Raymond Ackerman bought four Pick n Pay stores in Cape Town in 1966. The chain now has about 2,300 stores.
After nine years running Checkers from 4 stores to 85, Raymond Ackerman bought the first four Pick n Pay stores and built them into a national retailer.
Raymond Ackerman was the son of Gus Ackerman, who founded the Ackermans clothing chain in 1916. He joined Ackermans in 1951 as a trainee manager. When the business was sold to the rival chain Greatermans in the early 1950s, he spotted something new: self-service supermarkets.
Checkers first
He encouraged Greatermans to launch its own supermarket chain, of which he became general manager. The first store opened in Mayfair, Johannesburg. The chain, Checkers, still exists today as a major competitor to Pick n Pay. In nine years, Ackerman took Checkers from 4 stores to 85.
Pick n Pay
In 1966 he purchased the first four Pick n Pay stores in Cape Town from Jack Goldin. The company opened its first hypermarket in 1975, launched its first franchised store in 1993, and in 2002 acquired Boxer Superstores. Pick n Pay is now a major South African retail chain founded in 1967, headquartered in Cape Town, with around 2,300 stores and about 90,000 employees across seven African countries.
He resigned as chairman in 2010 and his son Gareth took over. The story shows a founder who learned a model, then took it into a business of his own.
