[This is a summary of a Jew who is virtually unknown to Whites in South Africa and I wonder how many White Australians know about this Jew? There's more to him than meets the eye and this Jew and his wife Ethel were very much into "Jewish Philanthropy" so they probably were also into supporting Israel. Estimating his wealth is hard because he kept his businesses pretty private and secret. He also actually started Pick 'N Pay which is a huge set of supermarkets in South Africa. But he sold it to the Jew Raymond Ackerman in 1967 for R620,000. Goldin left South Africa in the mid 1980s and went to Australia where he basically started a Clicks look alike in Australia which is known as PriceLine. Here is a summary of what he did in South Africa and how he ended up selling Clicks to a corporation. Jan]

Jack Goldin's business career is one of the most remarkable—and least appreciated—success stories in South African retail history.

When Clicks listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1979, the entire company was valued at just R10 million. At the time it was still a relatively young chain, but Goldin's vision was already beginning to transform the South African pharmacy and health retail market.

The growth that followed was extraordinary.

By 1983, Clicks' annual turnover had exceeded R100 million, an impressive achievement for a business that had begun with a single store just fifteen years earlier. Expansion continued at a rapid pace, and by 1988 Clicks had become a national retail chain with well over one hundred stores. The company had also strengthened its position by acquiring the Discom chain, making it one of the country's leading retailers.

No official figure has ever been published for the amount Jack Goldin received when he sold control of Clicks in 1988. However, based on the size of the company, its growth, and the way retail businesses were typically valued during the late 1980s, it is possible to make a reasonable estimate.

Retail companies of that era often sold for somewhere between half and one times their annual turnover, depending on their profitability and growth prospects. Using those valuation methods, Clicks may have been worth somewhere between **R120 million and R250 million** when Goldin sold control.

If Goldin sold a controlling share—perhaps between 51% and 70%—his proceeds may have been somewhere in the region of **R60 million to R175 million**. This should be regarded as an informed estimate rather than a documented fact, but it fits comfortably with the company's size and the retail valuations of the time.

Measured in today's purchasing power, those figures would be equivalent to approximately **R700 million to R2 billion**.

Most entrepreneurs would have regarded that as the crowning achievement of a lifetime.

For Jack Goldin, however, it was only the end of the first chapter.

After emigrating to Australia, he did something extraordinarily rare. Instead of retiring, he set about building another retail chain based on the same principles that had made Clicks such a success.

That company became **Priceline**, one of Australia's leading health and beauty retailers.

The chairman of New Clicks later summed up Goldin's achievement perfectly:

> "Jack emigrated to Australia where he co-founded the Priceline brand along the same principles as Clicks... In 1998 the story came full circle when Jack retired from Priceline and sold his share of the business to New Clicks Holdings."

In other words, Goldin effectively created two major retail chains during his lifetime—one in South Africa and another in Australia.

It appears that Goldin co-founded Priceline with Australian partners rather than owning the entire business himself. The exact size of his shareholding has never been publicly disclosed, so it is impossible to calculate precisely how much he received when he sold his interest in 1998.

There is, however, one useful clue. In 2006, New Clicks sold its Australian operations—including Priceline, House and Price Attack—for **A$107 million**. Since that transaction involved three businesses rather than Priceline alone, and because Priceline itself was considerably smaller in 1998 when Goldin sold his stake, it is reasonable to suggest that his proceeds may have fallen somewhere between **A$10 million and A$40 million**, depending on the size of his ownership interest. Once again, these figures are estimates rather than documented facts.

Although no reliable estimate of Jack Goldin's personal fortune has ever been published, the broad picture is unmistakable.

He built Clicks from a single store into one of South Africa's leading retail chains. He sold control of the business, emigrated to another country, co-founded Priceline, spent another decade building that company into a national success, sold his interest, and then went on to establish yet another retail venture before his death in 2001.

That is not the career of someone who simply enjoyed one lucky success. It is the record of a businessman who repeatedly identified opportunities, built successful companies, and reinvested the wealth he had created.

If the estimates are even approximately correct, Goldin may have realised between **R60 million and R175 million** from the sale of Clicks in 1988—equivalent to roughly **R700 million to R2 billion** in today's purchasing power—and likely accumulated wealth well into the tens of millions of Australian dollars after building Priceline.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of his story is this: very few entrepreneurs ever build one great national retail chain. Jack Goldin appears to have done it twice, in two different countries, using essentially the same retail philosophy. That is an achievement that places him among the most successful retail entrepreneurs South Africa has ever produced.