SPAR Group says some disputes are inevitable.
Image: Henk Kruger | Independent Newspapers
Retail giant SPAR has been involved in more than 20 reported court cases over the past decade, but chairman Mike Bosman argues that disputes are inevitable in a business that spans thousands of stores, employs thousands of people and operates across multiple countries.
A search of a database containing legal decisions identified matters ranging from retailer and franchise disputes to banking, competition and commercial litigation dating back to at least 2010.
The findings come as SPAR pushes back against fresh allegations raised by businessman Amaan Sayed, reported in Business Day on Tuesday, saying the claims relate to a single store transaction and should not be viewed as representative of the broader group.
Speaking to IOL, Bosman said disputes were unavoidable in an organisation of SPAR's scale.
"You are dealing with 3,800 stores. In our business, every day there's an issue that we have to deal with. If you wake up in the morning and think that something's not going to be happening in one of your stores somewhere, I think you've been naive," he said.
Bosman added that SPAR's size meant isolated disputes could easily be interpreted as reflecting the entire group.
"If there's a disagreement in one store about something, that's not a reflection of the entire group and could never really be shown as such," he said.
The comments follow the emergence of a September 2025 due-diligence report prepared by BDO that identified alleged VAT irregularities, unreliable financial information and possible stock manipulation at SPAR's corporate-owned Bloed Street Tops store.
According to Business Day, the report also raised concerns about discrepancies between financial records, stock levels and sales data.
Sayed commissioned the report as part of a proposed acquisition of the Bloed Street store.
Sayed has referred the allegations to regulators including the JSE, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission.
SPAR Group's CEO Reeza Issac
Image: Supplied
However, SPAR on Tuesday issued a statement to shareholders rejecting suggestions that the report pointed to systemic issues within the group.
The retailer said the BDO engagement was a limited due-diligence exercise relating to a single store transaction and did not constitute an audit or forensic investigation of the broader business.
SPAR further said no reportable irregularities had been raised by external auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers in relation to the group's financial reporting or governance processes.
According to the retailer, Sayed commissioned BDO while negotiating to buy the store for R4 million. The sale agreement was signed in February this year but remained subject to approval by the SPAR Guild, an independent body responsible for retailer membership.
SPAR said the Guild declined Sayed's membership application in March on the basis of his credit history and the need to protect the SPAR brand.
The retailer noted that complaints against SPAR chairman Mike Bosman followed shortly afterwards.
"The Board regards this sequence of events as directly and materially relevant to any assessment of the motivation and credibility of Mr Sayed's complaints," SPAR said.
Sayed has previously been involved in a dispute with SPAR in which he joined a group of former retailers that, three years ago, accused former chief executive Brett Botten and the retailer of manipulating valuations, financial information and funding arrangements linked to black economic empowerment transactions.
The retailers alleged that loss-making stores were sold at inflated values, liabilities were shifted between entities, and financial structures were used to conceal losses within parts of the business.
Sayed alleged that he had been required to sign agreements reflecting different values for the same transaction before opening a criminal case. He further alleged that financial information provided during store acquisitions did not accurately reflect the underlying performance of those businesses.
Bosman told IOL that many of the disputes reflected in court records pre-dated a board overhaul that began in late 2022 and formed part of a broader turnaround strategy.
"When I joined the business in 2023, one of the things that I was tasked to do was take a look at the business and fix those issues. All of those have been cleared up in more recent years," he said.
IOL BUSINESS