Pick n Pay goes from zero to hero

Pick n Pay’s turnaround plan is gathering momentum, and the retailer’s targeted approach to revitalising stores is starting to bear fruit. 

This is feedback from CEO Sean Summers, who outlined how Pick n Pay plans to win back customers it has lost over the past few years to a surging Checkers and solid Woolworths Food. 

Summers outlined this plan during an event co-hosted with FNB eBucks, where the two companies announced the expansion of their partnership to more of the bank’s clients. 

The bank is set to expand the offering to its personal segment, incorporating more than 20% of its total retail client base. Crucially for Pick n Pay, these clients spend R57 billion yearly on groceries.

This is part of Pick n Pay’s plans to get customers back in its stores and increase engagement with its delivery service, which it sees as a strong driver of future growth. 

As the partnership with FNB gets customers through the door, the onus is on Pick n Pay to make them repeat customers by enhancing the in-store experience. 

“It is all about revitalising the stores. We still have such great real estate around the country, and they need to be revitalised and renewed,” Summers said. 

“We have had the most phenomenal growth in the stores that we have targeted for revitalisation. We have taken them on a targeted basis. It is literally store by store.” 

Summers explained that this programme has started with Pick n Pay’s ‘Super Seven’ stores, which were revamped a couple of weeks ago. 

Since then, Pick n Pay has seen tremendous sales growth at these stores, with Summers saying sales were up 70% to 80%. 

“The reality is that there are customers who, for better or for worse, have taken us out of their consideration scale currently, and we have to work hard to get them back.” 

“That is all it is about at the end of the day because we are all basically selling the same prices.” 

Pick n Pay CEO Sean Summers’ plan

Summers used the Pick n Pay, where the event was held, as an example of what a flagship store should look like. He said there should be at least twenty stores like it across the country. 

Pick n Pay on Nicol was the last store Summers worked on during his first stint as CEO of the retailer 15 years ago. 

It is effectively a shopping centre by itself, with a Pick n Pay Hyper flanked by a liquor store and its own restaurant, Thyme on Nicol. 

Summers explained that the store should be used as a benchmark for all other Pick n Pay’s in the country and as a hub to train employees. 

“This is the last store that was conceptualised under my watch at the end of my days at Pick n Pay the first time around,” Summers said. 

“The plan was to have 20 stores like this around the country that would have served as our benchmark store in each region.” 

“Then, it would be a hub to train and inculcate people about what is needed to be a retailer because this business is all about passion for food and trading.” 

Summers simply said that if you do not have this passion, then you should not be in the business. 

“Our value, at the end of the day, is what we deliver for you in the store. If you do not reward people for their time coming into the store and they do not leave the store feeling good, then they will not come back.” 

Summers was clear that this strategy was not just about throwing money at poorly performing stores but is mainly about reinvigorating the people who work at the retailer. 

“It is not only about throwing monster capital into the store because, at the end of the day, we are in the human business, and that is what we have to get back into our minds at the company again.” 

“It is not about putting on a badge that says, ‘I love Pick n Pay’. It is about how you believe, how you come into work every day, and the attitude you show customers.” 

“Those are the things that we have lost in this company, and that goes to the core of what Pick n Pay is about.”