Boosting growth

South Africa: Shoprite’s Africa downsizing, home consolidation pay off

In depth

This article is part of the dossier: Wealth creators

By Ray Mwareya

Posted on Wednesday, 15 March 2023 17:22, updated on Wednesday, 22 March 2023 14:26

Two years after it culled a number of its stores across Africa to consolidate their operation at home, Shoprite feels emboldened by its decision with sales growth in South Africa jumping 17%, amounting to ZAR100 billion ($5.3bn) in a period of 26 weeks ending 1 January.

“Our supermarkets [in the South African] segment increased sales by 17.5% because of our customers spending ZAR12 billion ($644m) more with us compared to the same period last year,” said Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht while presenting the company’s interim financial results on 7 March. “This growth is ahead of the market for the past three years.”

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