Master retailer Sean Summers: Pick n Pay’s loss has been Steinhoff’s gain

After a couple of years in the oil business, a youthful Sean Summers was lining up a move into computers with IBM before fate intervened. A chance discussion with his parents’ dinner guests launched him into a career with Raymond Ackerman’s then embryonic Pick n Pay, a journey which ended in 2008 when the duo “fell out of love”. At the time Summers had been Pick n Pay’s CEO for 11 years and helped steer it to the top of the SA retailing tree, a position it has since lost. After emigrating to the UK, the Capetonian teamed up with Markus Jooste’s Steinhoff Group and now runs its 450 store UK beds and furniture chains. In this in-depth interview, Summers gives a masterclass in retailing, talks about his close relationships with the iconic Ackerman and Jooste, and offers some pointed insights into mainly self-inflicted challenges facing his homeland.