SPAR first began to find its identity with the 1960's emergence of grocery chains in South Africa By 1963 a group of 8 wholesalers was given the exclusive rights to the SPAR name to service 500 small retailers Today the SPAR brand has a presence across the country with three friendly store formats These formats include SPAR for neighbourhood shopping, SUPERSPAR for one-stop, competitively priced, bulk shopping, and KWIKSPAR for every day convenience Since each SPAR store has its own regional personality, the SPAR group operates under "voluntary trading" principles This means that their retailers are free to source goods from other suppliers However, SPAR encourages their retailers to take advantage of the group¿s trading pow