{"id":881510,"date":"2026-11-01T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=881510"},"modified":"2026-10-30T15:58:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T13:58:30","slug":"how-much-you-would-have-made-if-you-invested-r1000-in-woolworths-25-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/881510\/how-much-you-would-have-made-if-you-invested-r1000-in-woolworths-25-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"How much you would have made if you invested R1,000 in Woolworths 25 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Woolworths is one of South Africa’s largest and best-known retailers, and an investment in the company 25 years ago could have earned a person over R13,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woolworths first opened in Cape Town in 1931, long before it became a publicly listed company, and was founded by Max Sonnenberg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonnenberg introduced dynamic store policies to set the retailer apart from competitors and, three years after its founding, expanded with a second location in Durban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After this first expansion, Woolworths continued to expand its footprint and is today one of the largest retailers in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The retailer stepped into the financial services sector in 1994 through a partnership with England’s Barclays Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This partnership enabled Woolworths to offer targeted financial products and services through its store card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Woolworths’ financial services sector is a partnership with Absa, with the banking giant owning 50% and one share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Woolworths’ largest expansions came in 1997, when it acquired a controlling interest in the Country Road Group, which it took full control of in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since this first acquisition, the retail giant has expanded into several brands, with a particular focus on fashion and beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These brands include Trenery, Witchery, Mimco, and Politix, all of which came after the initial Country Road Group acquisition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 2024, Woolworths entered the pet market by acquiring a majority stake in Absolute Pets, positioning the retailer in a new sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the retailer operates 1,631 stores across 13 countries, with its main footprint still in South Africa, where it has 710 stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the group has made several acquisitions and expansions in its clothing and beauty segments, the company’s food business is its largest earner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woolworths Food accounts for approximately 66.5% of the group’s total turnover and concession sales, and the company plans to anchor its future around this segment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A R1,000 investment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Woolworths was first listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in 1936, five years after its founding, with a share price of 1 pound (R2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 16 March 2001, the retailer’s share price was 290.4 cents, which had grown to 3,974 cents by the close of markets on 26 October 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that a R1,000 investment in the retailer in 2001 would have been the equivalent of approximately 344.35 shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 26 October 2026, those 344.35 shares would be worth R13,685<\/strong>, a Return On Investment of approximately 1,268.5%.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a R1,000 investment in Woolworths in 2001 would have earned a person R13,685 today, selling that stake at the retailer’s peak would be worth over R35,000<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 27 November 2015, Woolworths’ share traded at 10,285 cents, making the initial R1,000 investment worth R35,416.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After peaking in 2015, Woolworths’ share price declined gradually before dropping sharply in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic created difficult economic conditions for most businesses, with retailers feeling the pain of movement restrictions and a constrained market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the pandemic, Woolworths steadily increased its share price until 2023, when it started to gradually decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the retail giant has a market capitalisation of approximately R38.9 billion and a presence across South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The retailer has recently looked to continue its push to centre itself around its food segment through the acquisition of In2Food, one of its long-time suppliers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This acquisition has received regulatory approval and is expected to streamline Woolworths’ supply process, with In2Foods becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Woolworths historic share price<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A R1,000 investment in Woolworths 25 years ago could have been worth over R13,000 today, and over R35,000 at the right time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":874701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2116894288579571725","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2257146878439044","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26747,175,949],"class_list":["post-881510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-in2foods","tag-jse","tag-woolworths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881510","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881510"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881586,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881510\/revisions\/881586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}