Scaling fast across multiple sites, brands or channels exposes gaps that a good idea alone can’t fix. So does a business under real pressure, whether that’s a turnaround, a crisis, or a founder stepping into a capital raise or governance transition they’ve never navigated before. Duncan Crosson has sat on every side of that table, and he closes the gap by looking first at what’s actually broken, not by reaching for a framework.
He’s a Fractional CEO based in Durban with 20+ years across JSE-listed corporates, private growth-stage and founder-led businesses, franchise networks and early-stage startups, spanning luxury retail, franchising, FMCG, manufacturing, wholesale distribution and technology. As Group CEO of JSE-listed Luxe Holdings, he led a full transformation of a R500 million-plus multi-brand luxury retail group: expanding the NWJ franchise network by 72% (from 50 to 86 stores), doubling Arthur Kaplan’s revenue in a flat market, delivering 236% e-commerce growth, and protecting over 600 jobs through COVID-19 via decisive restructuring, all while maintaining full JSE and King IV compliance. He’s finance-trained, which means he reads the numbers himself rather than outsourcing that lens to someone else.
Beyond the listed-company scale, he’s co-founded and built businesses from nothing, including Scooters Pizza, Pet Care Distributors and Swoon Jewellery, and worked with brands like Nestlé and Pick n Pay on manufactured and private-label product lines.
Duncan works best with founders at an inflection point who need enterprise-grade leadership without a full-time executive’s cost or commitment, and with boards who need someone who’s actually run the business, not just advised on it.
