JOOSTE’S DEAL MAKING
Inside the mind of Markus Jooste
FM's interview with Markus Jooste before Steinhoff imploded: Jooste, the CEO of SA’s most ambitious company, Steinhoff, may evoke comparisons with Fred Flintstone, but he’s a man who has piloted the evolution of a company that is now Africa’s largest retailer
He might be less reclusive than Hollard’s Dick Enthoven or Caxton’s Terry Moolman, but encountering Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste in the flesh these days still seems akin to spotting the Yeti or the Loch Ness monster. It’s clear that Jooste (55), a charming accountant with ladies-man appeal who also happens to own the largest number of racehorses in the country, doesn’t much like the public eye. Perhaps it’s the strain of marshalling 130,000 staff across 32 countries. Or perhaps it’s that Steinhoff is a company in such flux that even the loquacious Jooste doesn’t like to be tied down to what his grand vision for the company might be. "To be very honest, if you asked me [what our vision was] 10 years ago I would have been totally wrong," Jooste tells the Financial Mail. "To have become the number one in Africa, yes," he says. But to hear him tell it, the kick-up in Steinhoff’s international expansion — into the UK with Poundland, the US with Mattress Firm and Australia with Fantastic H...
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