13/12/2025
BUSINESS STORY SERIES | SME GO NAMIBIA
Before Pick n Pay became a giant, before the name filled shopping centres across Southern Africa, before the red and blue logo became familiar, it was just an idea inside the mind of a small grocery owner.
In the early 1960s, a South African businessman named Jack Goldin believed grocery shopping could be different. At the time, supermarkets were rigid, controlled and expensive. Goldin experimented with a simple but powerful idea. Let customers walk the aisles freely. Let them choose for themselves. Let prices speak honestly.
From this belief, a small group of grocery stores was born. They were modest. Functional. Focused on everyday people. Goldin named them Pick n Pay because customers could pick what they wanted and pay fair prices for it.
But good ideas alone do not guarantee growth.
In 1967, Jack Goldin decided to sell the business. The stores were not failing, but they needed someone willing to fight for the idea with everything they had.
That someone was Raymond Ackerman.
Raymond had just lost his job as a senior supermarket executive. Not because he was incompetent, but because he refused to abandon the customer. He believed prices should be lower. He believed shoppers deserved respect. Management disagreed. He was fired.
With his wife Wendy, Raymond used his savings to buy four small Pick n Pay stores. Four. That was all.
No empire.
No guarantees.
Just belief.
Raymond took the original idea and pushed it harder. He slashed unnecessary costs. He challenged suppliers. He made prices visible and honest. He walked the shop floors. He listened to customers. He treated staff like partners, not numbers.
The early days were tough. Mistakes were made. Some decisions hurt. But the stores worked. Customers came back. Trust grew.
Within a year, Pick n Pay was listed on the stock exchange. Not because it was big, but because it was well run.
Over the years, the business expanded slowly at first, then faster. New stores opened. Bigger formats were tested. Some failed. Others succeeded. Raymond allowed experimentation, believing that progress comes from learning, not fear.
In time, Pick n Pay introduced franchising. Ordinary people were given the opportunity to own stores under the Pick n Pay name. Entrepreneurs became partners. Communities became stakeholders.
Later came bold acquisitions. Score. Boxer. Each move was strategic. Each decision rooted in one question. How do we serve more people without losing our soul?
Today, Pick n Pay stands as one of Africa’s largest retailers. Thousands of stores. Tens of thousands of jobs. A brand that spans borders.
But strip away the scale, and the truth remains simple.
Pick n Pay began as a small grocery idea.
It survived conflict.
It grew through discipline.
It succeeded because it never forgot who it was built for.
To every small business owner in Namibia reading this:
Your single shop matters.
Your struggle is valid.
Your story is still being written.
This is SME Go Namibia, sharing real business stories to remind you that great businesses are not born big, they are built patiently, painfully and purposefully.
