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JOHANNESBURG. – Raymond Ackerman, who founded Pick n Pay from just four stores 56 years ago and turned them into one of South Africa’s leading grocery retailers, has died aged 92, the company said yesterday.
The cause of his death was not disclosed in an emailed statement.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce the death at the age of 92 of visionary South African, and founder of Pick n Pay, Raymond Ackerman,” the company said.
The retail legend came from a retailing family; his father Gus founded Ackermans clothing group after World War 1. The Ackermans retail group was later sold to competitor Greatermans, which started the supermarket group Checkers, now part of bigger rival Shoprite .
It is at Greatermans where Ackerman started his career in retail, when he was also put in charge of launching the Checkers supermarkets.
After leaving Greatermans, Ackerman bought four small stores in Cape Town trading under the name Pick ‘n Pay. By the time Ackerman retired in 2010 and handed the chairman’s reins to son Gareth, Today Pick n Pay was today it generates 106 billion rand in annual turnover and owns more than 2,000 stores across South Africa and seven other African countries, icluding Zimbabwe.
He and his wife Wendy founded Pick n Pay in 1967 after buying four stores in Cape Town. The group has grown to more than 2,000 stores across SA and seven other African countries.
“From the outset, he lived by the core values that the customer is queen, that we must treat others as we would wish to be treated, and that doing good is good business,” the company said, adding that he was also a committed philanthropist.
Ackerman would stop and ask customers walking home with shopping bags from rival stores why they had not shopped at Pick n Pay, the company said. He also fought the government through 26 rounds in court over the set petrol price, but lost every time.
The group said: “People quickly learnt that they could always rely on Ackerman and Pick n Pay to be on the customer’s side, for example, in his celebrated battles against price regulations, which forced people to pay more than they should for their groceries.”
In 1986, Pick n Pay also mounted a successful court challenge against the government’s prohibition of a petrol coupon scheme, which gave customers grocery discount coupons with petrol purchases.
In the 1960s, he was determined to promote all employees to managerial positions, in defiance of apartheid laws, which forbade it.
“Raymond Ackerman was a man of the people; never too busy or too proud to make time for others,” Pick n Pay said. “He remained humble throughout his life, and passionate about building a more just future for SA. He was an enduring optimist about SA’s future, and his passing leaves a great void for us all.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa said Ackerman was one of the first retailers to fight on behalf of the SA consumer against the apartheid state’s monopoly on basic goods. He reduced the cost of essentials such as bread, milk and chicken and spoke against the inclusion of VAT on basic foods, a change that he fought and won on behalf of the poor.
“Mr Ackerman was one of the first executives to promote black South Africans to senior positions and to acknowledge black trade unions when they were banned from operating in SA.”
The ANC expressed condolences, saying it “joined millions of South Africans and the global business community in mourning the passing of Raymond Ackerman”. – Agencies
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