Sean Summers is returning to Pick n Pay to try to help it claw back its profitability after the board replaced the erstwhile CEO in the wake of Pick n Pay’s first-ever interim loss. Summers was arguably one of Pick n Pay’s best CEOs and has a good relationship with the Ackerman family, which has a controlling interest. The decision has been quick and Summers is still to return from the UK.
Business Day caught up with him on his first day on the job.
Some of the Pick n Pay stores are struggling to turn a profit. Now that you are back, are you willing to make tough decisions such as closing stores if need be?
Hundred percent. It’s common cause that Pick n Pay core retail is struggling and has fallen behind the curve. And we need to turn that around. We’ve done it before.
Retail moves in cycles. Over the past 40 years all the chains have gone up and down and up and down. The reality is Pick n Pay’s core retail has been on the downside for quite a while.
Are some of Pick n Pay’s older stores in the wrong place or in shopping centres that are no longer popular?
By and large, Pick n Pay real estate is not in the wrong place. There are good stores that may be a bit tired. That may need to be looked at. The merchandise needs to be looked at and the group needs to get itself competitive again.
Will your experience as Pick n Pay MD for three years from 1996 and then CEO until 2007 help you fix the ailing business?
Compare our situation today to the midnineties. We rebuilt Pick n Pay. We need to do this again. We need to re-energise the organisation. We need to refocus on what we actually do and that is buying and selling. That’s what we do for a living.
Things have changed since you were last at the helm. SA’s economy is very weak, consumers are really struggling and competition is tougher. Are you ready for such a challenging environment?
Retail has always been a competitive space. I always say retailers are in hand-to-hand combat. We’re all fighting for the same lunchbox at the end of the day. And we intend to get our share of the lunchbox back.
Can you take on Checkers, the clear market leader in SA middle-class retail?
Absolutely. We all pretty much buy from the same suppliers and manufacturers.
Fresh foods are a huge element in Checkers today. Pick and Pay was the chain that really introduced fresh food on the scale that you see in Checkers today in the midnineties. I think that over time, Pick n Pay has lost the ability to create those categories and take advantage as we did. It’s not rocket science here.
Retailers globally copy and paste. There is not all that much that is original.
Then what can make you stand out?
The hallmark of great retail is people. We need people who are passionate about the business, the products that they sell and the customers. That’s what drives a successful retail business. We need to put the passion back into Pick n Pay.
Under outgoing CEO Pieter Boone, Pick n Pay was split into two divisions, Qualisave with a limited range for the lower-income consumer and the ordinary Pick n Pay brand aimed at the middle-class customer [that] has a bigger range of products. He was also focusing on expanding Boxer, the lower-end discounter. Are you going to change this strategy?
I actually bought Boxer when I was at Pick n Pay. And it’s been an extraordinarily successful piece of the company’s growth and continues to be so.
One has to look at the kind of philosophy behind the whole Qualisave banner and ask if it is really doing what it should be doing and if it is selling the volumes it should be. And I think, as in life as circumstances change, you need to be flexible and adaptive. But I can’t say at this stage whether it will change.
Do you have anything else to add?
I’m enormously excited about this opportunity. I really am.
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