Retail giant Shoprite says it is planning on expanding its business in South Africa by adding adding hundreds of new stores and building a new campus in Johannesburg.
The retailer rolled out 117 stores (bringing its total number of stores to 1,789 stores) and it updated 101 stores in South Africa in the year to end 3 July 2022.
Despite being hit by the destruction caused by the 2021 July unrest, the group said it managed to add a net number of 117 stores during the financial year.
In terms of retail-based operations, Shoprite plans to open 275 stores in 2023. Within this, the Supermarkets RSA segment plans to open 220 stores, of which 95 stores will serve the mid-to-lower segment customers.
This expansion is outside of the stores the group is expecting to acquire as part of its proposed Cambridge Food, Massfresh and Masscash Cash and Carry acquisition, it said. The new stores also include those that are scheduled to re-open due to social unrest closures.
“We’ve advanced our proposed acquisition of Cambridge Food, Massfresh as well as Masscash Cash and Carry to the Competition Tribunal approval stage,” said Shoprite CEO, Pieter Engelbrecht.
“I sincerely hope this transaction can be finalised during the first half of the 2023 financial year to allow us the opportunity to integrate these businesses and their employees into our South African Shoprite supermarkets’ operations.”
Aside from the store expansion, Shoprite also announced that its online service, Checkers Sixty60, enjoyed strong growth over the period.
The group did not give specific sales figures but said there was a 150% increase in annual sales, and the app had been downloaded 2.4 million times.
“We have much to do in terms of executing our strategy to grow the business in the year ahead, this is just one of our initiatives, and we look forward to reporting on our progress on this and our other plans during 3023,” Engelbrecht said.
Source: Business Tech, Business Insider, image from Twitter