Pep's Lay-by-Buddy initiative settles thousands of lay-bys

To help struggling families, Pep’s winter drive has raised over R80,000 in just two short months through its Lay-by-Buddy initiative and will go to settling lay-bys nationwide. In addition, Pep will also contribute to this initiative by paying off one lay-by account in every South African store to the total value of R250,000, starting on Monday, 23 August.

One Pep customer says: “Thank you so much. I'm currently unemployed and I was going to cancel the lay-by but thanks to you my child will now receive her winter goodies.” Another says, “thank you so much for the voucher. It really helped as I was retrenched from my company after 18 years of service. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get this lay-by out for my kids.”

The initiative, which launched over a year ago, was inspired by an anonymous good Samaritan who, sometime back, settled the accounts of several random Pep lay-by customers. It’s since received a total of R1,15m in contributions from over 6,000 individuals and has sent out over 30,000 vouchers to settle lay-bys enabling customers to access to their goods sooner than expected.

“We are so grateful to those who have so far contributed to our winter drive, and we hope to continue settling outstanding lay-bys as more funding comes in. For as little as a cup of coffee, it’s fantastic to see how the contributions are making a difference.” Says Beyers van der Merwe, marketing executive at Pep.

The Lay-By-Buddy initiative will continue to run throughout the year, with Summer still a few months away and back-to-school on the horizon.

Simply contribute from as little as R2 in any Pep store or R20 online by scanning the QR code to be directed to www.pepstores.com/page/lay-by-buddy. Lay-by customers are selected at random and will receive an SMS voucher to settle their outstanding Pep lay-by.