Forty-nine years ago, founder of Pick n Pay Raymond Ackerman took a bold step. He’d just been fired from his job and was walking around Zoo Lake in Johannesburg wondering what he was going to say to his wife when he got home.

Woolworths Holdings Limited (WHL) is on an ambitious journey of continuous change in the way it does business and has put sustainability at the core of its strategy.

Ask Shepherd Macothoza how old he is and he’ll answer “That depends”. Born in Khayelitsha in 1979, Shepherd’s family lost their possessions - including his birth certificate - in the township riots in the mid-1980s.

But, footprint of privately-held upstart is nearly double the size of the two, combined. The speed of its turnaround is not the only striking achievement by Pick n Pay over the past three years (although it’s by far the largest and most important). 

Tiger Brands has paid a total of R25 million to small farmers in the past seven years to promote agriculture across all nine provinces in the country by purchasing their agricultural produce.

In the past 18 months, private equity firm Actis has been buying up stakes in South African companies.

South African fishing company Sea Harvest recently announced a 19.9 percent acquisition of Australia’s ASX-listed Mareterram, making it the company’s largest shareholder.

Pioneer Foods has welcomed the Competition Commission Tribunal’s decision to approve the proposed merger between Future Life and Pioneer Foods.

Rhodes Food Group, maker of canned fruit and ready meals, said it would buy the business assets of food manufacturer Alibaba for R42m.