Mr Evan Christophides

Managing Director SPAR Zimbabwe, Zambia & Malawi Wednesday 11 May 2011 at 18h30

Venue: Eden Grove Blue

Title: Operating sustainably in a hyper-inflationary environment

Evan Christophides is a graduate of Rhodes University having completed a BCom(Hons) in the then Department of Business Administration in the mid 1980s. He was instrumental in managing the listing of Interfresh on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in 1997 through an IPO. In 2000 he was appointed CEO of Interfresh at a time that the company was technically insolvent. Twelve months later the company was successfully turned around and was voted the best company on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.  In 2005 he was arrested and charged with economic crimes against the State and was ousted as CEO of Interfresh by a consortium of politicians. Six months later he joined the Innscor Group as MD of Spar Zimbabwe. In 2010, SPAR was voted Retail Super Brand in Zimbabwe and with retail sales totalling US$ 300 million and distribution sales exceeding US$ 100 million per annum it is a very significant company in the Zimbabwean economy. As most people know, Zimbabwe until recently had the highest levels of inflation in the world. He will be telling us about the challenges of operating a company under conditions of hyper-inflation and the opportunities in managing in what some commentators call 'economies in transition'.