Article - Corporate Clothing Pretoria
18 Dec 2020
Once a Pretoria Shop, Now a Leading Corporate Clothing Group
Who would ever have imagined that a single retail store in Pretoria, which was established in 1987 to specialise in the sales of sports apparel and associated sports equipment, would one day – and not very long after that, within the same generation – grow and expand to become a leading force in the corporate clothing industry?
Expanding Choices for Custom Clientele
The owners and management of the successful shop recognised that sport-mad South Africans would welcome greater ranges and more choices of apparel, and thus set about making bringing this about. As matters progressed, one thing led to another; a manufacturing division and a branding department were set up, to better serve the expanding custom clientele.
International Footprint and Dealership
One single shop had become a manufacturer and wholesale online supplier of corporate clothing, not only in and around Pretoria, but far beyond the Jacaranda City. Since launching a Namibia dealership in 2009, this online supplier now has an international physical presence – a distinctive international footprint – which complements its online enterprise perfectly.
From a Single Shop to a Successful Group
In fact, this sporting goods retail store evolved and developed into a major South African wholesale supplier that now comprises a comprehensive group of successful companies, each group company with its own field of expertise and specialisation.
In so doing, the group now has developed and acquired the skills, experienced staff members, and capability of satisfying its corporate client base with the latest in and best of corporate gear – clothing, gifts and promotional items, uniforms, PPE, protective workwear, and more – never forgetting or neglecting its heritage items – team and sport wear.
We are known as XCO Group, brand customisation experts and the group that specialises in assisting our valued clients to establish, build, and expand their respective brands – a vitally important aspect in ensuring the success and longevity of every modern brand and its business activities.
Family and Group Ethos
Notwithstanding its prominent group status, XCO Group is still a family run business in reality and at heart, a characteristic which we, our clients, and business associates value, because it indicates core consistency, grounded values, ethos, and soul, qualities that we are proud to retain and carry forward in all our enterprises and business dealings.
XCO Group’s Corporate Home
We are also still based in the Pretoria area, where everything started for us. Nowadays, we are located in Irene, a picturesque, pretty area, which retains its peaceful village-like ambience that suits the spirit of our group to a T.
Irene, also a Daughter and a Village
Irene, the village, has an interesting origin and heritage with family connotations – something which XCO appreciates and finds meaningful, despite functioning and operating almost entirely in the corporate clothing and apparel world, in Pretoria, nationally, and internationally.
Alois Hugo Nellmapius, a man of means and a well-connected entrepreneur and businessman, was the man who gave his farm, Irene, its name – Irene Estate, after acquiring this farmland in 1889. His daughter’s first name was “Irene”, so he named his farm accordingly, in her honour.
Nellmapius was an interesting figure with many diverse business interests. He was variously involved in Irene lime works, the country’s earliest gunpowder factory, and a transport riding enterprise, moving goods between the towns of Pilgrim’s Rest (in what would become the Mpumalanga Province), and the port at Lourenco Marques (now Maputo) in Mozambique.
Boer leader and internationally respected statesman, General Jan Smuts, also owned a farm in the Irene area. Today, it is preserved as the Smuts House Museum, another gem in the history and heritage of Irene, Pretoria, and South Africa.
Who knows? Perhaps, one day in the future, XCO Group will also be mentioned by research and reference sources as an enduring and still-functioning feature of the Irene landscape.
Online Clothing
One might well imagine that the closest anyone could come to anything online in those early days of Pretoria’s history would be birds sitting on a telegraph line or cannons positioned on a battle line. The Internet and our use of online catalogue technology to supply bespoke clothing to the corporate sector was not even a distant dream.
True to our XCO Group beliefs, mission, and values, XCO Group manufactures, brands, and supplies quality corporate clothing, customised and/or custom-made, whilst offering value for money solutions to the corporate sector at large – in Pretoria and elsewhere, wherever such products and traits matter.