A Wurm in charge at Pick n Pay

Pick n Pay has announced the appointment of its former Financial Director, Mr Norbert Wurm, to the position of Managing Director.  In December last year, the Ohlthave and List group, Pick n Pay’s parent company, announced that the incumbent Managing Director, Mr Henry Feris, will leave the group at the end of December. Wurm’s appointment was announced shortly afterwards. Wurm’s career reflects in many aspects the career of his current boss and also a former Financial Director, Sven Thieme. The young Thieme was appointed to the position of Financial Director of Pick n Pay by his grandfather, the late Mr Werner List. At that time, in the late nineties, Pick n Pay was already a leading retailer but the group ran at a loss and was a major drag on the overall balance sheet of the Ohlthave and List group.

Pilferage was the main cause which at one point exceeded 7.5%, deemed excessive in the retail industry. Thieme’s career success started at this point when he managed to turn the retailer around making it one of the flagship business in the O&L stable. Managing Pick n Pay after the Thieme era was a much simpler affair and Feris was widely acknowledged in the industry for his contribution to maintain Pick n Pay’s momentum. The new Managing Director, Wurm, qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte Namibia in 2005, and worked for Deloitte International in New York, Luxembourg and London, where he gained extensive experience in the manufacturing industry and global financial markets as an Audit Manager. While at Deloitte London, he inter alia was audit manager for large global clients, involved in Stock Exchange listings, a financial instruments specialist, and was a training facilitator for Deloitte. His time overseas gave him valuable insights into global financial markets, large diverse companies and international standards. He joined Namibia Breweries in June 2009 as Compliance Manager and described this as an exciting time. He subsequently moved on to the role of Strategic Planning & Decision Support Manager at the Breweries and then to Model Pick n Pay as Financial Director in July 2013. “The journey at Pick n Pay so far was a very fulfilling one: there was tremendous growth supported by great people across the board. Wurm said he is excited about the new challenge and leading Pick n Pay into a new era.