{"id":28511,"date":"2026-03-12T12:47:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T10:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=28511"},"modified":"2026-03-12T12:47:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T10:47:22","slug":"woolworths-south-africa-ceo-bagattini-to-retire-in-september","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/woolworths-south-africa-ceo-bagattini-to-retire-in-september\/","title":{"rendered":"Woolworths&#8217; South Africa CEO Bagattini to retire in September"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">South Africa&#8217;s (SA) Woolworths Holdings \u200bsaid on Thursday that Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Roy Bagattini would retire at \u200cthe end of September after leading the company for more than six years, with insider Sam Ngumeni named as his successor.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">&#8220;Following significant progress in the strategic \u200brepositioning of Woolworths, and given Roy&#8217;s pending retirement, \u200bthe board and Roy believe that now is \u2060the optimal time to transition leadership as Woolworths builds \u200bon its strengthened foundations and growth prospects,&#8221; the fashion and \u200bfood retailer said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Under Bagattini, the group sold its struggling David Jones department store chain in Australia, reduced debt, boosted investment in \u200bits core SA assets, acquired Absolute Pets, and initiated \u200bits first-ever share buyback programme, the company said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">He also led the repositioning of \u200cWoolworths&#8217; \u2060fashion businesses in SA and Australia, enhancing their long-term competitiveness through brand revamps and improved stock availability.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Ngumeni, currently CEO of the food division, has been with the \u200bgroup nearly 30 \u200byears and \u2060was previously its chief operating officer.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">&#8220;Sam has extensive experience across various roles and functions \u200bwithin the group and a proven ability to \u200bset \u2060clear strategic priorities and execute effectively against these,&#8221; Chairperson Clive Thomson said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":27656,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-28511","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Woolworths Chief Executive Officer Roy Bagattini to retire","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28512,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28511\/revisions\/28512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}