‘The Spirit of Enterprise’. Building Edgars, the fashion system and the entrepreneur, 1929-1982.

An entrepreneurial culture evolved in the various economic sectors during the early years of the twentieth century South Africa. In the fashion retail sector, Sydney Press emerged as a pioneering entrepreneur of Edgars Stores Limited. To contextualise Sydney Press’ achievements, this article focusses on the early development of retail in South Africa and Sydney Press’ pursuit of industry growth and diversification. His endeavours nurtured the development of a fashion system.  The paper explores how the entrepreneur developed a fashion retail system from a single store, ultimately nurturing a domestic fashion industry. Press’ career and his pursuit of the entrepreneurial opportunity is central to this investigation. This case study centres around the question of how an entrepreneur mobilised resources to set the entrepreneurial multiplier in motion to generate industry development.