{"id":846145,"date":"2026-01-03T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=846145"},"modified":"2026-01-02T23:38:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T21:38:45","slug":"the-south-african-who-became-the-ceo-of-australias-largest-retailer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/846145\/the-south-african-who-became-the-ceo-of-australias-largest-retailer\/","title":{"rendered":"The South African who became the CEO of Australia’s largest retailer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brad Banducci grew up in Boksburg, Gauteng and would eventually go on to lead the largest retailer in Australia, the Woolworths Group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banducci<\/a> grew up in the gold mining town, about 30 minutes outside of Johannesburg, where he worked with his father selling sewing machines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite being a teenager, he was the number one salesman at South Africa\u2019s annual Easter Show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then attended the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he received a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics and Accounting, as well as a Bachelor of Laws with a specialisation in Tax and Company Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a brief stint in London, he moved to Australia in 1998 on a bursary to study for an MBA at the UNSW Business School, graduating in 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was then the first employee of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Australia. During his 14 years with BCG, he also worked in the USA and New Zealand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He gained his first exposure to Woolworths, which has no relation to Woolworths South Africa,  during his consulting years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in New Zealand, he started to grow a love for retail, and bought a bakery business and a vineyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He returned to Australia in 1999 and would become the CFO of payments fintech Tyro in 2005. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After running out of money trying to keep Tyro afloat, Banducci worked as a consultant to acquire supplementary income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then helped Archer Capital<\/a> purchase the wine distribution business Cellarmaster. Banducci made such an impression that he was asked to join Cellarmaster as CEO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woolworths then bought Cellarmasters in an AU$340 million deal. Although Banducci suggested that he be made redundant, he was kept on as managing director of its liquor business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four years later, in 2015, Banducci was appointed chief executive of the entire company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woolworths is the largest retailer in the country. Along with Coles, the two companies are the dominant players in the food market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New endeavours\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Banducci and his replacement as CEO, Amanda Bardwell<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Banducci took over during a tough period for the retailer, whose share price was struggling and its supermarkets division was losing ground to Coles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company\u2019s board was fractured, and several key divisions were haemorrhaging money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Banducci, the company exited its hardware business, Masters, sold its fuel business, EG and then its drinks business, Endeavour, where Banducci started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banducci\u2019s early tenure at the company saw its share price nearly double and claw back market share from Coles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid skyrocketing inflation in Australia, the company also increased its margins to record levels following the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the company faced struggles near the end of its tenure, including an investigation by the Australian Parliament into price-gauging at the retailer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banducci left Woolworths in late 2024. Following his departure, he joined TEG in March 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TEG is a leader in live entertainment, ticketing, digital and data, and focuses on live event experiences for millions of fans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am honoured to join TEG at this exciting time in its journey,” Banducci said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn this new role, I am following both a personal passion for live events and a strong belief in the increasing importance of live experiences in general.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brad Banducci went from selling sewing machines in Boksburg to leading Australia’s largest retailer, Woolworths. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":846147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[18634,24375],"class_list":["post-846145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-coles","tag-woolworths-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846145"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":846961,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846145\/revisions\/846961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}