Raymond Ackerman, Founder Of Pick n Pay Is Dead AT Age 92
Raymond Ackerman, the South African retail magnate and Pick & Pay founder, has died at the age of 92.
His family in a statement wrote, “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.”
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“He is survived by his wife, Wendy, children Gareth, Kathy, Suzanne, and Jonathan, his 12 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.”
Ackerman, who was born in Cape Town in 1931, was more than just the son of the Ackerman apparel group’s founder. For many South Africans, he was a symbol of hope, inspiration, and endurance.
His retail career began with a fundamental concept that many people shared: “The customer is queen.”
This ethos, together with his commitment to treating others with dignity and the realization that doing good is good business, laid the groundwork for a retail revolution in South Africa.
Pick n Pay grew from humble beginnings of acquiring four businesses in Cape Town in 1967 to become a retail juggernaut under Ackerman’s imaginative leadership. It presently has 2000 outlets serving millions of people in South Africa and seven other African countries.
His game-changing “four legs of the table” attitude, which emphasized Administration, Social Responsibility and Marketing, People, and Merchandise, with the customer uppermost, was a paradigm changer in the retail business.
To remember Ackerman merely as a businessman, though, would be an incomplete homage. According to his family, he was a loving father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.
“Raymond Ackerman was a man of the people; never too busy or too proud to make time for others,” the statement said.
“He remained humble throughout his life, and passionate about building a more just future for South Africa. He was an enduring optimist about South Africa’s future, and his passing leaves a great void for us all.”
He was a caring employer and a dedicated philanthropist. Even in the 1960s, he was adamant about promoting all employees to managerial positions, despite apartheid laws prohibiting it.
By the end of the 1970s, he had gotten involved with the newly formed Urban Foundation, where he became a prominent supporter of equal opportunity policies and merit-based salaries and wages, while also growing increasingly critical of the government’s homelands policy, the Group Areas Act, and Job Reservation.
However, he was also sceptical of sanctions, believing that they killed jobs and exacerbated poverty. Ackerman and a group of businessmen met newly appointed President FW de Klerk in the Pick n Pay office in Cape Town in 1989.
The group urged De Klerk to free the late former President Nelson Mandela as soon as possible and to repeal apartheid legislation. Ackerman met Mandela on several occasions after his release, and the two developed a close friendship.
Ackerman was the driving force behind the attempt to bring the 2004 Olympic Games to Cape Town, devoting significant time and money to the project.
He founded the Raymond Ackerman Academy for Entrepreneurial Development in 2004 in collaboration with the University of Cape Town, which was later joined by the University of Johannesburg.
The Academy has created hundreds of new business owners, many of whom are now employing others, and well over 400 of its graduates are currently working.
Many institutions have honoured Ackerman for his contributions to business and society over the years.
Raymond and Wendy became Honorary Life Presidents of Pick & Pay Stores Limited after retiring from the board in 2010. He remained involved in Pick n Pay and his philanthropic endeavours.
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He attended Bishops’ Diocesan College in Cape Town and served as president and patron of the Old Diocesan Union. Seven honorary doctorates were bestowed upon him by local and international universities.
Ackerman was an ardent and at one point scratch golfer, and he was especially attached to the Clovelly Golf Club, which his father created and was South Africa’s first non-racial golf club. He watched all of the major golf tournaments and a lot of sports on TV.
