Pep Home is moving into the former Woolworths space at Strand Square, bringing the retailer back to the Strand shopping centre in a new format.
Strand Square is already moving on from the departure of Woolworths.
Just two months after Woolworths closed its store at the shopping centre, the space it left behind is being prepared for a new retailer. Pep Home is moving into the former Woolworths premises, bringing the Pep name back to a shopping centre where the retailer has a history.
The store will occupy the space at the rear of Strand Square, next to Pick n Pay. Work is already under way, with the windows covered while workers prepare the premises for the new store.
I first picked up on the change through conversations with people working on site, and the activity behind the covered windows has now made the plans clear.
Pep is returning, but in a different form
Pep is certainly not a stranger to Strand Square.
Before the shopping centre took its current name, Pep was already a familiar presence at Dorpsmeent Centre. The centre later underwent a R6 million facelift and was relaunched as Strand Square in December 2013 under the then ownership of the FPG Group. Pep remained at the centre after the relaunch, eventually closing its store there.
This time, however, it is Pep Home that is taking the space.
The homeware-focused retailer offers a very different proposition from the Woolworths Foods store that occupied the premises for the past five years. Its arrival gives the vacant space a new purpose and adds another Pep Home to the retailer’s existing presence across the Helderberg.
Another Pep Home for the Helderberg
The Strand Square outlet comes after another Pep Home opened in the area earlier this year.
A new store opened at Helderberg Centre on 24 April 2026, joining existing Pep Home outlets at Vergelegen Plein, Somerset West Main Road and Gordon’s Bay Mall.
The Strand Square store will therefore become another option for shoppers looking for the retailer’s homeware and household products, while also bringing the Pep name back to a shopping centre where it has previously had a presence.
What happens next?
The timing is particularly interesting given what happened to the previous tenant.
As I reported last month, Woolworths decided not to renew its Strand Square lease after the store failed to meet its financial targets despite efforts to improve its performance. The store closed at the end of June, leaving a sizeable space at the centre.
That space is now being given a very different retail proposition.
Strand Square is also now under the ownership and management of Schoonhoven Enterprises Group, a different ownership and management team from when Pep was last at the centre.
I have reached out to Pep Stores for more information about the new Strand Square store, including what prompted the decision to take the premises and, importantly, when Pep Home is expected to open. Pep had not responded by the time of publication, but I will update this article when that information becomes available.
For now, the most visible sign of the change is happening behind those covered windows. The Woolworths signs may have disappeared, but the space is already being prepared for something new. Pep is coming back to Strand Square, but this time it is bringing a different kind of store to a centre that has changed considerably since the last time the retailer was there.
UPDATE
The new Strand Square store will be a standard Pep clothing store, rather than Pep Home, and is scheduled to open at the end of October 2026. Read more here.
