Pick n Pay, SPAR and Woolworths are all changing how they are led at a time when Shoprite is cutting prices and Walmart is rolling out supercentres in South Africa, BusinessTech reported.
Three retailers, three changes
SPAR announced on Monday that it will appoint a new chairman and add independent directors to its board by early November. The board overhaul accompanies an operational recovery that has yet to deliver sufficient earnings and cash benefits, and SPAR warned that its 2026 financial performance will be weaker than last year’s, with pressure concentrated in its Southern African grocery and liquor operations.
In its trading update for the 48 weeks to 28 August, SPAR said revenue from merchandise sales had moderated from the interim period, Southern African wholesale volumes and trading remained subdued, and retailer credit losses, provisions and write-offs stayed elevated. It has hired an independent search firm to assess candidates for the retail, financial, remuneration and governance skills it wants on the board, and the appointments are subject to regulatory requirements and shareholder election at the next annual general meeting. TimesLIVE reported that SPAR has made several board and management changes since 2023, including the departures of chair Mike Bosman and director Shirley Zinn after months of tension with independent retailers. Reeza Isaacs is chief executive.
Pick n Pay, which has been losing market share, last week named former Woolworths executive Spencer Sonn as its next chief executive. Sonn previously ran Woolworths’ South African food business and will work alongside current chief executive Sean Summers during the turnaround. We covered the appointment and how the handover will work when it was announced.
Woolworths’ Sam Ngumeni took over as group chief executive on 1 June, after almost 30 years with the company, succeeding Roy Bagattini, who retired after six years. Within weeks he announced an organisational reset, effective 1 July: Chan Pillay became chief executive of Woolworths Food and Manie Maritz of the Fashion, Beauty and Home division, Bradley Nitsckie became the group’s first chief operating officer, and Christie Koorts became chief digital and technology officer, with IT services, online, data and analytics and cyber security merged into a single division. “The new organisational design brings accountability closer to where value is created and equips the Group with the right people in the right roles,” Ngumeni said, according to The Citizen.
The competitive pressure is narrower than the phrase “supercentres” suggests. Massmart opened its third Walmart store, at East Point in Boksburg, on 28 February 2026, and has 21 more proposed across Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. Massmart says independently published price comparisons show Walmart has a low-price advantage on a comparable trolley of everyday essentials.
What analysts say
“The arrival of Walmart supercentres and Shoprite’s robust price response means that the turnarounds at Pick n Pay and SPAR need renewed impetus to ensure sales gains, which can be delivered by new leadership,” said Charles Allen, a London-based analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. BusinessTech described Woolworths’ internal promotion as an effort to clear internal barriers to growth.
What suppliers should watch
Suppliers and franchise operators depend on these chains’ buying decisions, payment terms and store formats, and none of the announcements says anything about changes to those. What has been confirmed is limited to the leadership and board changes above. The next signals will be SPAR’s board appointments in November and the first trading updates under the new leadership at Pick n Pay and Woolworths.
