The man who saw South Africa’s fastest-growing discount retailer go from 5 to 600 stores

Boxer has expanded its footprint from 5 stores in 1993 to 600 today, with the discount retailer having doubled its store base since 2020.

Boxer CEO Marek Masojada has been with the company for the whole of this process and will now retire at the end of the 2027 financial year.

In an interview with Daily Investor following Boxer’s interim results for the six months through August 2026, Masojada reflected on his three-decade-long journey at the company.

“It’s been just the most amazing experience to have seen the business grow. When I joined, we had 5 stores: 3 in Empangeni, 1 in Pinetown, and 1 in Maritzburg,” he said.

Masojada joined Boxer in 1993, 16 years after its founding as KwaZulu Cash & Carry in Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal.

The business was slow to take off, having expanded to 5 stores by the time Masojada joined.

He told Daily Investor that Boxer was still a “rough cash and carry store” at that time, selling staples like rice, maize, onions, and potatoes on wooden pallets.

This is far cry from the Boxer stores South Africans know today: an air-conditioned superstore with tiled floors, boasting shelves of fresh produce, a bakery, butchery, and delicatessen.

“We brought really respectful, beautiful shops to the lower end of the market, when for many years in my early career, the shops were terrible, and it was certainly not a respectful environment,” Masojada said.

As Boxer continued to grow its footprint throughout the 1990s, it caught the attention of South Africa’s then-biggest grocery retailer, Pick n Pay.

Under CEO Sean Summers – who resumed the helm in 2023 – Pick n Pay acquired Boxer in 2002. By then, Boxer had 35 stores.

Though it continued to operate independently, Boxer grew rapidly with Pick n Pay’s backing, becoming one of the retailer’s most profitable and fastest-growing segments.

Masojada and his team’s legacy

Masojada started his career at Boxer after completing his studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, serving as its head of finance for 25 years before becoming a managing executive in 2019.

He was appointed to the helm in October 2024 and was instrumental in overseeing Boxer’s unbundling from Pick n Pay and listing on the JSE.

Boxer’s JSE listing took place on 28 November 2024, when it became the largest initial public offering in Africa for 2024, and the largest on the JSE since 2017.

The listing raised R8.5 billion for parent Pick n Pay, a boon for the struggling retailer that was in the midst of its ongoing turnaround strategy,

Since becoming a stand-alone entity, Boxer has continued to grow, with its footprint now standing at 600 stores.

In the first half of its 2027 financial year alone, Boxer opened 24 new stores – 9 superstores and 15 liquor stores.

The discount retailer hopes to open 36 more stores in the financial year, bringing the total to 60 and its footprint to 636.

This represents a significant expansion for the retailer over the past decade, having gone from 208 stores in 2016

Reflecting on Boxer’s growth from five stores to 600, Masojada told Daily Investor that he looks back on this journey with pride.

“We’ve grown into a national 600-store footprint, and it’s amazing what that’s meant to so many people’s lives,” he said. “We’ve gone from 500 staff members to 38,000.”

“The industry’s changed and we’ve changed so much and to be able to do it and build a sustainable model that’s going to hopefully go to 1000 stores, it’s been really satisfying.” 

Now, at the age of 61, Masojada is set to retire from Boxer at the end of February 2027. He will be succeeded by the current head of supply chain, Justin Galloway.

“We built a great team, and I’m very excited for the future, but, obviously, you do look back with a lot of happiness at the journey we’ve walked,” Masojada said.