Shoprite Holdings announced on Monday that its chief executive, Dr Whitey Basson, would be retiring at the end of the year.
Chief operating officer Pieter Engelbrecht has been appointed to take over as chief executive on January 1. The company said the 47-year-old Engelbrecht, who had been with the company for 20 years, “has played a leading role in the company’s growth under Basson’s leadership”.
Shoprite’s chairman, Dr Christo Wiese, in making the announcement at the company’s annual general meeting in Cape Town on Monday, said: “Whitey has been a very strong and charismatic leader, who has managed the company through market transitions and challenging times, taking calculated risks to turn the supermarket group into the leading food retailer on the continent.
“He accelerated the growth of the business and inter alia spearheaded Shoprite’s pioneering expansion into the rest of Africa after 1994. He also successfully acquired and integrated Grand Bazaars, Checkers and OK Bazaars. He fully deserves his reputation as one of South Africa’s retail giants,” Wiese added.
Basson built himself a name as one of South Africa’s retail titans during a career of nearly 45 years, most of them at Shoprite. During his time there, the business grew from an eight-store chain with a value of R1 million to an international retailer with a market capitalisation of R114 billion and more than 140 000 employees.
Even so, more than a few eyebrows were raised earlier this month when it became known that Basson had earned R100 million in the previous year after being awarded a R50 million bonus for achieving targets.
Wiese said Basson would stay on the Shoprite Holdings board as non-executive vice-chairman “to continue to share his knowledge and experience”.
Basson said effective succession had always been a key focus for the management team and many key operational responsibilities had been handled by the senior management team over the last few years.
“I have been privileged to lead the Shoprite Group from small beginnings to one of the continent’s greatest companies.” he said.
“Given the quality of Shoprite’s current management team and their exceptional track record I foresee that the company will continue to grow from strength to strength,” he added.
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