Lex Hollmann and Ed Harris were recently awarded the inaugural 1st Choice Community Award at the National SPAR Convention at Sun City.
They received the award in recognition of Malelane SUPERSPAR’s community involvement for over two decades, which culminated in the development of four netball and five-a-side soccer multipurpose courts this year.
Malelane SUPERSPAR has won many awards during the store’s history, including for food and health safety practices, SPAR Ladder of Success, and Lowveld Store of the Year, the latter no fewer than nine times.
This successful retail journey started when Lex and his brother-in-law, Ed, purchased Tower SPAR and immediately changed the name to Malelane SPAR. They purchased the store in November 1997 during the era when most little towns had a family-owned SPAR supermarket, commonly referred to as ‘mamma en pappa’ stores.
The advertising slogan ‘There’s a friendly SPAR wherever you are’ was broadcast on radio and featured in the newspaper, on leaflet adverts and in TV commercials.
During these early years, with the focus on outstanding friendly and caring customer service, staff training played a huge role in creating a friendly and caring team of people willing to serve everyone who shopped at SPAR.
It soon became apparent that the store was too small to accommodate all its customers, as the customer count and the store sales grew consistently.
By early 1999, the decision was made that a modern shopping centre with a large SUPERSPAR would solve the problem. The shopping complex would be called the Inkwazi Shopping Centre. This mammoth project was a challenge, but once the commercial property was secured, architects were appointed and the planning began.
After a few delays, construction was started in 2003. During this time, there were many local pundits who did not believe that Malalane was ready for a shopping centre. Geographically, it did not make economic sense to build a multi-million-rand shopping complex in a one-horse town.
Nevertheless, Lex and Ed remained positive and continued to bulldoze their way forward. Their plan was to have a world-class supermarket as the anchor tenant that catered to all consumer income groups.
This vision was realised in September 2004 when the Malelane SUPERSPAR opened its doors for trading. The customers were flabbergasted, some perhaps even intimidated.
Here was a world-class store with a huge range of competitively priced products, 34 checkout points, wide shopping aisles, plenty of large shopping trolleys and fully stocked gondola ends with products on display at special prices.
Soon the store became a place where families would congregate and do their shopping as part of a social outing.
It wasn’t long before the tourist buses were also stopping at the centre on their way to the Kruger National Park. Overseas visitors were exposed to a supermarket in the bush. Frequent comments such as “We don’t have beautiful stores like this where we come from” were often heard.
The centre offered a safe place for the buses to stop off with security-controlled ATM facilities, clean toilets, a forex station, a delightful diner restaurant and a first-rate supermarket.
Through the years the surrounding area as well as the store have gone through many changes. Change is inevitable, especially when trading in the fast-moving consumer goods market.
In this ever-changing market, Lex and Ed have been hands-on from day one, with the ability to implement, rapidly adapt and make changes and improvements to the store as part of an ongoing strategy. After 19 years, the store still looks and feels as good as new.
During its journey, Malelane SUPERSPAR has weathered many storms, economic highs and lows, the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the proliferation of added competition. It is the basket of value of a store that ultimately determines its success or failure in the supermarket world.
This basket of value the store offers includes competitive prices for a vast selection of products, extremely high health and food safety practices, the best in freshness – the store buys fresh produce directly from the Johannesburg market – the best people’s practices – many of the staff complement have 20-plus years’ service – and a safe and secure shopping environment.
All of this adds up to a world-class store in the tiny, picturesque town of Malalane.
Well done, Lex and Ed!
Contact and visit the store:
https://superspar-malalane.business.site/
https://maps.app.goo.gl/hQj7fp5arcWepepH7
