The man who built South Africa’s biggest retail empire
Shoprite Holdings is a South African retail empire, sporting over 3,600 stores, 160,000 employees and a market cap of over R182.13 billion.
Now Africa’s largest retailer, the group has come a long way from its humble beginnings in the Western Cape – with its meteoric rise tracing back to the work of retail giant James Wellwood Basson, also known as ‘Whitey’.
Shoprite had been founded by the seasoned retailers Barney Rogut and Basil Geller in the Western Cape.
The first Shoprite opened its doors in November 1966 in the old Gaiety Cinema in Wynberg and sold mainly groceries. By 1979, it was an 8-store grocery chain located in and around Cape Town.
Then came a man who would change its trajectory forever – Whitey Basson.
Born on a family farm near Porterville in January 1946, Whitey—nicknamed for his white hair—attended Rondebosch Boys High and matriculated in 1963.
Initially considering medicine, he opted for a life in business after qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1970, following his BCom at Stellenbosch University and articles at Ernst & Young.
In the early 1970s, Basson joined Pep Stores Ltd as a financial manager.
He switched from that position to the head of operations in 1974, an office he held until late 1978, where he was responsible for all operations and actively involved in building the Pep Stores brand and company.
It was from this time that he began to cut his teeth as a retailer under Renier Van Rooyen, who had started Pep in one store in Upington in 1965.
In 1979, Basson reached an agreement with the Pep Stores board to identify acquisition opportunities or start a new venture in the food retailing business, which suited his passion for trading in fast-moving consumer goods.
They had their sights set on the eight stores in Woodstock, Brooklyn, Goodwood, Milnerton, Lansdowne, Wynberg, Bellville, and Paarl.
Pep Stores eventually bought Shoprite for around R1 million in May 1979.
Rogut and Geller, the company’s only shareholders, would stay on the top management team, while the 301 permanent and 148 part-time employees were retained, too.
Although Basson’s initial plan was to start ‘convenience stores’ anew, with a smaller instead of a broader range of goods, he had to reign in some of his plans.
“I realised it would be better and faster to buy something that already existed than to establish something from scratch and, as luck would have it, this was something that was already established and for sale,” Basson recalled in his biography, Whitey: The Rise and Rule of the Shoprite King by Neil Joubert.
This acquisition marked the start of the development of a dominant supermarket group in Africa.
According to the biography, although Basson did not own Shoprite, it was his business, and he could run it as he saw fit.
“He was itching to put the boardroom politics behind him as soon as possible and focus his attention on that which mattered to him – getting to know Shoprite better, expanding it, and making it very successful,” said Joubert.
In 1980, Basson and, ultimately, the Shoprite Group decided on its vision – “focus on the middle-to-lower income market and to supplement internal growth with the acquisition of promising supermarkets or groups of supermarkets.”
Because of their target market, many landlords did not want Shoprite in their malls.
In 1981, Basson got a new boss when Christo Wiese took over PEPkor and, ultimately, Shoprite.
By 1983, Shoprite expanded to its first location outside of the Western Cape by opening a branch in the Northern Cape. By the end of that year, they had opened a total of 21 Shoprite outlets.
Basson’s first acquisition was six old Ackerman’s food stores in 1984, which were controlled by the Edgars Group.
In 1986, the group was listed on the JSE, with a market cap of R29 million, running 33 outlets throughout South Africa, looking to close in on competitors like Pick n Pay, Checkers and OK Bazaars.
While the business was picking up pace across South Africa, Basson wanted Shoprite to get a foothold in the rest of Africa. Shoprite opened its first store out of South Africa in Windhoek, Namibia, in 1990.
That same year, Shoprite acquired Grand Bazaars, bringing its total to 71 stores and just over 6,000 staff members.
In 1991, Basson had his eye on Checkers, one of the largest upmarket retailers in the country. Whitey was afraid that Raymond Ackermann—CEO of Pick n Pay, who was once the Chief Executive at Checkers before he was fired—would buy it before him.
Basson, Wiese and the Chairman of Sanlam orchestrated a reverse merger that saw Shoprite takeover Checkers in a deal worth R55 million (over R330 million in today’s value).
Checkers sported 169 stores and 16,500 staff members. This brought the Group’s operations to 241 outlets with around 22,600 staff.
At the time, Checkers was bleeding cash – reporting losses that equalled Shoprite’s turnover. However, within nine months, Shoprite Checkers became a profitable company trading across all income segments.
After 1994, Basson wanted to aggressively expand Shoprite in the SADC region, opening stores in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1996, Maputo, Mozambique, in 1997, and Botswana in 1998.
One of the biggest boosts for the Shoprite Group was in 1997 when Basson secured one of South Africa’s most famous deals – acquiring the OK Bazaars Group from South African Breweries for R1.
Basson later joked that given OK’s debt burden, he should perhaps have offered only 99 cents.
Retailer OK Bazaars operated 157 supermarkets and 146 furniture stores across the country, however it was in serious financial difficulties.
Shoprite revived OK’s profitability by restructuring brands: OK became a franchise division, OK Furniture consolidated, and Hyperama stores were rebranded as Checkers Hyper.
Inspired by low-cost models, Basson used centralised warehousing to launch Usave, targeting lower LSMs with a cost structure allowing a 50% gross margin reduction while maintaining strong returns.
In 2001, Shoprite and Checkers were marketed separately, with Checkers repositioned to compete with Pick ‘n Pay.
In October 2016, at age 70, Whitey Basson announced his retirement as Shoprite Holdings CEO, effective at year’s end.
He continued as Non-Executive Vice-Chairman for nine months, concluding a 45-year career that saw Shoprite grow from an eight-store chain valued at R1 million to a global retailer worth over R180 billion with over 160,000 employees.
His success is pinned on various personality traits.
Joubert’s book describes how Basson saw himself as a hands-on storekeeper, closely monitoring business details and customer concerns.
He made unannounced store visits, scrutinised products, and focused on advertising, all while practising frugality.
Believing in direct involvement over boardroom management, he eliminated lavish executive lunches and favoured a non-hierarchical, open-door corporate structure.
“Whitey has been a very strong and charismatic leader, who has managed the company through market transitions and challenging times, taking calculated risks to turn the supermarket group into the leading food retailer on the continent,” said Christo Wiese after Basson announced his retirement.
“He accelerated the growth of the business and inter alia spearheaded Shoprite’s pioneering expansion into the rest of Africa after 1994… he fully deserves his reputation as one of South Africa’s retail giants,” he added.
Read: The man who was fired from Checkers—and then built its biggest competitor
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