Stanley Lewis
Businessman extraordinaire and generous benefactor, Stanley Lewis, passed away in London on 9 September 2009, aged 86 years, survived by Zea, his wife of 61 years and his four children.
TRIBUTE TO STANLEY LEWIS
Over a period of 40 years, Stanley Lewis’ name became synonymous with Foschini of which he held the positions of managing director and also chairman during the course of these years. In 1958, Stanley Lewis bought a major shareholding in Foschini, which was then a struggling company suffering losses but which company over the ensuing years, he led and built into one of the leading retail chains of South Africa.
When he took control of Foschini, it was badly in need of a new imaginative and motivated approach – this, plus more he brought to the business. By 1960, under his leadership, Foschini had eliminated its losses and by 1966 it was nominated as one of the Financial Mail’s top 100 companies, a distinction which it has repeatedly earned.
Under his dynamic and entrepreneurial leadership, Foschini expanded and developed, at the same time seeking new opportunities and approaches. Over the years, the company inter alia acquired American Swiss Jewellers, Markhams (rebranded as Markham), Sterns and sportscene. It also established Pages (rebranded as exact!), in the process building Foschini into a group which today has over 1 600 stores in southern Africa, supported by a solid financial base and leading-edge technology.
A philosopher once said that the six essential qualities of success are wisdom, imagination, sincerity, personal integrity, humility and charity. Stanley Lewis was generously endowed with all these fine qualities and through these qualities, this quintessential retailer became such a respected and much loved leader of the group.
People loved him because he was a team player who knew how to lead. He loved to play and watch sport and saw it as the ultimate in team work which he brought to his business life.
Although he retired as chairman in 1998, he always remained close to the group and looked back with great pride and satisfaction on the way he built Foschini into the great company it is. It is poignant that he passed away on the day of Foschini’s 2009 annual general meeting.
