Press release (Capespan)

Capespan, the South African-based multinational fruit producer and marketer, announced the resignation of its managing director, Tonie Fuchs, and the appointment of Charl du Bois as the incumbent managing director of the Group. Du Bois will officially take over from Fuchs on 1 August after a structured handover over the next three months.

“Capespan is entering a new phase of development and growth on the back of the Group’s recent successes and supported by our new shareholders. I believe this presents the ideal opportunity for Capespan to embrace new executive leadership and is the reason why I decided to step down,” Fuchs said. “Capespan and its people have been an important part of my life for eleven years. But I believe this is the right time to step down, especially in the knowledge that I can hand the reigns over to someone of Charl’s caliber.”

Reinhardt Siegrühn, chairman of the Capespan board, said: “On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Tonie for his visionary leadership and unrelenting dedication to Capespan. During his tenure as managing director, he oversaw the restructure of Capespan’s entire business model to become more customer-centric.  Under his leadership, Capespan has grown from strength to strength and has consistently proven the resilience of its new business model, even during some of the industry’s most challenging times.” 

Siegrühn noted that: “Charl has been instrumental in the Capespan revival.  He has extensive experience in the fruit industry and has been an integral part of the Capespan management team over the last few years.  He is the perfect candidate to take over the leadership of Capespan and to build on the recent successes in pursuit of further growth for all our stakeholders. The Board has the utmost confidence in him.”

“I want to thank the Board for their confidence in my leadership and Tonie for his continued support and partnership,” said Du Bois. “I look forward to building on everything that we have accomplished under Tonie’s leadership. Supported by a management team that has proven to be the most dedicated and resilient in this industry, Capespan will continue to improve on its execution of delivering on our promises to customers and maximizing returns for our producer partners.”

Du Bois joined Capespan in August 2016 and has served the group as a commercial executive since 2020.  Prior to being appointed as group commercial executive, he served as the Head of the Grapes team. 

He has 21 years of experience in the fruit industry and holds a commerce and law degree from the University of Stellenbosch.