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Laurie Chiappini

Retail founder

By South African Index Editorial Desk · Published

Illustrative placeholder portrait; this is not a photograph of the person.
Illustrative placeholder; no verified photograph available.: Domdomegg · Source · CC0 1.0. Resized and converted to WebP for this site.

Laurie Chiappini co-founded Mr Price with Stewart Cohen. Their first Mr Price Factory Shop opened in Klerksdorp in 1985. [1][2]

Biography

Chiappini and Cohen met in 1979 while working at separate clothing retailers. Mr Price’s company history says they developed a common vision for a different kind of value retailer. [1]

The two opened the first Mr Price Factory Shop in Klerksdorp in 1985 and expanded from that base. [1][2]

They acquired control of the group from BOE in 1991. Mr Price’s later integrated reporting identifies both men as founders and links the group’s culture to the operating principles established by them. [2]

Key contributions

Co-founded Mr Price and helped establish its value-retail model. [1]

Acquired control of the group with Stewart Cohen in 1991. [2]

Career timeline

  1. Met Stewart Cohen and began developing the retail concept. [1]

  2. Opened the first Mr Price Factory Shop in Klerksdorp. [1]

  3. Acquired control of the group from BOE with Cohen. [2]

Associated organisations

Sources

  1. Mr Price Group, The Mr Price Story: 40th Birthday. Original source. Accessed 2026-09-25. ↩
  2. Mr Price Group, Integrated Report 2021, 2021-04-03. Original source. Accessed 2026-09-25. ↩