Pick 'n Pay is a big retail chain with an even bigger heart. It has shown that a simple thing like customer trust is an important facet of how to earn and maintain a glowing reputation.
Mobilising all its employees to play a part in making its reputation a success is seen as critical to its continued success.
One gets a sense that the company is fairly modest in conveying the visionary leadership and operational efficiency that are needed before even contemplating its generous spirit, which is based on its success. Behind this hugely self-effacing stance is a sophisticated business with an administrative and distribution machinery that is world class.
Pick 'n Pay has earned its right to be where it is today, which has enabled it to project its softer and caring side on the exterior. Its internal processes, however, are ruthlessly efficient.
Pick 'n Pay pays tribute to Raymond Ackerman, its visionary founder, for epitomising the values that characterise its success today.
The Mail and Guardian 2012 Top Companies Reputation Index once again had Pick 'n Pay as one of its most reputable businesses ranked in the top five. Its chairman, Gareth Ackerman, was on hand to explain that reputation was the cornerstone on which the giant retail chain was built. With over 60-million customer transactions per month, Pick 'n Pay is a complex organisation whose image could easily be tainted by even the slightest of misjudgements.
The term "customer sovereignty" has a particular significance at Pick 'n Pay. It underlines the retail giant's near obsessive fight for the rights of its customers. This is expressed through an underlying principle of what this suave retail chain refers to as "doing good", if for no other reason, simply because Pick 'n Pay "does good things".
An extension of this bold undertaking to do good is further assurance to its customers that Pick 'n Pay " is always there for you". How do customers get to experience this good deed? Through an extensive product range, top quality products, service to customers, environmental care and community programmes.
Pick 'n Pay is a shining beacon of retail success with a passion for continuous investment in quality and value, attributes that set it apart. In spite of its remarkable achievements, Pick 'n Pay is far from being content. Its aim is to become even more efficient at delivering quality and value.
The group has ambitious plans for growth in the broader African continent and is single-minded about continuing fortify its corporate reputation.
Sifiso Falala is the chief executive of Plus94 Research, which compiles the Mail & Guardian Top Companies Reputation Index
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