Shoprite, Africa’s largest retailer, has reported a 10.4% rise in sales for the first quarter of its financial year, and says it has opened 68 stores.
Releasing an operational update on Tuesday, Shoprite said its core Supermarkets RSA segment, the majority of which is represented by its food retail operations Shoprite, Usave, Checkers, Checkers Hyper and LiquorShop, increased sales for the quarter ended September by 11.4% compared, with 13.3% for the corresponding quarter a year ago.
After measuring 3% for July, the group’s internal selling price inflation continued to move lower during August and September, measuring 2.6% for the period.
Supermarkets RSA opened 56 stores during the first quarter — nine Checkers, two Shoprite, nine Usave, 20 LiquorShop, 13 Petshop Science, one UNIQ clothing by Checkers and two Checkers Outdoor. It closed three stores.
The group’s Supermarkets non-RSA operating segment, trading from nine countries outside SA, increased sale of merchandise by 19.7% in constant currency and by 3.2% in rand.
The segment opened four new stores — one Checkers, two Shoprite and one LiquorShop.
The group’s furniture segment’s sales increased by 7.6%, with credit sales amounting to 14.3% of sales. The group’s other operating segments reported a 10.2% increase in sales, with sales to its OK Franchise division increasing by 13.6%.
OK Franchise opened a net of seven new stores during the first quarter, ending the first quarter with 615 stores.
Shoprite, which is in the process of taking full ownership of Pingo Delivery, its logistics partner behind the successful Checkers Sixty60 service, said the effective date of the transaction will be during October after receipt of approval from the Competition Tribunal.
Checkers Sixty60 is SA’s top on-demand grocery delivery app, with more than 2.3-million downloads.
The transaction to sell of the majority of its furniture business to Pepkor Holdings is progressing accordingly with the timeline to completion closer to Shoprite's June 2025 financial year end, it said.
During the first quarter, the group re-established its share buyback programme and for the 2025 financial year to date has purchased shares to the value of R997m at an average of R289.29 per share.
Since the inception of the group’s share buyback programme in the 2021 financial year, it has repurchased 12.1-million shares valued at R2.6bn.
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