Iconic South African retailer on a roll

Cashbuild’s 2026 financial year is off to a strong start, with the first quarter seeing solid revenue growth and three new store openings.

Cashbuild is one of southern Africa’s largest building materials and associated product retailers. The company operates in South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini and Malawi.

Founded in 1978, Cashbuild has been listed on the JSE since 1986. Today, the company has a market cap of R3.27 billion.

On Thursday, 16 October 2025, Cashbuild released a first-quarter operational update for its 2026 financial year.

This update revealed that the retailer’s revenue increased by 6% compared to the first quarter of its 2025 financial year. 

On a like-for-like basis, revenue increased by 4%, with the 11 new stores opened since July 2024 contributing 2% growth. 

Cashbuild reported that transactions through the tills increased by 6%, with existing stores increasing by 4% and new stores increasing by 2%. The company recorded selling inflation of 1.4% at the end of September 2025.

The retailer’s South African segment, which constitutes the lion’s share of sales at 83%, saw revenue growth of 7% in the first quarter.

Cashbuild’s Common Monetary Areas division, which accounts for 6% of total sales, increased revenue by 10%.

The company’s “Other” segment, which refers to its operations in Botswana and Malawi and constitutes 5% of total sales, grew revenue by 17%.

One drag on the group’s first-quarter performance was its P&L Hardware South Africa division, which makes up 6% of total sales and saw its revenue decline by 10%.

Overall, Cashbuild opened three stores during the quarter, refurbished one store, and relocated one other, bringing the group’s estate to 321 stores.

This update showed that Cashbuild could continue the strong performance it reported in the 2025 financial year.

In the 2025 financial year, Cashbuild’s revenue grew by 2.56% to R11.48 billion, while its cost of sales increased by 2.50% to R8.63 billion.

Despite these modest increases, the retailer reported profit growth of 161.27% to R228.81 million. 

Basic earnings per share also rose by around 163% to 1,042.5 cents per share. The company’s net asset value per share increased by 4% to 7,996 cents.

This is partly due to a significant jump in the group’s other income, which grew by 546.41% to R71.17 million, mainly because of sundry income from once-off refundable customer accounts of R57.7 million.

In addition, Cashbuild’s effective tax rate of 26.5% for the year was lower than the 36.6% recorded in the prior year, mainly impacted by a non-tax deductible impairment of P&L Hardware goodwill in 2024.

During the year, the company opened eight new stores and closed 12 under-performing stores. It further refurbished 26 Cashbuild stores and relocated 1 P&L Hardware store. 

Cashbuild said it plans to continue its store expansion, relocation, and refurbishment strategy in a controlled manner, through its feasibility process.