A businessman who once lost control of one of South Africa’s biggest retail empires has now pulled off one of the largest comeback stories in global business.
South African-born billionaire Nathan ‘Natie’ Kirsh has officially overtaken luxury goods magnate Johann Rupert on the rich list after the sale of his US-based Jetro Restaurant Depot business for a staggering $29.1 billion, roughly R484 billion, as per Business Tech.
For many South Africans, Kirsh’s name may not carry the same public profile as Rupert, Patrice Motsepe or Nicky Oppenheimer, but his story stretches deep into the country’s business history.
Born in Potchefstroom in 1932 to Lithuanian immigrant parents, Kirsh built his fortune from the ground up, beginning with the family malt business before expanding into Eswatini and later South Africa’s booming wholesale food market.
Long before modern retail giants dominated local shopping centres, Kirsh was already reshaping the way food distribution worked in South Africa.
During the apartheid era, white-owned businesses were restricted from operating directly in black townships, but Kirsh spotted an opportunity many others overlooked. Through food distributor Moshal Gevisser, he supplied independent black shopkeepers who were serving rapidly growing township communities.
That strategy helped build one of the country’s largest retail operations.
Over time, Kirsh expanded aggressively through his holding company Kimet, acquiring businesses including Checkers, Dion, Russell’s and Union Wine. At one point, his empire controlled more than 12% of South Africa’s consumer goods market.
This was years before Checkers eventually became part of Shoprite under Christo Wiese and Whitey Basson.
But Kirsh’s South African dominance did not last forever.
Political unrest, economic pressure and complex corporate battles in the 1980s saw him lose control of much of the empire he had spent decades building.
In an interview with Leader, Kirsh reflected on that collapse, saying: ‘I lost my fortune and the stature that came with controlling the country’s largest trading operation, employing more than 40 000 people.’
For many entrepreneurs, that would have been the end of the story. Instead, Kirsh quietly rebuilt himself in the United States.
