Birthday of the week: Raymond Ackerman
He is the owner of the supermarket group, Pick n Pay.
Raymond Ackerman, the owner of the supermarket group, Pick n Pay was born 10 March 1931.
He is also well known for his philanthropic activities.
After graduating from the University of Cape Town with a Bachelor of Commerce, he joined the Greatermans group in the Ackermans division in 1951 at the age of 20 as a trainee manager.
Ackermans had been founded just after World War I by Raymond’s father Gus, but was sold to the Greatermans group in 1940.
Raymond was eventually offered a position at Greatermans head office in Johannesburg.In the early 1950s, food retailing supermarkets first began to appear on the scene in South Africa.
Norman Herber, chairman of Greatermans decided to start a food retailer called Checkers and Raymond was eventually put in charge of Checkers, making a success out the business.
He won the Outstanding Young South African award in 1965, along with Gary Player and by 1966, at the age of 35, he was the managing director of 85 Checkers stores.
He was fired in the same year and in response, using his severance pay and a bank loan, Raymond bought four stores in Cape Town, trading under the name Pick n Pay that grew to hundreds of supermarkets.
