Billionaire Christo Wiese’s proudest moment: Shoes, pants, and a shirt for less than R1

Billionaire Christo Wiese said his proudest moment was seeing young children walk into a Pep store for the first time in their lives and buy an outfit for less than R1. 

This was a physical representation of Pep’s mission and what drove Wiese, along with retail giant Renier van Rooyen, to build Africa’s largest clothing retailer. 

Speaking at the 2026 BizNews Conference, Wiese told the story of Pep from the early days and what encouraged a group of young men to build a retail giant. 

Wiese also explained why Pep expanded the way it did, preferring to operate in townships, small towns, and the inner city, rather than glitzy shopping malls. 

Nicknamed “The King of Retail” by investors and his fellow businessmen, Wiese played an instrumental role in building Pepkor and Shoprite. 

Wiese joined Pep Stores as a director under Van Rooyen after working as a lawyer at the Cape Bar, thanks to his father, who was one of the retailer’s earliest investors. 

Pep began in 1965 with a small store in Upington, and Van Rooyen had married Wiese’s cousin, introducing a young Christo to the business. 

Wiese worked at Pep during his university holidays, but instead of building a career there, he chose to pursue law. 

After a decade as a lawyer, Wiese returned to business and bought out Van Rooyen’s controlling stake, taking over as chairman and CEO. 

Wiese restructured the business and formed Pepkor as a holding entity for the low-cost clothing arm and a small grocery retailer called Shoprite. 

These two businesses went on to generate immense wealth for Wiese and shareholders, with both being the largest retailers of their kind in Africa. 

Today, Pepkor has more than 6,500 stores across Southern Africa and Brazil, including brands such as Ackermans and Tekkie Town. 

Shoprite is a food retail giant, operating 3,655 stores in Africa and is the largest private employer on the continent. 

This puts Wiese in a category all by himself, having worked for over 50 years to build two of the largest businesses ever seen in Africa. 

Affordability, affordability, affordability

While many would be enamoured by the financial success of the businesses Wiese built, the billionaire said this is not enough by itself. 

Wiese said the motivation, discipline, and dedication required to build these kinds of businesses require a deeper source of meaning. 

One of his primary drivers was the need to make clothing affordable for people in South Africa, as Wiese saw how it could change lives. 

Wiese explained that growing up in Upington exposed him to many people from a background different to his own, and seeing how clothing gave them dignity was an eye-opening experience. 

“One of the things that I am very proud of regarding Pepkor is that it was founded on the basis of making clothes affordable for poor people,” Wiese said. 

“When I grew up in Upington, as a child, you rarely saw black or coloured children that were not dressed in hand-me-down clothing.” 

Wiese said clothing was unaffordable for many South Africans at the time, especially in small rural communities. 

“Pep’s main aim was to make brand-new clothing affordable and do so on a profitable basis. Doing that is difficult, but it was worthwhile,” Wiese said. 

“In the 1960s and 1970s, you could go to a Pep store and buy shoes, underpants, shorts, and a t-shirt for a child for less than a rand.” 

“Suddenly, clothing was affordable for poor people. What I began to understand was that we have no idea what it does to a person’s self-image if they get new clothes.”

One of Wiese’s fondest memories of building Pep is the impact it would have on a community, particularly on young children. 

Wiese recalled how meaningful it was to him to see young children enter a retail store for the first time in their lives to buy an item of clothing. 

Pep sold individual items of clothing and handkerchiefs for six cents as a loss leader in their stores. Wiese said these items often had the biggest impact on him.