You may also hearken to this podcast on iono.fm here.
FIFI PETERS: Let’s transfer on to the subsequent e book that we are reviewing, as a result of immediately Shoprite is the largest retail firm in Africa and the largest employer exterior of authorities. But again then, again in 1980, Shoprite was an underdog, a mere shadow behind the large fishes in the retail pond at the moment – being Pick n Pay Checkers and OK Bazaars. But for my part, from my interpretation of this specific e book, it appeared like there was a transparent imaginative and prescient, working hours on finish, very lengthy working hours on finish to boost a pointy technique, and in the end an unmatched ardour for retail that drove the former CEO of Shoprite, Whitey Basson, and his group to flip the retail script, because it had been, to make Shoprite the behemoth that it’s immediately.
In the biography ‘Whitey’, writer Niel Joubert paperwork The rise and Rule of the Shoprite King, and he joins the Market Update.
Niel, thanks a lot in your time. I wish to begin off with the opening pages, the place you write about going out to satisfy Whitey and going as much as inform him that you just wished to write down a e book about him, and that you just thought that you just had been the greatest particular person to write down it. I’d like to grasp the place that internal ardour got here from, and what made you imagine that you had been the man that needed to inform his story.
NIEL JOUBERT: Thanks, Fifi. It was 2019 and I believe it was simply after Whitey left Shoprite, and then additionally the Steinhoff debacle that occurred. I all the time thought Whitey was a outstanding particular person and businessman.
As a monetary journalist I had the privilege to hearken to him a number of occasions at Shoprite’s outcomes shows.
And he all the time had this quirky sense of humour. It simply was a outstanding story of how he constructed this superb firm over the course of 40 years.
I had been a Shoprite shareholder for some time as properly, since the early 2000s. I knew the firm, I knew the retail trade, and I believed with my monetary journalism background I used to be the proper particular person to inform the story, and fortunately satisfied him to belief me along with his nice story.
Three years later we’ve this e book on the cabinets, and I’m very pleased with it.
FIFI PETERS: Yes. I need to say that you just did a incredible job on it. So much of individuals I do know are reading it and they are saying they’ll’t put it down. You began it in 2019, and the pandemic launched a bit of complexity and a bit of delay in your preliminary goal. So inform us about that and what you learnt, extra importantly, about writing a e book throughout lockdown.
NIEL JOUBERT: Yes, that was fairly difficult. I met Whitey in particular person at his farm in Stellenbosch in January. We spoke for a number of hours, and in February once more. Then the arduous lockdown got here and every thing got here to a standstill for a number of months with a lot uncertainty round what was taking place, what was going to occur. I believe everybody was scared.
And then we determined after a number of months, in the center of 2020, that we wanted to get shifting once more, and like everybody else we began doing Zoom calls. So I sat in Pretoria and phoned Whitey in Stellenbosch. Once a month we chatted for a number of hours on a Thursday and each Friday morning. So we spent hours and hours collectively.
It was fairly difficult doing it over Zoom. It’s all the time higher to have somebody in the room, to have the ability to learn their physique language and these sorts of issues. But I acquired the foundation of the story from Whitey and then fortunately when arduous lockdown ended I may go and meet him once more in particular person.
Yes, we spent hours and hours collectively. From our discussions, and discussions along with his mates and household, I constructed the story.
Obviously Shoprite and Whitey’s household have an enormous archive of articles and letters and emails. I went by way of all of them. I went by way of all of Shoprite’s annual outcomes.
Pep Stores had this inner newspaper. I went by way of all of these.
There was rather a lot of analysis and, such as you talked about, Whitey’s work ethic was one thing to behold – and that’s one thing I learnt as properly. You must work very arduous to write down a e book.
FIFI PETERS: Is it simply arduous work, although? I’m glad that you just talked about Pep, as a result of rather a lot of us affiliate Whitey Basson with Shoprite, however you go into the background of his days at Pep. He was one of the early guys who labored at Pep as a monetary director and made Pep the main reasonably priced worth clothes retailer that it’s immediately. One has to surprise if it hadn’t been for his contact at the retailer at the time would we be talking about Pep the means that we are talking about it immediately – notably from a shareholder perspective.
But I’d prefer to know, based mostly in your work with him as a journalist, based mostly on the investigation that you just did in placing the e book collectively, do you reckon that in Whitey’s case all of it was about arduous work or simply one thing in his DNA about mastering retail and truly being a retail grasp, because it had been – or a mixture of the two?
NIEL JOUBERT: A superb query. Everyone all the time asks me what made him profitable.
I believe you’ll be able to’t get previous the truth that tough work is essential. Retail may be very arduous work, but in addition he had a knack for it.
I believe they all the time say retail is in the element. And Whitey Basson?
In the e book there are quite a few examples of how detail-orientated he was. The issues he may spot that others didn’t are legendary. He all the time had his finger on the pulse of the enterprise.
Going again to Pep, Renier van Rooyen based Pep and I believe Whitey learnt rather a lot about retail from Renier. It’s that factor of not managing your corporation out of your workplace however on the ground, on the store ground, and realizing what goes on in your corporation, residing your corporation, and that focus of reducing prices and giving not ‘cheap goods’ however ‘value goods cheaply’ to customers, realizing what they need. And with that focus, he took that to Shoprite.
I don’t suppose rather a lot of individuals know his story from the Pep [stage]. At a younger age, in his 20s, he mainly took over the Pep model. He all the time had that imaginative and prescient of constructing Shoprite to be larger than Pep at some point, and then taking the similar philosophy to meals retail.
FIFI PETERS: Which he did, and the relaxation is historical past! A quote that I like is the place you quoted him in phrases of how he thinks as a frontrunner and as a enterprise visionary. There is a typical saying of ‘Oh, there’s a spot in the market, there’s a spot in the market’; however he’d all the time push again and say, ‘Is there a market in the gap?’ which I believed was completely outstanding.
I’m out of time, however I’ve acquired a parting query for you since you talked about all the different superb retailers in South Africa’s enterprise panorama. There was Renier van Rooyen, founder of Pep, as you mentioned; Whitey learnt rather a lot from him. Also there’s Raymond Ackerman, who made Pick n Pay the great firm and the behemoth that it’s in its personal proper. And it was actually great color to be taught that Raymond was truly fired from Checkers again in the day. Then he mentioned, okay, let me present you what I can do – and he did do higher.
But in your view who’s the greatest retailer?
NIEL JOUBERT: Well, that’s a great one. It’s like asking individuals who the greatest soccer participant is, and you say ‘Ronaldo’. I believe Whitey and Raymond had been totally different, perhaps totally different eras. I’d clearly say Whitey; it speaks for itself.
I had a take a look at the market caps of the two firms immediately. Pick n Pay stands at R30 billion and Shoprite stands at R140 billion.
So that speaks for itself.
FIFI PETERS: I may go on, however it’s going to remove the motivation to get individuals to go and learn this e book. I believe it’s a captivating account of the retail panorama and the modifications and shifts, and how Shoprite got here to be the means it’s. And additionally [there are] great classes and motivations from a fantastic enterprise particular person, Whitey Basson.
Niel, thanks a lot for becoming a member of us. We’ll depart it there, sir.
NIEL JOUBERT: Thank you very a lot.
FIFI PETERS: Niel Joubert is the writer of Whitey: The Rise and Rule of the Shoprite King.