The success of Checkers Sixty60, which reported yearly revenue of R25.5 billion in August 2026, can be traced back to two individuals, Vutlharhi “Donald” Valoyi and Neil Schreuder.
Valoyi is the founder and CEO of Zulzi, which built part of the original platform that Sixty60 is based on, while Schreuder led its expansion as the head of Shoprite Group’s innovation division, ShopriteX.
Born in Ntshuxi village, Limpopo, Valoyi was one of five siblings and attended primary and secondary school in the region.
He told Startup Club ZA in 2024 that he often didn’t have electricity or piped water during his upbringing. “It was standard in a lot of villages, you go to a river to try and get some water.”
Valoyi aspired to become an engineer from a young age, and one day dreamt of owning the Orlando Pirates football club. He hit a roadblock when his high school did not offer high-grade mathematics.
“It was very clear that with students in grade 12, there was just no maths at higher grade. I had to do my own research, ask around, and to me, it became clear that I was facing a massive challenge,” Valoyi said.
He studied the entire mathematics syllabus during the school holidays and went through past exam papers to prepare for matric.
Valoyi enrolled to study a Bachelor of Science in mathematics at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2004 and graduated in 2007.
His first job was as a software engineer at Mavoni Technologies in Johannesburg in 2007, after which he spent several years plying his trade as a developer at a number of companies, including EOH.
Valoyi started Zulzi in 2013 as an e-commerce platform to sell and deliver textbooks and electronics within the hour, a decision that was carried over into Sixty60.
Zulzi built the original Sixty60 platform’s customer-facing app, store-facing app, dashboards, order allocation engine, and SAP point-of-sale system integration.
Valoyi’s team built foundational Sixty60 systems
By August 2024, Zulzi was processing over 5,000 daily orders from its dark stores across Gauteng. The platform excelled at logistics, boasting a 17-minute delivery time from when an order is placed.
This efficiency caught the eye of major retailers in South Africa, including Shoprite Group. Valoyi said they began discussions when Shoprite realised Zulzi could have a solution to its problem.
Shoprite increased its stake in Zulzi On Demand from 26% to 41.2% during the financial year ended 28 June 2026. The retailer valued the company at R16.99 million.
With Zulzi’s operational efficiency supporting its backend, Shoprite launched Sixty60 in 2019, and it quickly became the dominant grocery delivery service in South Africa.
The platform benefited from an e-commerce boom during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, where people turned to online deliveries to reduce public exposure.
Spearheading the launch was Schreuder, Shoprite’s chief of strategy and innovation, who used the company’s extensive distribution and shop network to create a last-mile powerhouse.
A native of Stellenbosch, a region becoming known as the Silicon Valley of South Africa, Schreuder attended the Paul Roos Gymnasium bilingual high school for boys in Krigeville.
He went on to study at Stellenbosch University, graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in management and marketing in 2001.
Schreuder earned his Bachelor of Commerce Honours in business management a year later. His first job was at Universal Music Group in 2003, where he started as a financial controller.
This position was in London, United Kingdom, where the future Shoprite executive spent the next 11 months coordinating budgets and financial forecasts.
Shoprite Group launches Sixty60 with Schreuder at the helm
He returned to South Africa and started as a brand manager at Shoprite Group in 2004. Schreuder moved up the ranks quickly, being appointed group marketing director in just four years.
Schreuder spent the next 12 years and five months in this position before being promoted to his current role as chief strategy and innovation officer in 2018, a year before Sixty60 launched.
In this role, he is primarily focused on designing new commercial opportunities for the group and driving innovation and omnichannel retail initiatives.
During his tenure, Schreuder has overseen the launch of Sixty60, its Xtra Savings integration, the expansion of its retail and store footprint countrywide, and the launch of its in-app AI.
He announced the launch of the Pixie AI assistant on Sixty60 on 24 July 2026, calling the feature “Tinder for groceries.”
Pixie suggests items to users based on what they regularly buy and highlights them when on promotion. Users can swipe up to disregard a suggestion or swipe down to add it to their basket.
“So far, Pixie’s number one user has added 730 products to their basket using Pixie’s swipe down to add to basket functionality, with a total value of R36,236,” Shoprite said in July.
Sixty60 continues to drive sales growth and customer adoption for Shoprite Group, fulfilling orders from over 875 stores nationwide, and has over 7 million downloads since it launched.
More images of Vutlharhi “Donald” Valoyi
More photos of Neil Schreuder
