Pick n Pay Founder Raymond Ackerman Passes Away At 92
Pick n Pay Founder Raymond Ackerman Passes Away At 92. South African retail group Pick n Pay has announced that its founder Raymond Ackerman has passed away at age 92. The company took to its social media platforms to make the announcement.
The post read, “With profound sadness we announce that Pick n Pay founder Raymond Ackerman has passed away. A visionary entrepreneur, humanitarian and a great South African. Our country has lost a brilliant patriot who always saw a positive future for South Africa.”
After graduating from the University of Cape Town with a Bachelor of Commerce, Ackerman joined the Greatermans group in the Ackermans division in 1951 at the age of 20 as a trainee manager. Ackermans had been founded by his father Gus, but was sold to the Greatermans group in 1940.
Ackerman was eventually offered a position at Greatermans head office in Johannesburg. In the early 1950s, food retailing supermarkets first began to appear on the scene in South Africa. Norman Herber, chairman of Greatermans decided to start a food retailer called Checkers. Ackerman was eventually put in charge of Checkers, making a resounding success of the business.
In response to being fired from Checkers, using his severance pay and a bank loan, Ackerman bought four stores in Cape Town trading under the name Pick ‘n Pay. Under his leadership, Pick ‘n Pay eventually grew into one of Africa’s largest supermarket chains, with more than 124 supermarkets, 14 hypermarkets and 179 franchised outlets. The Pick ‘n Pay Group employs more than 30,000 people in several African countries.
According to the company, from the outset, Ackerman lived by the core values that the customer is queen, that people must treat others as they would wish to be treated, and that doing good is good business. These values have guided the business for over 56 years, and today the Pick n Pay Group serves millions of customers in more than 2,000 stores across South Africa and seven other African countries. His business philosophy was underpinned by the “four legs of the table” (Administration, Social responsibility and Marketing, People, and Merchandise, with the customer on top) first introduced to Ackerman by Bernard Trujillo in the US.
