About us
Company History
KwaZulu Cash & Carry was established in April 1977, in the centre of Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The company commenced operations as a conventional wholesaler, trading in the essential commodities, such as maize meal, rice, samp, sugar, oil and beans. However, in the late 1970s the company re-positioned itself into complete retailing – supplying the informal market, the bulk consumer and retail consumer. With this new identity the company prospered and in March 1979 a second branch was opened in Empangeni. In 1988, the company was taken over from the original founders by an independent group of investors. The company then embarked on a development programme aimed at identifying new store sites in other areas of KwaZulu-Natal. In 1991, there was a name change and the trading stores were re-launched under the name of ‘Boxer Cash & Carry’.
In September 1995, the Boxer Cash & Carry concept was extended beyond KwaZulu-Natal with stores opening in East London and Queenstown, in the Eastern Cape. In 1996 the Boxer Cash & Carry concept was further extended to Mpumalanga, with the opening of a branch in Burgersfort. By the late 1997, a new corporate identity logo was adopted and the trading retail name was changed to ‘Boxer Superstores’ in order to better reflect its role, as a retailer.
Boxer Superstores continued to grow and expand where the company believed it could satisfy consumer needs. At the end of August 1997, the company merged with one of its parent companies, Goss & Co., adding three outlets in the Transkei. In October 2001, Boxer Superstores’ first step into the North-West Province, namely Mafikeng, was taken. Tzaneen was the first Boxer branch to be opened in the Limpopo Province in 2002.
In the middle of 2002, Boxer Superstores successfully concluded negotiations when it was announced that Pick ‘n Pay had acquired Boxer, which ideally placed the group in a position to tackle the middle to lower income base.
May 2004 saw the birth of a new trading division within the company, through the launching of a Boxer Build in Port St Johns, Eastern Cape – the Boxer Superstores logo was uniquely modified in order to differentiate the builders’ hardware division. Boxer Build outlets can be found in both the Eastern Cape and the KwaZulu-Natal provinces.
Early 2007 saw Boxer complete the national store scanning roll out to all trading stores, enabling the outlets to offer customers other value added services, such as paying their television licenses and electricity accounts. Boxer took over former trading Score stores and converted them to fully fledged Boxer stores in Swaziland.
In 2009 Boxer Liquors was launched with the first opening in Groblersdal within the Limpopo Province. Today, Boxer Liquors stores can be found in most South African Provinces. This division has become a successful component of the maverick Boxer brand.
In 2015, Boxer entered the Western Cape province for the first time firmly entrenching the Boxer brand as a national retail supermarket offering. The first store to open in the Western Cape province added yet another milestone to the Boxer company as it heralded the 200th trading store in the Boxer company across all trading formats.
2017 saw Boxer celebrate 40 years of trading as Africa’s Favourite Discount Supermarket.
2018 was a year of mass, controlled expansion of stores highlighted by it’s 250th store opening in Jeppe Street, Central Johannesburg, Gauteng
In 2019, Boxer landed 3 fully functional distribution centres and a meat factory to best serve the needs of the Boxer business.
Today Boxer will continue to grow and expand in areas where the company knows it serves the needs of all communities through its select product range, sold at low prices and served in an efficient customer friendly manner.
Boxer ‘Superstores’ ethos revolves around it’s promise to shoppers in them ‘Never Paying More Than The Boxer Price.’
