Moving at dizzying speed, Steinhoff and its chief executive Markus Jooste know where they are going. In the tough world of international retail, scale is the name of the game. It is a game that Steinhoff CE Markus Jooste is playing aggressively as he races the group up through the ranks of the world’s mega-retailers. Jooste’s resolve to gain scale has taken Steinhoff from a group with revenue of €3.8bn in 2010 to one with revenue of €13.1bn in the 12 months to June 2016. Operating profit of the group, which now trades through more than 11,000 stores in 32 countries, soared from €510m to €1.5bn in the six years. On a revenue basis Steinhoff was already ranked as the world’s 101st biggest retailer in 2014, in Deloitte’s most recent Global Powers of Retail survey. Steinhoff’s revenue showing in its latest 12 months would rank it at around 65th. Key drivers of scale have been two transformational deals pulled off by Jooste. First came the €1.2bn acquisition of Conforama, France’s second...
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