Woolies chair Susman to retire

Woolworths chair Simon Susman will hand over leadership in 12 months, effectively ending a 36-year tenure at the retailer, which in recent times has been wobbled by its disastrous expansion into Australia.

Woolworths’s share price fell by as much as 4.4% to an intraday low of R53.16, before closing 3.5% weaker at R53.68, pushing its drop so far in 2018 to 18%.

Woolworths said on Monday Susman and lead independent director Tom Boardman would step down after the 2019 annual general meeting. The retailer appointed Hubert Brody, a former CEO of Imperial Holdings and Sanlam’s Personal Finance, as deputy chair, in anticipation he will take over. Brody has served on the board since 2014.

Boardman will be replaced by independent nonexecutive director Zarina Bassa.

Patrice Rassou, head of equities at Sanlam Investment Management, said Woolworths’s board has appointed “very capable” individuals.

While Susman will officially step down in 2019, he will maintain his relationship with Woolworths, becoming an honorary president and retaining an office at the Cape Town headquarters.

Jean Pierre Verster, portfolio manager at Fairtree Capital, said the honorary president title was an acknowledgement of the role Susman has played in building Woolworths into a leading retailer in SA.

“Although Woolworths has operations in Australia, the biggest part of the business is in SA and he played a crucial role in building that. It looks like he will continue being involved in the company’s social responsibility strategy.”

The company has made headlines lately as a result of its botched move to Australia, which saw it report its first annual loss since listing in 1997.

It said earlier this month it was pulling the David Jones brand in SA, having written down the value of that business by as much as A$713m (about R7.5bn), after paying more than R20bn for it four years ago.

Susman is the second generation in his family to have led Woolworths, as his father, David, played a vital role in Woolworths’s early years.

Susman joined Woolworths in 1982 and was instrumental in the formation of Woolworths’s food business. He served as the retailer’s CEO for 10 years from 2000 to 2010, a period in which Woolworths’s share price rose from R2.60 to over R26.