Kees Beyers accuses Woolworths of inflicting maximum damage and bankrupting his business

The former owner of Beyers Chocolates, which was a direct supplier of Woolworths, has accused the retail giant of wanting to inflict maximum damage and bankrupt his business.

While Woolworths has denied playing a part in Beyers Chocolates’ liquidation, Kees Beyers said the company is directly responsible for his business’s collapse.

Beyers founded Beyers Chocolates in 1987 after he identified a gap in the South African market for high-quality confectionery.

Only three years later, Beyers Chocolates became a supplier to Woolworths, marking the beginning of a 34-year partnership.

This relationship proved highly successful for both parties, with Beyers at one point producing all of the retail giant’s chocolates, and Woolworths accounting for around 50% of Beyers’ turnover.

This mutually beneficial partnership would not last. As Beyers’ success grew, it decided to expand its operations and open another production facility near its existing site.

However, there was one problem – Beyers had an exclusivity agreement with Woolworths.

In an attempt to uphold this agreement, Beyers decided to keep its new factory separate from the facilities it used to supply Woolworths’ products.

Despite this separation, Woolworths accused Beyers of breaching the exclusivity agreement and producing products for its competitors using the retailer’s intellectual property and formulas.

Beyers has strongly denied this, maintaining that the new factory was entirely separate, produced different products, and even employed a different team.

According to Beyers, Woolworths presented the company with an ultimatum – shut down the new factory or end its 34-year partnership. Ultimately, Woolworths withdrew its supplier agreement with Beyers.

Since Beyers had gone into significant debt to fund the purchase of its new factory, it could not survive the loss of its biggest client, and the company is now in liquidation.

Woolworths has denied this version of events, claiming that Beyers breached its exclusivity agreement by offering Woolworths-exclusive products to competitors.

As such, Woolworths decided to end its agreement with Beyers and found an alternative chocolate supplier.

The retailer has denied responsibility for Beyers’ liquidation, saying claims that it played a role are inaccurate and do not reflect the facts.

‘Maximum damage’

In a recent interview with Simon Lapping, Beyers addressed his company’s fallout with Woolworths and claimed that the retailer acted with malicious intent.

He claimed that the retailer was fully aware of Beyers’ financial health, “so they knew exactly how much damage they were causing”.

“That’s what makes this story actually quite malicious. They wanted to do maximum damage. They wanted to bankrupt the business. They wanted us gone,” he said.

Beyers said his company’s liquidation resulted in 700 people losing their jobs, making the dispute “very personal”.

He again denied that Beyers broke its exclusivity agreement with Woolworths by selling similar products to competitors, calling claims to the contrary a “blatant lie”.

“The claim that we then sold that to other retailers is absolute nonsense. It’s a blatant lie, actually,” he said.

“None of the products that Beyers Chocolates was producing for Woolworths were supplied to any of the competitors.”

When Beyers and Woolworths’ dispute became public, former Woolworths CEO Roy Bagattini claimed that the retailer had partnered with the chocolate maker to develop recipes.

This, Beyers also denied, saying the retailer has never developed a single recipe for his company over their entire 34-year partnership.

While he acknowledged that the retailer would sometimes present it with concepts, Beyers denied the retailer’s involvement in any recipe development.

“We developed all the recipes for Woolworths. In 34 years of dealing with Woolworths, they have never developed a single recipe for us,” he claimed.

“We educated them on chocolate. We showed them about chocolate. We built that whole Woolworths chocolate business together with them.”

“Either Bagattini was lying, or he was being lied to by his staff. He needs to fact-check this.”

Daily Investor reached out to Woolworths for comment on Beyers’ claims, but did not receive a response.

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Photos of Beyers Chocolates

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