothando Ndebele, the executive director of Renaissance Specialist Fund Managers, said that finding well-located sites would be the biggest challenge for the store’s roll-out programme. But he added that the new retail concept would “keep existing players on their toes”. Gomes said the aim was to provide a comprehensive range of health- and beauty-related products in stores measuring 2 000m2, in contrast with the myriad niched health stores and beauty spas. The business is owned by Gomes and his brother, Carlos. Sean Gomes, who is a medical doctor, was not involved in the Western Cape-based De La Rey chain, which has since been rebranded as Builders Warehouse. But Carlos Gomes was the managing director of that business, which was founded by their father, Pedro Gomes. Sean Gomes said core Wellness Warehouse product categories included fast-selling, health-related goods, toiletries and beauty products. Referring to slower sellers, such as exercise treadmills and kettles with built-in filters, Gomes said the retailer would test what worked and “grow and shrink departments, depending on what customers want”. Ndebele said additional product lines, such as cosmetics, home decor and massage appliances, would be slower sellers. However, he noted that they had higher margins. “It is difficult to tell which higher-margin products will take off, but I expect them to wean down those that don’t work and add to those that sell well,” Ndebele added. In-store services that could attract shoppers include facials, massages and waxes.