A Tribute to Raymond Ackerman
Raymond Ackerman was a visionary South African and the founder of Pick n Pay. His legacy is deeply woven into the fabric of South African retail and society. Raymond built a company grounded in timeless values - that the customer is queen, that we must treat others as we wish to be treated and that doing good is good business. These values, which Raymond lived every day, continue to guide the Pick n Pay Group more than five decades later.
Raymond and his wife Wendy founded Pick n Pay in 1967 after purchasing four small stores in Cape Town. From humble beginnings, he grew the company into one of Africa’s largest and most respected retailers, now serving millions of customers across South Africa and seven other African countries.
Raymond’s business philosophy was shaped by the “four legs of the table” – Administration; Social Responsibility and Marketing; People, and Merchandise - with the customer always on top of the table. This people-centred approach informed everything he did, from engaging directly with customers, to challenging unfair practices that raised the cost of living. His celebrated battles against price regulations and restrictive laws are part of retail and consumer history in South Africa.
But Raymond was about far more than business success. He was a compassionate employer, a committed philanthropist and a courageous leader for social progress. As early as the 1960s, he promoted black South Africans into managerial roles, defying apartheid-era regulations. In the 1970s and 1980s, he became an active advocate for equal opportunity, fair wages and the dismantling of apartheid policies, while also warning that sanctions would harm the most vulnerable.
Raymond was not afraid to speak truth to power - including urging President FW de Klerk in 1989 to release Nelson Mandela and abolish apartheid laws. He went on to enjoy a warm relationship with Nelson Mandela after his release.
Raymond’s impact extended beyond retail and social justice. He was a key driver of Cape Town’s bid for the 2004 Olympic Games and in 2004 he established the Raymond Ackerman Academy for Entrepreneurial Development, empowering hundreds of young entrepreneurs to build their own futures.
He remained deeply committed to Pick n Pay after retiring from the board in 2010, serving alongside Wendy as Honorary Life President, and continuing his philanthropic efforts with the same passion and humility that defined his life.
A proud product of Bishops Diocesan College in Cape Town, Raymond also served as President and later patron of the Old Diocesan Union. He received seven honorary doctorates and numerous accolades recognising his contribution to business and society.
Raymond was also a sportsman and avid golfer, with a deep connection to the Clovelly Golf Club – the first non-racial golf club in South Africa, founded by his father.
He was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather – a man of the people, never too busy to stop and connect, and always humble despite his many achievements.
Raymond Ackerman believed in South Africa. He never lost faith in its potential and always worked to build a fairer, more inclusive future. His optimism, courage, and humanity continue to inspire us all.
Pick n Pay founder Raymond David Ackerman was an indomitable champion of consumer sovereignty and a profoundly decent man, whose humane convictions set him against the business and political establishment of his day.
He carved a place in South African history by reshaping the retail sector in the image of the customer and rallying organised business in opposition to apartheid.
He waged a relentless campaign against the monopolies and price cartels that characterised commercial practice in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970, winning lower prices for household staples while changing the face of food retail with constant innovation.
He was a dogged opponent of racial discrimination, and ingeniously circumvented apartheid policy where he could, while agitating for its abolition.
Born in Cape Town in 1931, he was the son of Ackermans clothing group founder, Gus Ackerman, and was educated at Diocesan College (Bishops) and the University of Cape Town (UCT), where he developed the social conscience that was to characterise his career.
It was as a Bachelor of Commerce student that he learnt about the dangers of monopolistic practices and cartels, and the primacy of the customer in economic relations.
These principles were quickly applied when, aged 20, he joined Ackermans as a trainee manager in 1951.
When the Ackermans group was bought by competitor Greatermans, Ackerman accepted a position in Johannesburg and persuaded the company to invest in modern supermarkets. In 1955, he was put in charge of launching the Checkers supermarkets and made a resounding success of the venture. By 1966, at the age of 35, he was the managing director of 85 Checkers stores.
It was during his period with Greatermans that Ackerman and his wife Wendy visited America, where he met Bernardo Trujillo, who was running the NCR Modern Merchandising Methods Programme. It was from Trujillo that he learnt the analogy of the 'four legs of the table' that informed his business career for the next 50 years. This held that business is like a table supported by four legs on top of which the consumer sits. Each leg – administration, merchandising, marketing and social responsibility, and people – must be equally strong for the table to remain balanced and upright.
In 1966, Ackerman was fired by the Greatermans Group for wanting to lower prices for customers. Using his two weeks' severance pay, a bank loan, a modest inheritance, and shares purchased by friends, Ackerman bought four small stores in Cape Town trading under the name Pick 'n Pay for R620 000.
Almost immediately, Ackerman launched the first of his many campaigns against monopolies and price-fixing, instantly earning the animosity of competitors and the loyalty of his customers.
In September 1968, Pick n Pay went public and was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
In the following year, Ackerman moved to promote black employees to managerial positions, in contravention of then-apartheid legislation, appointing Pick n Pay's first black manager in his Rondebosch store. It took a personal approach to then-prime minister John Vorster to persuade the government to turn a blind eye to this step, and ignore the provisions of the Group Areas Act and Job Reservation Act.
By the early 1970s, Ackerman was engaged in increasingly acrimonious battles with rival retailers and suppliers as he continued to cut prices. He also introduced the hypermarket concept to South Africa. The first hypermarket was opened in 1975 in Boksburg, where he immediately faced a boycott by big-name suppliers who did not want their products sold at the low prices which Ackerman wanted to offer.
Ackerman's well-documented 'petrol war' began in 1975, by which time he was already selling discounted petrol at the Boksburg Hypermarket – albeit through a legal ruse that was almost certainly unlawful.
By the end of the decade, events in the country were driving Ackerman to adopt a higher-profile political position as he became active in the newly-established Urban Foundation. He became a prominent champion of equal opportunity policies and merit-based salaries and wages, and increasingly critical of the government's homelands policy, the Group Areas Act and Job Reservation. But he was also critical of sanctions, in the belief that they destroyed jobs and deepened poverty.
In 1978, Ackerman scored a singular personal victory when he persuaded then Prime Minister Vorster to introduce 99-year leasehold rights for black African employees in urban areas. As a consequence, Pick n Pay was able to introduce an assisted company housing scheme for its growing number of black employees. It was in the same year that Ackerman also persuaded Vorster to allow the Clovelly Golf Club – which had been founded by his father in the 1920s – to become South Africa's first non-racial golf club.
Ackerman's first confrontation with then SA Prime Minister PW Botha resulted in his being thrown out of Botha's office after a discussion about the price of bread for the poor. Ackerman called on other food chains to join Pick n Pay in setting up a private bread subsidy. When this approach failed, Pick n Pay established its own R1 million subsidy scheme, prompting accusations from the government that Ackerman was politicising the issue.
As the government strengthened its determination to remove black people from the cities, evicting residents en masse from squatter settlements, Pick n Pay devised a scheme to organise homes for the company's lower-paid employees. At the same time, motivated by Ackerman's exposure to the levels of poverty in South Africa, the Pick n Pay board resolved to slash profit margins on a broad range of foodstuffs and to release R10 million in subsidies to reduce the prices of a wide range of food and other products.
In 1984, Ackerman started funding the Zama Dance School in Gugulethu, which has since provided hundreds of children with their first step towards dancing on the international stage.
After PW Botha's Rubicon speech in 1985, a boycott of white shops in the Western Cape led to fresh waves of violence which did not leave Pick n Pay unscathed. It was at this time that Ackerman founded the Business Initiative, an association of business leaders concerned about the tragic consequences of Botha's speech and determined to accelerate a non-violent reform process.As the national crisis deepened, Ackerman joined seven other top businessmen in 1986 to call for the immediate and unconditional release of Nelson Mandela and for negotiations with the ANC about the country's future.
By the late 1980s, Pick n Pay had grown to 12 hypermarkets and 81 supermarkets across South Africa, and Ackerman continued his battles against price fixing, taking on the powerful KWV cartel, which regulated every aspect of wine distribution throughout the country. At the same time, he renewed his efforts to sell discounted petrol and in 1986 Pick n Pay mounted a successful court challenge against the government's prohibition of a petrol coupon scheme which gave customers grocery discount coupons with petrol purchases at the Boksburg Hypermarket.
In 1989, Ackerman and a group of businessmen met newly appointed President FW de Klerk in Pick n Pay's Cape Town office. The group told De Klerk that Mandela should be released as soon as possible, and that apartheid legislation should be scrapped. Ackerman was to request – and be granted – a number of meetings with De Klerk after his celebrated speech of 2 February 1990.
Ackerman was to meet with Mandela on numerous occasions after his release, and the two established a warm relationship.
In 1994, Pick n Pay was hit by the worst strike in its history, characterised by widespread intimidation and violence. A supportive President Mandela contacted Ackerman to offer the services of Labour Minister Tito Mboweni as an independent mediator. The strike was eventually settled after five weeks.
In the aftermath of the strike, with profits dropping, growth stagnating and company morale at a low ebb, Ackerman launched a restructuring project which introduced a wide range of staff incentives and morale-building initiatives. Employee literacy programmes were introduced and Pick n Pay Family Stores were launched to empower black franchise-holders.
In 2004, Raymond Ackerman established the Raymond Ackerman Academy for Entrepreneurial Development in partnership with UCT, which was later joined by the University of Johannesburg. Well over 1,000 graduates have come through the Academy through the combined programme in Cape Town and Johannesburg. The Academy has produced hundreds of new business owners, many of them offering employment to others, while well over 400 of its graduates are now gainfully employed. The programme has now been centralized in Johannesburg and has expanded to an online offering accessible to students across the continent.
In 2009, he was the founder of the Raymond Ackerman Golf Academy at the Clovelly Country Club, where aside from teaching the discipline and techniques of golf, the youth are provided with access to emotional support and life skills as well as school and homework assistance.
By the time Ackerman finally retired and handed the chairman's reins to son Gareth, Pick n Pay was operating 20 hypermarkets and 402 supermarkets across South Africa, while group turnover stood at almost R50-billion.
Today, Pick n Pay has over 2000 stores throughout South Africa and beyond.
Over the years, Ackerman was honoured by numerous institutions for his services to business and corporate social responsibility. Wendy Ackerman has played an integral role in both her husband's life and the development and growth of Pick n Pay.
FOYSA Award – One of the Four Outstanding Young South Africans
1965
IMM Marketing Man of the Year
1970
Management's Businessman of the Year
1975
Financial Mail Man of the Year
1983
Rhodes University Honorary Doctor of Law
1986
Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow
1987
Women's Bureau of SA – The Men of the Decade (1 of 10)
1988
Advertising Age International – One of the World's Top 40 Marketing Superstars
1993
Afrikaans Sakekamer Businessman of the Year
1994
The Argus Businessman of the Year
1994
Herald Times Business Achiever of the Year
1994
Indian Academy of SA Outstanding Business Leadership
1996
PMR/FMCG Most Admired Personality
1997
Union of Orthodox Synagogues Honoured for PnP range of Kosher products
1998
Lois Volks Humanitarian Award
1998
Lions International Melvin Jones Fellow
1999
PMR – Golden Arrow Award Most Admired Individual
1999
PMR – Golden Arrow Award Most Admired Individual
2000
IMM Millennium Achievement Award
2000
One of the 100 most influential South Africans to have shaped the 20th century – public survey
2000
SA Council of Shopping Centres Pioneer Award
2001
Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow
2001
Association of Marketers Protea Award
2001
Sunday Times Lifetime Achievement Award
2001
UCT Honorary Doctor of Economics Sciences
2001
University of PE Honorary Doctor of Commerce
2002
Lions International Citizen of the Year 2001-2002
2002
Western Cape Provincial Honors Order of the Disa
2003
IPM Award for the Development of People
2004
Financial Times/Price Waterhouse Cooper - The only South African amongst the World's Top 100 Most Respected Businessmen
2004
JNF Tribute to Raymond and Wendy Ackerman in honour of their Business and Social Commitment to SA
2005
DTI Award – Lifetime Achievement Award for consumerism
2006
PMR Western Cape Outstanding Contribution to Economic Growth
2007
Inyatelo Philanthropy Award to the Ackerman Family
2007
Woodrow Wilson International Award for Corporate Citizenship
2008
University of KwaZulu-Natal Honorary Doctorate of Commerce
2009
Topco Media Lifetime Achievement Award
2010
Civic Honours Award from the City of Cape Town
2010
ABSA Jewish Awards Helen Suzman Lifetime Achievement
2010
University of SA Honorary Doctorate of Education
2011
CNBC Africa Business Leaders Award Lifetime Achievement
2011
Ask Africa Barometer Most Trusted Business Leader in SA
2011
World Retail Congress Africa Lifetime Achievement Award
2013
African World Federation of Marketing Lifetime Achievement Award
2013
Presidential Award of the Order of the Baobab – Silver
2014
ACE - Master Mentor in Entrepreneurship Award
2014
Free Market Foundation – 7th Luminary Award
2014
The Harry Brews Award – For selfless contribution to the improvement and growth of the game of golf
2014
The National Disability Champion Award 2014
2014
Honorary Doctorate Bar-Ilan University in Israel
2015
Honorary doctorate Rutgers University Camden Philadelphia – USA
2016
Lifetime Achiever award from Regenesys Business School – Sandton, Gauteng
2016
Lifetime Achiever award – SA Development Community "South" awards
2017
The Ellen Kuzwayo Award from the University of Johannesburg
2018
Reach for a Dream Lifetime Achievement Award (Mr and Mrs Ackerman)
2019
Amy Biehl Foundation Ubuntu Award (Mr and Mrs Ackerman)
2022