SPAR International names Graham O’Connor as president

Global food and grocery chain SPAR International has appointed Graham O’Connor as president. He will succeed Leo Crawford, chairman of SPAR Ireland, who had held the role since 2005.

O’Connor, who has been CEO of SPAR South Africa since January 2014, comes to the role of president of SPAR International with exceptional retail experience, having worked with SPAR South Africa at both a retail and wholesale level. He has previously served as the divisional managing director of SPAR South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Region.

Commenting on his new role, O’Connor says, “To be elected as president of SPAR International is a great honour. I look forward to working with the board and our partners from all over the world to continue to grow and develop the organisation. I would also like to formally thank Crawford for all his hard work and dedication to the role throughout his outstanding tenure as president.”

“As the sixth president in the history of this great organisation, I have been honoured to have served for 11 years as chairman of the board. I am delighted that O’Connor has accepted the invitation to become the seventh president of SPAR International. I wish Graham all the very best and I am confident that SPAR will grow from strength-to-strength under his dynamic leadership,” adds Crawford.

Crawford was appointed to the SPAR International board in 2001 and was elected president of SPAR International in 2005. During his tenure as president SPAR underwent exceptional international growth, growing it’s presence to its current scale of over 12,100 stores in 42 countries worldwide.