Natie Kirsh started with £1,200 and a corn mill in Swaziland and became one of Africa's richest men at 94

Most people had never heard of Natie Kirsh before March 2026. That was entirely by design.

When Sysco Corporation announced on March 30, 2026 that it had agreed to acquire Jetro Restaurant Depot for $29.1 billion, the financial world scrambled to find out who owned it. The answer was a 94-year-old man from Potchefstroom, South Africa, who had spent five decades building the largest cash-and-carry wholesale business in the United States without ever listing it on a stock exchange, taking a vocal investor or giving a meaningful interview.

Nathan "Natie" Kirsh was born on January 6, 1932, in Potchefstroom, to Jewish parents who had immigrated from Lithuania. His family ran a concession store selling blankets to mine workers and manufactured sorghum malt. He matriculated from Potchefstroom Boys High School in 1949 and earned a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1952, then returned to help his mother run the family malt factory after his father died.

The break that defined everything came six years later. In 1958, at age 26, Kirsh used a £1,200 inheritance to start a corn milling and malt business in what was then Swaziland. Through an agreement with the Swazi government, his company was obligated to buy all corn grown in the territory, making it the country's sole importer of the crop. The business expanded into a conglomerate, and Kirsh spent 23 years as chairman of Swaziland's electricity board helping build the country's power grid. He calls Eswatini his fourth child.

He returned to South Africa in 1968. In 1970, he acquired Moshal Gevisser, a South African wholesale food distributor, and used it to supply goods to Black shopkeepers in townships where the apartheid government barred white business owners from operating directly. The cash-and-carry format he refined there became the template for everything that followed.

In June 1976, Kirsh opened Jetro, a cash-and-carry store in Brooklyn, New York. The model was deliberately unglamorous. He targeted independent restaurant owners, small food service operators and bodegas: the customers large distributors would not serve because the order sizes were too small and the logistics too inconvenient. No delivery. No credit. No minimums. You came with a business license, filled your cart and paid.

In 1986, he left South Africa after selling much of Kirsh Industries to insurance giant Sanlam, citing the erosion of the rule of law. He kept Jetro. In 1994, he acquired Restaurant Depot, which became a sister operation under Jetro Holdings, extending the same model to food service operators nationwide.

In 2003, Warren Buffett agreed in principle to buy a minority stake in Jetro Holdings. The two men could not agree on terms and Buffett walked away. Kirsh kept the business private. His family office declined to comment on his net worth for years. He gave almost no interviews. He just kept building.

By 2025, Jetro operated 166 stores across 35 US states, generated $16 billion in revenue, reported $2.1 billion in EBITDA and had recorded 30 consecutive years of EBITDA growth, including through the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019, Mexican conglomerate FEMSA invested $750 million into the business, the only outside capital Kirsh had ever accepted.

Then came Sysco. Under the terms of the transaction, Jetro shareholders received $21.6 billion in cash and 91.5 million Sysco shares valued at approximately $7.5 billion at the time of announcement. Bloomberg updated Kirsh's net worth the following day, recording a single-day increase of approximately $5 billion and lifting his total fortune to $17.1 billion, placing him firmly among Africa's richest individuals. Forbes values him at approximately $17.8 billion, reinforcing his position at the top of the continent's wealth rankings.

Beyond food, his portfolio spans real estate on four continents. Through Ki Corporation Limited, Kirsh holds 50% of Sydney-listed Abacus Property Group and 39.6% of Abacus Storage King. His properties include Tower 42, London's first office skyscraper, and Birkenhead Point shopping center in Sydney.

Through the Kirsh Foundation, he funds microfinance programs for Swazi women in partnership with local chiefs. His seed fund Inhlanyelo has financed more than 5,500 small businesses in Eswatini. His Natan fund has backed 700 startups with an 85% success rate.

He is married to Frances Herr and has three children including son Philip. He lives in Ezulwini, Eswatini, holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Swaziland and received an OBE from Queen Elizabeth II in 2019.

He started with a corn mill and £1,200. He turned down Buffett. He kept everything private for nearly 50 years. The Sysco deal found him anyway, at 94.