Top South African clothing retailer taking on Capitec in the telecoms market

Mr Price has steadily been building a telecoms giant, with the apparel retailer now selling devices and running a successful mobile virtual network operator (MVNO).

Mr Price’s growth in this segment comes as the MVNO market in South Africa is booming, with Capitec’s successful Connect business leading the pack, and device sales are becoming an attractive segment.

The retailer’s success in this arena comes after over a decade of building out its telecoms offering.

In its 2014 financial year, Mr Price was already experiencing strong growth in airtime sales, prompting the group to start reporting these sales separately.

That year, the group’s airtime sales surged by 41.7%, making it one of Mr Price’s fastest-growing segments, with total airtime and related mobile revenue reaching R120 million.

In June 2015, Mr Price launched its MVNO, mrpMobile, which offered post-paid contracts, smartphones, and tablets to creditworthy store card customers. Initially, Mr Price had a 55% ownership stake.

mrpMobile proved highly successful, already reaching a critical mass of subscriber numbers and swinging to profit in Mr Price’s 2016 financial year.

In 2018, Mr Price decided to go all in, acquiring the remaining 45% of what was now called MRP Mobile, making it a 100%-owned subsidiary.

That same year, the company started its strategic rollout of “Hello MRP” cellular kiosks in more than 100 stores.

These kiosks would prove to be a critical foundation of MRP Mobile’s success, with a physical presence sending the offering to new heights.

By the 2019 financial year, the cellular kiosks had aggressively expanded to 216 stores, driving an almost 400% increase in their revenue and helping Mr Price’s overall cellular and mobile income reach R677 million.

Then, a shift came in 2020, when Mr Price’s MVNO division decided to shift away from post-paid contracts to focus heavily on sims-only products.

Markets and Indicators:

Name Value Move in %
Rand / Dollar 08:17 17.8946 -0.12%
Rand / Pound 08:17 23.9849 0.24%
Rand / Euro 08:17 20.7740 -0.05%
Rand / Swiss Franc 08:15 22.3536 0.01%
Gold (usd/oz) 08:16 3 340.77 0.50%
Platinum (usd/oz) 08:16 1 381.50 -0.85%

JSE Shares Up/Down:

Large Caps
Name Value (R) Move (R) Move in %
EXX: EXXARO 173.27 4.18 2.47%
NPN: NASPERS-N 5,545.38 124.39 2.29%
PRX: PROSUS 1,011.99 19.99 2.02%
CLS: CLICKS 362.35 6.95 1.96%

All Share (J203) 97 019 0.23%
All Share Industrial (J257) 144 840 0.48%
Financials (J580) 52 792 0.22%
Top 40 (J200) 89 304 0.29%
Industrial 25 (J211) 136 566 0.54%
Financial 15 (J212) 20 715 0.22%
Resources 10 (J210) 80 245 -0.14%

Financial data provided by: iress, 15min delay

This article is published on Business Point website

Updated: July 2026

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