Mr PnP who put food on the tables of 100 000 employees
In an unprecedented week of an outpouring of grief, tributes, admiration and homage, people of all races, colours and political persuasions hailed the iconic track-record of the legendary founder of the progressive Pick n Pay stores, Raymond Ackerman, who died of old age in his native Cape Town, aged 92, on Thursday, 7 September.
The media networks, from SAfm Radio, CapeTalk, 702, Lotusfm, and TV stations, SABC and eNCA, and the print media, the business newspapers to daily publications, gave the passing away of the supermarket boss, prominent and positive coverage soon after news of his death went public on radio lead news bulletins and social media.
His grieving family were the first off the mark to officially announce his passing away on Twitter and Facebook via the PnP Head Office: “It is with profound sadness that we announce the death at the age of 92 of visionary South African, and founder of Pick n Pay, Raymond Ackerman.”
Sacked by Checkers in 1966, jobless Ackerman with his wife, Wendy, on his right-arm knocked on the doors of his loyal friends in Cape Town and rallied enough funds for the couple to buy the first three stores – heralding the birth of the Pick n Pay group of stores.
Today, as he spent his last days and hours with his family, Ackerman has left behind a great economic legacy for South Africa, the nation’s 60-million population and his widow whom he consulted closely on every business decision and next move on his chessboard to compete on an equal footing with Shoprite Checkers, Spar Group and thousands of independent supermarkets – inspiring mainly Indian and Muslim-owned, spaza shops and online shopping at the advent of the Covid-19 era and hiatus.
He has left an indelible legacy for his large family – wife, Wendy, children Gareth, Kathy, Suzanne, and Jonathan and 12 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren – a new generation of supermarket retailers and corporate captains of the sophisticated shopping markets.
Ackerman was born in Cape Town in 1931 – the son of the founder of the Ackermans clothing group.
When Checkers fired him in 1966, he pondered: Checkers fired Ackerman in 1966: ‘’What do I do, find another job, I have a wife and children to take care of?’’
With store number four under his belt, Ackerman got down to truly and sincerely understanding customer purchasing habits and trends.
Legend has it that he stood in shopping malls and spoke to shoppers who did not carry the PnP bags filled with purchases. He asked them why? His Q&A pushed him to constantly improve his supermarkets – like an airline CEO sitting in economy class and observing how the cabin crew and air hostesses treated passengers.
His mantra: ‘’The customer is the queen’’ – a foundational belief that still resonates proudly with millions of customers enjoying the loyalty benefits of the SmartShopper card and queing for their SASS grants at the tills.
Legend has it that Mr PnP once told his sons to work among the packers and merchandisers to learn the craft of satisfying the needs of paying customers.
Today, his son, Gareth Ackerman, heads his iconic father’s business empire which today – 56 years later after humble beginnings – is a gilt-edged portfolio of 2 000 stores nationwide, 90 000 employees of all races, with tills ringing with quality food, fresh produce and clothing in seven other African countries.
A mass discounter who continued to slash millions of rands off consumer’s hard-pressed household budgets, Ackerman revolutionised the way South Africans shopped at supermarkets. He did not stop on the shop floor or the boardroom.
Regarded as a beacon of hope, inspiration, and resilience by millions of South Africans, Ackerman played a central role in speaking out against apartheid that stifled the country’s economy and marginalized black and people of colour socially, politically an especially economically.
With right-wing apartheid hardliner, PM Johan B Vorster, in the hot seat at the Union Buildings, Ackerman informed him that he needed to promote blacks as store managers and provide them with homes in White-zoned group areas. The hawkish Super-Afrikaner told the PnP boss he was breaking the law, but to ‘’go about it quietly’’.
Ackerman founded the Urban Foundation to provide low-cost housing for his managers and staffers and people of colour.
As a consumers champion, he forced the government’s hands in implementing zero-rated VAT on the staple food of the impoverished masses – especially bread – and then got petrol prices slashed.
In the 1990s, Durban Indians honoured Ackerman with the prestigious Nadaraja Award presented to him by the Indian Academy of SA at the city hall.
At a meeting with National Party leader, FW de Klerk, in his boardroom at PnP Cape Town, Ackerman cut to the bone and told the president: ‘’End apartheid and release Nelson Mandela.’’
In democratic SA, Ackerman campaigned for his native city’s bid for the 2004 Olympic Games: ‘’If Cape Town wins, we all win!’’
As tributes hailed Mr PnP as the ‘’beacon of hope, inspiration, and resilience’’ – ranging from Cape Town mayor cherishing a museum black-and-white photograph of Raymond and Wendy Ackerman opening their first store, to describing Ackerman as the ‘’late business pioneer leaves a great legacy in the business in SA to President Cyril Ramaphosa saluting the business contribution of a patriot who endeared himself to founding president Nelson Mandela.
- In death, Raymond Ackerman joins a pantheon of extraordinary entrepreneurs who also fought hard against the apartheid’s system of trading conditions and promotion of black managers, such as Richard Maponya, who died 6 January 2020, aged 99, after also spending 27 years fighting apartheid land rights law to construct his eponymous 200-store, cinema complex Maponya Mall in Soweto – the lifeblood of his multi-million rand business empire – who was described as the genesis of black businesses.
