The day the music died for Musica

When music and entertainment retailer Musica was at its peak, it operated about 150 stores around SA, and was selling close to five out of every 10 CDs in the country. Now the chain is set to close at the end of May — brought to its knees by systemic shifts in buying patterns and the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We were part of the mall culture, and we were part of the high street culture with music buying," says Derek Goosen, who co-founded the music store chain with his father, George, back in the 1960s — a spin-off of the family-owned transport business.

Back when Goosen was still at school, his father — determined to run his own business — bought an old Bedford truck to move household furniture, and set up an office in the Cape Town suburb of Plumstead. But a pivot to music seemed inevitable: George was a devotee of classical music, his wife was a voice and choral trainer, and everyone in the family played musical instruments.

So in 1963, they decided to use the office space to sell records, and the music shop, drawing from its transport business origin, was named Fleetway Record Bar.

Though the shop initially focused on classical music, the family soon learnt that the worlds of Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard were more profitable. In fact, Goosen told radio station 5FM last month, the first seven single the business sold was Jeremy Taylor’s Ag Pleez Deddy.

In that interview, Goosen recalled the excitement of learning how to buy and sell music, and getting into the routine of dealing with new sounds and music representatives (there were only two suppliers in SA at the time: Gallo Record Co and Teal Record Co).

"The 1960s was an incredibly exciting time," he said.

In 1967, on opening a second store in Cape Town, the family decided that the business needed a trading name with more universal appeal. And so Musica was born.

"It was an experiment," Goosen tells the FM of the expansion. The second store was on the first floor of St George’s Street. And when a third outlet opened, this one on Adderley Street, it was again upstairs and off the main drag.

Despite the position, music lovers flocked to these early Musica stores. It was a particularly memorable period, Goosen told 5FM — the time of the great British music explosion led by The Beatles.

"We were in the right place and the right time for that — a huge catalyst for our early growth."

Expansion, however, wasn’t rapid: Musica opened 10 stores in the Cape before going national and opening a Durban outlet in 1981 — the year Prince Charles and Lady Diana got married, Goosen recalls.

Having made the "big decision" to expand throughout SA, Musica grew to more than 50 outlets over the next 10 years, with several acquisitions and new stores — and even a listing on the JSE in 1988. It was a special milestone for a family-run business, he tells the FM.

But by the early 1990s, the business was overstretched and in need of "a significant capital injection", Goosen says.

Help arrived in the form of New Clicks Holdings — and in particular its CEO, Trevor Honneysett, who was passionate about music and the home entertainment opportunities the family business offered. So, in 1992, the retail group bought Musica — despite the Clicks board’s initial reluctance to buy a new business.

The fit wasn’t obvious. Clicks was a fast-moving consumer goods company, more about pack and price. However, Goosen says, Clicks added some valuable retail disciplines to the mix.

"[Honneysett] was flexible enough to allow us to do things a bit differently," he says.

It was this latitude that resulted in the marketing campaign that had the most impact for the business: the "Listen with your soul" campaign developed by Jupiter Drawing Room. It triggered an amazing response from music lovers all over the country.

Goosen believes Musica peaked between 2005 and 2010, when different ways of consuming music — downloading, online and streaming — were emerging.

Under pressure to change its business model in the face of alternative listening options, Musica expanded its range to include film, video games, electronic accessories, branded clothing and books.

But it was swimming against the tide: for years already there’d been a shift to digital consumption of entertainment. And over the past decade global music giants such as HMV, Virgin and others have disappeared. So the demise of a business rooted in bricks-and-mortar entertainment retail seemed unavoidable.

In January, Clicks said it would close Musica at the end of May due to the "structural shift globally to the digital consumption of music, movies and games from the traditional physical format".

Turnover had been declining for years; Covid and the lockdown were simply the final straw.

By then, Clicks had already closed 19 Musica stores, and the remaining 59 were set to close as leases expire. Where feasible, Musica staff would be absorbed into the parent company’s health and beauty network.

How does Goosen feel about the end of the Musica era?

"My dad developed the brand name and I developed the growth of the stores. There was a lot of passion and emotion put into the business over 40 years. But, to be honest, with the changing patterns of consumption it was inevitable. It didn’t come as a shock to me — in fact, I’ve been amazed [at] how the Clicks group re-engineered the offering to keep sales alive," he tells the FM.

"It’s sad to see the demise of any brand, but it was inevitable."

Systemic shifts in buying patterns and Covid-19 caused the inevitable demise of Musica

—  What it means:

Ran out of road

Greyhound, the bus service that’s been ferrying South Africans from cities to towns and everything in between for 37 years, is another victim of the difficult operating environment.

According to Greyhound owner Unitrans Passenger — a subsidiary of KAP Industrial Holdings — the business had been negatively affected by Covid-19 restrictions and limitations on travel. But this came on top of at least two years of “poor financial performance”.

It’s a sad end to a spectacular local growth story.

When Greyhound launched in SA in 1984, it operated from just three terminals: Joburg’s Park Station, Durban and Cape Town. Its first route was the Joburg-Durban corridor, for which a one-way ticket would set you back R75.

Over 37 years, Greyhound expanded to run 17 ticket offices throughout SA, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi, travelling to 163 destinations, including major cities and small towns.

At its peak, it was transporting 1.4-million passengers a year.

Passengers considered Greyhound the “Rolls-Royce” of intercity coach travel, having come to associate the brand with comfort, safety and value for money.

One of Greyhound’s standout features was its cabin crew, who served complimentary refreshments throughout the journey. Passengers were also offered blankets and a video-on-demand service. And those who wanted to travel in comfort could opt for the Dreamliner premium class.

On one trip, a passenger reportedly gave birth on a Greyhound bus, assisted by the cabin crew. She is said to have named her child Greyhound Mthatha.

If that doesn’t show an affinity for a brand, who knows what would.

Brands in business rescue

While some local brands have foundered, others are navigating the tough economic environment through the business rescue process.

• Edcon, which was already struggling to survive, was one of the first victims of the lockdown. It was placed in business rescue at the end of April. Retailability has since bought Edgars from the retailer, while TFG bought Jet.
• Kulula owner Comair was placed in business rescue in May — a process the company hopes will save about 1,800 jobs. The airline resumed flights on a limited scale in December, with a view to ramping up operations over seven months to June. According to former CEO Wrenelle Stander, Comair would not have flown again had it not made the tough decision to go into business rescue.
• Ster-Kinekor, another household name, was placed in business rescue at the end of January, though its cinemas are still functioning.

The company was founded in 1969, when 20th Century Fox sold its SA theatre business to insurance company Sanlam. Since 2018 it’s been owned by the Mineworkers Investment Co, Ethos Private Equity, Rand Merchant Bank and Old Mutual.