Shoprite raises revenue by 11.2%

Johannesburg – Shoprite on Tuesday cemented its status as Africa’s largest retailer by sales as it raised revenue by 11.2 percent from R102 billion to R114 bln and confirmed plans for rapid expansion throughout the continent as it released its results for the year to June.

Trading profit rose by 10.7 percent to R6.3 bln, while headline earnings per share rose by 10.8 percent from 697.6 cents to 772.9 cents. The company said it created nearly 10,000 jobs as it opened a total of 170 new corporate stores.

“We believe we have produced a more than creditable performance in the 2015 financial year by increasing sales under trying market conditions by 11.2%,” CEO Whitey Basson said in a statement.

“Our performance enabled us to grow our market share of food retail in South Africa for the ninth consecutive year, while research also shows that 72% of all South African adults now shop at the Group’s stores.”

Basson noted that the group managed to contain costs despite increases in electricity tariffs and fuel prices, and said that security costs had now reached a R1 bln, or one percent, due to a high incidence of crime.

The group confirmed its Africa growth plans by adding six new stores in Angola to bring the number of supermarkets to 27, while it plans to double the number of stores in Nigeria from the current ten to twenty in the next year, and open 35 new stores throughout sub-Saharan Africa over the period.