{"id":851626,"date":"2026-02-20T08:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=851626"},"modified":"2026-02-20T08:31:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:31:05","slug":"spar-ceo-quits-with-former-woolworths-director-taking-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/851626\/spar-ceo-quits-with-former-woolworths-director-taking-over\/","title":{"rendered":"SPAR CEO quits – with former Woolworths director taking over"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SPAR CEO Angelo Swartz has resigned from his role, with CFO Reeza Isaacs taking over from the start of March. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swartz will leave the JSE-listed company on 28 February 2026. He took on the Group CEO role in October 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his relatively short stint as CEO, he led the business through a challenging period of operational stabilisation and balance sheet changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this time, the group sold its Swiss and Polish businesses and is looking to dispose of its UK operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has worked for the group for 19 years and will remain available for the next three months to support an orderly transition and support key strategic initiatives currently underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“On behalf of the board, I thank Angelo for his leadership and long-standing service at SPAR,” said Chairman Mike Bosman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The board is deeply appreciative of his leadership and the achievements under his tenure. We respect his decision and thank him for the constructive and principled manner in which this transition has been undertaken.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bosman said that the business is positioned to build on the progress achieved and to accelerate disciplined execution of its strategic priorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group has faced a challenging couple of years, recording a R5 billion loss in the 2025 financial year following the sale of its international businesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New CEO and CFO<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Reeza Isaacs, the new SPAR Group CEO<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The board has appointed CFO Isaacs as new CEO, effective from 1 March 2026. He has been with the company for a year, having previously been the Finance Director of Woolworths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said he has played a pivotal role in strengthening its financial position and reinforcing capital discipline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under his leadership, the group introduced a more rigorous capital allocation framework, enhanced financial governance and supported the execution of key initiatives aimed at balance sheet resilience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“His stewardship has contributed materially to improving financial oversight, embedding cost discipline and advancing the group’s margin recovery and deleveraging priorities,” the group said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that Isaacs’ extensive retail experience, institutional knowledge, disciplined leadership approach and clear focus on execution will help the group in its next phase of performance improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Isaac’s promotion to the top job, Megan Pydigadu will move from the Group COO role to Group CFO, with effect from 1 March 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that Pydigadu has extensive experience across operational and financial portfolios, having held several executive finance leadership positions in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She worked as the finance director of EOH before joining SPAR in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Her appointment ensures continuity, institutional depth and strengthened financial oversight as SPAR continues to focus on disciplined capital allocation, cost management and balance sheet resilience,” the group said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Pydigadu taking over as Group CFO, SPAR said it will undertake a structured review of the portfolios previously overseen by the COO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the interim, the group said that these operational portfolios will continue to be managed by the existing divisional leadership teams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group has also decided to establish a dedicated Managing Director position for the Groceries and Liquor segment for its South African operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that the new role will deliver targeted operational leadership for the group’s key value-generating segment and reinforce accountability in driving performance improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An expedited Nomination Committee-led process has been initiated, with a preference for an internal SPAR appointment. An update is expected following the board’s March 2026 meeting. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SPAR CEO Angelo Swartz has resigned, with former Woolworths Finance Director Reeza Isaacs taking the top job. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":851632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[9838,949],"class_list":["post-851626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-spar","tag-woolworths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851626","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=851626"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":851648,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851626\/revisions\/851648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}