Christoffel Wiese, popularly known as Christo, is one of South Africa’s most successful businessman, he played a huge role in the growth of Shoprite and Pep Stores, which are two of the country’s most valuable retailers.
Born in Upington, Christo went on to matriculate from Paarl Boys High in the Western Cape and graduated with an LLB from the University of Stellenbosch.
Having worked as a lawyer at the Cape Bar, he followed that by joining Pep as a director under Renier van Rooyen. This was the beginning of Christo’s rise to the top in the South African retail sector.
He soon became chairman of Shoprite Holdings for which he oversaw its expansion from a chain of 8 supermarkets in the Western Cape to a retail conglomerate that employs over 150 000 workers with a market valuation of R132 billion.
To this day he still remains the largest individual shareholder in the company with 10.67% and second only to the Government Employees Pension Fund(GEPF), additional deferred shares give him voting rights worth 32.2%.
On top of establishing Shoprite Holdings, he also played a huge role in helping Pepkor become a dominant player in the discount clothing market. Pepkor has the largest store footprint in the Southern Africa region, with 5470 stores operating in 10 countries, employing over 47 000 workers.
Pepkor includes well-known retailers such as Ackermans, Pep Stores, Refinery and Tekkie Town. The retail group also owns the JD Group, which comprises of HiFi Corp, Incredible Connection, Russels, Everyshop, Bradlows, and Rochester.
In 2015, Christo was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Awards.
Prior to Steinhoff’s purchase, Christo used to own 44% of Pepkor. After the collapse of Steinhoff due to fraud, he sued and received cash payments and 5% of Pepkor in exchange for dropping the case.
The demise of Steinhoff saw him lose his dollar billionaire status but he rose from the ashes in 2022, and then reclaimed the famed dollar billionaire status.
He also owns Brait, an investment holding company, which owns brands such as Premier Foods, Virgin Active, and New Look.
On top of his other investments, Christo owns a 37.57% stake of Invicta Holdings and 11.9% of TradeHold whereby he also serves as the chairman in both companies.
ADVICE TO ASPIRING ENTREPRENEURS??
“Be your own person, never allow others to determine your horizons and accept that “life is a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get”
