The South African Brothers Who Founded A Retail Giant Cheaper Than Woolworths, Checkers, And Pick N Pay.
Food Lover’s Market, one of the most recognisable names in South Africa today, began as a single fresh produce shop run by two brothers, Brian and Mike Coppin.
The pair came from a family familiar with the retail trade. Their father had been a director at OK Bazaars, before that chain was absorbed into the Shoprite Group in 1997.
Drawing on that background, the brothers set out to build a business focused on fresh food at low prices, filling a gap they observed in the market at the time.
The first step came in 1993, when the Coppins took over a small store in Access Park, Kenilworth, Cape Town.
The store, previously known as The Carrot King, was stripped out and converted into the first Fruit & Veg City. The brothers, along with family members and a handful of staff, handled much of the work themselves.
They sourced fruit and vegetables directly from local farmers and municipal markets, paying cash to secure fresh stock quickly and at lower prices.
This direct sourcing allowed them to offer cheaper produce than many of the established supermarket chains, which were restructuring their fresh produce supply lines at the time.
The new store drew considerable attention from customers across the surrounding suburbs, many of whom welcomed the more market-style experience.
Encouraged by the response, the brothers began to consider whether the model could succeed elsewhere. In 1995, someone approached them with the idea of opening a Fruit & Veg City in Port Elizabeth.
That store became the chain’s first franchise. More franchises soon followed in East London, Durban, Bloemfontein and Pretoria. By 1999, the company had expanded into Johannesburg.
What had started as a small family operation began to grow into a national chain. Some of the early employees stayed with the business and moved into more senior roles as it expanded.
A new name and rapid expansion
The Coppin family also continued to play a central role, with the next generation eventually entering the business as well.
The company’s growth remained gradual rather than explosive, with each new store testing whether the original Access Park model could be replicated elsewhere.
Over the years, the business added new sections and services. The original emphasis on fresh produce widened to include bakeries, butchery counters, deli foods and later fish and sushi departments.
The brothers travelled internationally to study well-known food retailers, including Waitrose and Selfridges in London and Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s in the United States, to understand trends in store layout, customer experience and product presentation.
By 2012, the business had evolved well beyond its original fresh-produce identity, and the Fruit & Veg City outlets were rebranded under the Food Lover’s Market name.
In 2014, the company introduced selected products from the UK retailer Waitrose. The following year, the business attracted a R760 million investment from Actis.
Actis is an emerging-market investment firm that specialises in partnerships with family-owned companies. This helped to support further growth and modernisation.
Alongside the supermarket business, Food Lover’s Market expanded into related ventures. It acquired Seattle Coffee Company, which has since become one of the largest coffee shop chains in South Africa.
It also developed FreshStop, a convenience store brand at Astron Energy filling stations, extending its footprint into roadside retail.
Today, the Food Lover’s Market Group is headquartered in Cape Town and is considered the country’s largest privately owned retailer.
It now operates more than 300 stores in South Africa, along with outlets in Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Across its various businesses, it employs more than 17,000 people.
The company continues to update and expand its stores.It has signalled that further expansion is likely in the coming years, although the pace and scale of that growth will depend on market conditions and competition in the retail sector.
Food Lover’s Market competes directly with major South African retailers such as Checkers, Pick n Pay, Spar and Woolworths.
While each retailer operates with different pricing strategies and product focuses, comparisons of staple grocery baskets provide some indication of how they stack up against one another.
According to BusinessTech’s grocery basket comparison published at the end of October 2025, Food Lover’s Market offered the second-cheapest basket of nine staple grocery items among major retailers
Only Makro was cheaper, and by just R11.66. Food Lover’s pricing undercut other major names such as Checkers, Pick n Pay, Spar and Woolworths, highlighting its ongoing commitment to value.
Food Lover’s Market
Coppin family
