Pick n Pay is the talk of the town

Pick n Pay has seen a flurry of activity and media coverage in recent weeks, with more analysts than ever recommending the company.

In May 2026, Pick n Pay made three important announcements: It is changing its store labour model, it will sell a large stake in Boxer, and its expected financial results.

On 4 May 2026, the retailer said it had begun a consultation with staff and unions on targeted adjustments to its store labour model.

These adjustments focus on improving flexibility and operational efficiency and making Pick n Pay more responsive and competitive.

Pick n Pay initiated a Section 189A process and entered into consultation with the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (SACCAWU).

On Monday, 18 May 2026, Pick n Pay announced plans to raise R4.7 billion by selling an 11.5% stake in Boxer through an accelerated bookbuild.

Boxer was a subsidiary of Pick n Pay. However, it was listed separately on the JSE in October 2024. After the listing, Pick n Pay retained a 65.5% stake.

The company is now selling an additional 11.5% in Boxer to fund its turnaround plan, intended to return the core supermarket segment to profitability.

With all this action, all eyes are on Pick n Pay to see what its financial performance over the last year looks like.

On Thursday, 21 May 2026, Pick n Pay released a trading statement in which it revealed that its performance should be better than previously anticipated.

It no longer expects its headline loss per share to increase by more than 20%, thanks to a better-than-expected 2026 financial year performance from Boxer.

Pick n Pay stores, however, continue to struggle, with a trading loss after lease interest of between R2 billion and R2.1 billion.

The market loved what it saw, and the Pick n Pay share price increased by over 9% by 12:00 on Friday, 22 May 2026.

Pick n Pay becomes a popular stock pick

In the past, most analysts advised investors to put their money into Boxer instead of Pick n Pay due to uncertainty around its turnaround strategy.

However, in recent weeks, even the most hardened Pick n Pay critics have punted the retailer as an investment opportunity.

Cobus Potgieter, Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager at SouthernCross Capital, said that Pick n Pay offered a good buying opportunity.

Potgieter was bearish on Pick n Pay for a long time, questioning the turnaround story and its leadership team.

However, earlier this week, he said that things are changing and that Pick n Pay seems to understand that they have to right-size the business.

Potgieter said that if they manage their expectations, Pick n Pay is a fantastic brand and a very attractive business.

Keith McLachlan, chief executive at Element Investment Managers, concurred, highlighting Pick n Pay’s big discount.

“If you buy Pick n Pay shares, you are getting paid a R10 billion discount on Boxer’s fair value, assuming Pick n Pay’s stores are worth zero,” he said.

He added that Pick n Pay has a fair amount of cash on the balance sheet, which further makes the retailer a good investment option.

Shane Watkins, founder, executive director and chief investment officer at All Weather Capital, shares Potgieter and McLachlan’s views.

He selected Pick n Pay as his top stock pick, explaining that the current economic environment favours food retailers.

“Food remains a priority spend for consumers, and rising food inflation actually acts as a tailwind that supports profitability for these grocery chains,” he said.

Watkins added that Pick n Pay offers a cheap way to own Boxer, and that its recent trading update was better than expected.

He added that CEO Sean Summers appears to be successfully turning the operation around, as evidenced by improving gross margins and stabilising like-for-like sales.

Pick n Pay enjoys positive media coverage

PressPulse’s latest media sentiment report showed that Pick n Pay enjoyed positive media sentiment around the recent developments.

PressPulse is an online media-sentiment tracking platform that developed a custom artificial intelligence system for measuring sentiment.

It tracks South Africa’s top business publications and measures companies’ success in achieving positive exposure in them.

The sentiment ranking is based on the number of positive, neutral, or negative articles and the reach and influence of the publication where they are published.

Each company is assigned a sentiment score. A positive score indicates overall positive exposure, while a negative score indicates negative exposure.

The score’s size indicates the impact of the exposure. A big positive score, for example, shows that a company enjoyed highly impactful positive exposure.

Press Pulse’s sentiment analysis showed that Pick n Pay’s media sentiment score improved from -2.27 in April 2026 to +34.12 in May 2026.

This showed that developments around Pick n Pay were mostly viewed in a positive light by South Africa’s top business publications.

Pick n Pay’s media sentiment trend, tracked by PressPulse