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South African fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and retail services company CA&S Group has acquired a strategic 30% stake in The Digital Media Collective (TDMC), a digital marketing and e-commerce agency. The deal marks a significant step in its effort to strengthen its digital commerce capabilities across Southern and East Africa.
In a press statement, CA&S Group confirmed that the transaction also includes a pathway to majority ownership through a phased transition process, positioning the two companies to build a more integrated offering for brand owners and retailers operating in an increasingly omnichannel environment.
According to CA&S Group, the investment forms part of its broader strategy to create a more connected growth platform that combines its established physical route-to-market infrastructure with TDMC’s expertise in digital commerce, performance marketing and e-commerce.
The move comes as consumer purchasing journeys continue to evolve across physical stores, digital channels and online marketplaces. CA&S said brands are increasingly required to connect demand generation, online conversion, physical product availability, and in-market execution in order to drive growth. By bringing TDMC into its ecosystem, the group aims to strengthen its ability to help clients engage consumers across the full purchasing journey.
Duncan Lewis, CEO of CA&S Group, “Consumer journeys are no longer linear, and growth increasingly depends on how well brands connect physical availability, digital visibility and meaningful customer engagement. Our investment in TDMC gives us access to deep digital commerce expertise and enhances our ability to help clients build relevance, drive performance and unlock growth in an omnichannel world.”
TDMC brings a broad range of digital capabilities to the partnership, including e-commerce strategy, Shopify development, marketplace management, performance media, customer relationship management, content production, creative services, data analytics and measurement. These capabilities complement CA&S’s existing strengths in retail execution, advisory services, warehousing, distribution, fulfilment, technology and route-to-market solutions.
The agency also enters the partnership with a strong set of industry credentials. TDMC is a Shopify Plus Partner, Google Premier Partner, Meta Business Partner and Klaviyo Gold Partner, accreditations that have helped establish its position within South Africa as well as the wider Sub-Saharan and East African markets. CA&S said these partnerships strengthen the combined group’s ability to deliver end-to-end e-commerce solutions to retailers and brand owners across the region.
For TDMC, the transaction provides access to CA&S’s regional footprint, operational scale and client relationships while allowing the agency to maintain its specialist focus and entrepreneurial culture.
“We’ve always said that as the market changes, our offering has to change with it. CA&S reaches parts of the retail journey we don’t, and we reach parts they don’t. That is the whole point of this coming together of our two businesses,” said Cheryl Ingram, CEO and founder of TDMC.
“Very few partnerships start from that kind of genuine fit, where each side brings something the other can’t easily build for itself. This was never about scale for its own sake. It was about finding the partner whose strengths made ours worth more,” she added.
Under the agreement, TDMC will continue to operate under its existing leadership structure while benefiting from integration into the wider CA&S ecosystem. Together, the companies plan to offer clients a more seamless path from consumer insights and demand generation through to conversion, fulfilment and execution across both physical and digital channels.
Lewis described the investment as a deliberate expansion of CA&S’s digital commerce ecosystem. “This is a deliberate move to widen what we offer the brand owners who rely on us,” he said. “TDMC gives clients access to specialist digital commerce capability, backed by CA&S’s regional scale, operating discipline and on-the-ground execution. It is a powerful combination for clients looking to grow in a changing market.”
