Serious allegations against Woolworths amidst business closures and explosions at stores

Kees Beyers, the founder and owner of Beyers Chocolates, said that Woolworths wanted to inflict maximum damage and bankrupt the business.

Beyers shared this information during an interview with Simon Lapping on 29 May 2026, in which he discussed the liquidation of his business.

Beyers Chocolates became a supplier to Woolworths in 1990, which marked the beginning of a 34-year partnership with the retailer.

It was a mutually beneficial relationship for many years.  At one stage, all Woolworths chocolates were made at our Beyers factory.

Beyers had an exclusivity agreement with Woolworths, where it could not supply similar products to other retailers, like Checkers or Pick n Pay.

As the company was highly dependent on Woolworths as a client, which accounted for most of its revenue, it decided to expand.

As part of the diversification strategy, Beyers acquired another chocolate factory near Beyers’ production facility, giving them the opportunity to expand.

Beyers kept it separate from the production facilities it used to supply Woolworths to maintain the exclusivity agreement.

The new factory supplied Beyers’ other customers and new customers, such as Checkers and Pick n Pay.

Woolworths accused Beyers of producing products for its competitors using its intellectual property and formulas. He strongly disputed this claim.

Kees Beyers said Woolworths told them they had to choose between losing their supplier agreement with it or shutting down their other factory.

“It became very personal, and they cut all the business with Beyers Chocolates. In the process, 700 South Africans lost their jobs,” he said.

By January 2025, Woolworths’ chocolate products were no longer being manufactured by Beyers Chocolates.

“This was not a decision taken lightly, but it was the right one for our business and our customers,” the company said.

Serious accusations by Kees Beyers against Woolworths

Beyers believes Woolworths’ actions were based on a malicious, emotional decision intended to make an example of him.

Beyers Chocolates had borrowed nearly R200 million from the bank to consolidate four scattered factories into a single facility in Bedfordview to improve efficiency.

“Woolworths was fully aware of this expansion and was actively involved in the layout of the new building”, Beyers said.

Amid the fight over exclusivity, Beyers said Woolworths asked them for a breakdown of the amounts they had borrowed and their loan repayment structures.

“They wanted to get the whole financial picture so they knew exactly how much damage they were causing,” Beyers said.

“That’s what makes this whole story actually quite malicious, to be honest. They wanted to do maximum damage.”

“They wanted to bankrupt the business. They wanted us gone. They obviously succeeded, and we’ll see what the future holds.”

He also dismissed claims by former Woolworths CEO Roy Bagattini that they partnered to develop chocolate recipes.

“We developed all the recipes for Woolworths. In 34 years of dealing with Woolworths, they have never developed a single recipe for us,” he said.

“We educated them on chocolate. We showed them about chocolate. We built that whole Woolworths chocolate business together with them.”

He added that Woolworths would sometimes travel overseas and bring a concept to Beyers Chocolates to make something similar or copy it.

“That’s the extent of it. But all the recipe development we actually did here in-house,” Beyers said.

He strongly denied that they sold any chocolates similar to what they produced for Woolworths to competitors like Pick n Pay and Checkers.

“It’s a blatant lie. Either Bagattini was lying, or he was being lied to by his staff. He needs to fact-check this.”

“None of the products that Beyers Chocolates was producing for Woolworths were supplied to any of the competitors.”

Bad time for Woolworths

These allegations come at a bad time for Woolworths. It is facing scrutiny over its exclusivity agreements and has also been rocked by explosions at two stores.

The DA’s spokesperson on Trade, Industry and Competition, Toby Chance, said Woolworths’ treatment of suppliers concerns him deeply.

It has reached such a level that the Democratic Alliance is considering amending the Competition Act to address anti-competitive exclusivity agreements in retail.

“There is no good economic reason that any retailer should tell a supplier they can’t sell goods elsewhere,” Chance said.

“There is no reason any supplier should force a retailer to carry only their brand of a certain class of product.”

Chance’s comments followed accusations that Woolworths treated Grey’s Marine, which has supplied the retailer with fish for over 30 years, unfairly.

Grey’s Marine accused Woolworths of mistreatment, threats, bullying, and intimidation, which led to the company’s demise.

Grey’s Marine said Woolworths systematically dismantled a business it had helped build over more than three decades.

The story of Grey’s Marine closely resembles that of Beyers Chocolates, where the dispute with Woolworths caused the company to shut its doors and lay off all its staff.

Apart from the bad press due to these disputes, Woolworths has also been rocked by two explosions at its stores.

The Hawks have been appointed to investigate the explosions in Pretoria at the Menlyn Park store and the second in Bloemfontein at the Preller Square branch.

Woolworths has also contracted specialist forensic experts to strengthen security and intelligence, in support of the work already being done by the authorities.