Shoprite remains one of South Africa’s most successful retailers, delivering strong results despite margin pressures stemming from low selling price inflation.
Shoprite is also the country’s largest retailer, now boasting over 3,600 stores across its network.
The retailer released its results for the 26 weeks ended 28 December 2025 on Tuesday, 3 March, revealing a strong start to its 2026 financial year.
Shoprite’s revenue increased by 7.1% to R138.85 billion, while its sales of merchandise grew by 7.2% to R136.8 billion.
This was slightly outpaced by the company’s cost of sales, which rose by 7.3% to R104.18 billion.
Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht explained that the retailer experienced very low internal selling price inflation over the 26-week period, with high promotional activity over the festive season leading to deflation.
This put some margin pressure on the retailer, with its profit for the period recording a slight decline of 0.4% to R3.69 billion.
The group’s total comprehensive income for the period decreased by 7.40% to R3.31 billion.
However, the company managed to increase its earnings from continuing operations by 4.5% to 697/1 cents, while earnings from discontinued operations remained flat.
The lion’s share of the group’s income came from its core Supermarkets RSA segment, which increased sales by 7.1% to R115.33 billion.
All of the brands in this segment performed well, with Shoprite and Usave increasing sales by 5.1%, while Checkers and Checkers Hyper saw 8.9% growth in sales.
Another standout performer was the group’s market-leading Sixty60 on-demand digital platform, which saw its sales increase by 34.6% to R11.9 billion over the 26-week period.
The group’s other local brands, including Petshop Science, Uniq Clothing by Checkers, Checkers Outdoor and Little Me, increased sales by 70.9%.
Overall, the Supermarkets RSA segment increased its trading profit by 7.1% to R7.19 billion.
However, the company took some pain outside South Africa. Shoprite’s Supermarkets Non-RSA delivered 12.1% sales growth to R11.54 billion, but suffered from a profitability perspective.
This segment’s trading profit fell by 17.4% to R303 million, which Engelbrecht attributed to adverse conditions in Mozambique over the period.
“We continue to maintain a disciplined approach to capital allocation as well as portfolio focus,” the CEO said.
“Following the recent classification of our operations in Ghana and Malawi as discontinued operations, our scope of operations on the continent now numbers seven countries, all situated relatively close to our South African home base.”
The group’s other operating segments, including OK Franchise, Transpharm, Medirite, and Computicket, increased their sales by 3.5% to R9.93 billion, while their trading profit decreased by 1.6% to R302 million.
Across its segments, Shoprite opened 209 stores in the interim period, expanding its continuing operations footprint to 3,655 stores.
On the back of these results, Shoprite declared an interim dividend of 307 cents per share, representing year-on-year growth of 7.7%.
Source: https://dailyinvestor.com/retail/122505/south-africas-biggest-retailer-feels-the-squeeze/