One of South Africa’s biggest retailers set to boom

Pepkor is poised for another strong year, as the group’s retail operations continue to outperform the rest of the market.

Pepkor is one of South Africa’s largest retailers and the owner of well-known brands like PEP, Ackermans, Incredible Connection and HiFiCorp.

On Monday, 3 November, the retail giant released a trading update for the year ending 30 September 2025, which showed that the group is set to report another strong performance.

Pepkor said it achieved a 12% increase in revenue, which reached R95.3 billion in the year.

The company attributed this to the continued strong performance of its retail operations, which outperformed the rest of the market with strong trading.

It said this is despite a muted macroeconomic and highly competitive consumer environment. 

“The Pepkor business model – highly focused on solving our customers’ needs – has again proven its resilience and defensiveness,” the company said.

“Effective strategic execution across the retail portfolio drove substantial growth in fintech, through the expansion of financial services and mobile connectivity.” 

“The Flash business maintained strong growth momentum, leveraging its presence in the dynamic informal market.”

From a segment perspective, Pepkor’s Clothing & General Merchandise division increased its revenue by 8.9% to R66.9 billion, contributing the lion’s share of group revenue.

The group’s Furniture, appliances & electronics segment saw its revenue increase by 7.2% to R11.8 billion. 

The Fintech segment also continued its strong momentum, increasing revenue by 31.1% to R16.6 billion.

Based on this strong performance from all of its segments, Pepkor expects the following changes in its 2025 earnings from continuing operations compared to its 2024 financial year –

• Earnings per share – increase by between 136% to 146%
• Headline earnings per share – increase by between 10% to 20%
• Normalised headline earnings per share – increase by between 18% to 28%

It should be noted that Pepkor’s earnings per share increase is partly due to a low base in the previous year, as the retailer recognised a substantial non-cash impairment in its 2024 financial year.

This impairment was due to uncertain retail trading, particularly in Ackermans, which remains in the process of recovering, and the challenging footwear market affecting Tekkie Town and Shoe City.

Pepkor’s earnings from its total operations, which include its discontinued operations from The Building Company, which was disposed of in September 2025, were also strong –

• Earnings per share – increase by between 166% to 176%
• Headline earnings per share – increase by between 3% and 13%

Pepkor’s results for the year ended 30 September 2025 will be published on or about Tuesday, 25 November 2025.