From jokes to stats
ZEENAT MOORAD: Secret to Shoprite's success
Shoprite Holdings is kicking ass and taking names …
For years, Shoprite Holdings used to host its financial results presentations at the L’Incontro Ballroom at the Michelangelo Hotel in Sandton. It was the highlight of results season. Mostly, people came for three things: the numbers, the lunch and Whitey Basson. The retail boss would poke fun at rivals, suppliers and sometimes government, quipping bizarre phrases which came to be known as "Whitey-isms". In the event that you’ve never had the pleasure, I’ll share. "I always say we put our testicles out there, then people tell me, ‘No, it’s the wrong word; you put your tentacles out there’," he once said. "Shoprite is far ahead of the pack ... we don’t have to import people to run our business," he said, referring to Richard Brasher, a former executive of British retailer Tesco, who had just been hired to head Pick n Pay. "I hear he has a new wife. Very pretty and very young," he said of Woolworths chair Simon Susman.
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