Still youthful Pattison’s retailing coup that saved 30,000 jobs

By Alec Hogg

Whatever else he achieves in his career, Grant Pattison is unlikely to have quite so satisfying an evening as Friday’s. After a year of negotiations, just ahead of the weekend his Edcon announced a R2.7bn debt-for-equity swap that secures the jobs of its 30,000 staff and many more at 750 companies in the Edcon supply chain.

In getting the creditors to take shares for debt, Pattison pulled off some coup. But it’s a masterstroke that wouldn’t surprise those who watched him develop under Mark Lamberti at Massmart. Until, at just 36, Pattison succeeded his mentor as CEO of Africa’s second largest retailing group.

Seven years after taking over at Massmart, Pattison showed impeccable timing in engineering its sale to Walmart. The US giant paid top dollar (double the current share price) just ahead of five poor years for SA retailing. Within months of the Walmart takeover both Pattison and mentor Lamberti had left their old charge.

Despite his already vast experience, headhunters will tell you that at 48, Pattison is only now starting to hit his best executive years. He will need to be. Like other retailing chains worldwide, Edcon is tacking into the wind. On the upside, Pattison now has it in fighting shape. Also he doesn’t have Amazon to contend with. Not yet anyway.

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