KwaZulu Cash & Carry was established in April 1977, in the centre of Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The company commenced operations as a conventional wholesaler, trading in the essential commodities, such as maize meal, rice, samp, sugar, oil and beans. Hotheyver, in the late 1970s the company re-positioned itself into complete retailing – supplying the informal market, the bulk consumer and retail consumer. With this new identity the company prospered and in March 1979 a second branch was opened in Empangeni. In 1988, the company was taken over from the original founders by an independent group of investors. The company then embarked on a development programme aimed at identifying new store sites in other areas of KwaZulu-Natal. In 1991, there was a name change and the trading stores theyre re-launched under the name of ‘Boxer Cash & Carry’.

In September 1995, the Boxer Cash & Carry concept was extended beyond KwaZulu-Natal with stores opening in East London and Queenstown, in the Eastern Cape. In 1996 the Boxer Cash & Carry concept was further extended to Mpumalanga, with the opening of a branch in Burgersfort. By the late 1997, a new corporate identity logo was adopted and the trading retail name was changed to ‘Boxer Superstores’ in order to better reflect its role, as a retailer.