Boxer saves the day for Pick n Pay

For its 2026 financial year, Pick n Pay reported a profit before tax and capital items for the first time since the 2023 financial year, aided by an excellent performance from its subsidiary, Boxer.

While the group still reported a loss for the period, it was a significantly smaller loss than in the 2025 financial year.

While Pick n Pay’s company-owned stores also reported signs of recovery, with stronger turnover growth compared to 2025, the company’s core segment still saw its trading loss widen.

This has led the profit break-even target for the core Pick n Pay segment to be delayed by one year, from the 2028 to the 2029 financial year.

Pick n Pay released its results for the 52 weeks ended 1 March 2026 on Monday, 25 May, which showed an uneven recovery for the group.

At a group level, turnover rose by 3.4% to R120.29 billion. This was largely driven by Boxer’s standout 12.3% turnover growth to R46.68 billion, which was offset by the Pick n Pay segment’s 1.6% decline in turnover.

The company said its core segment’s turnover was impacted by its store estate reset programme, which saw the group reduce its number of South African company-owned supermarkets and hypermarkets by a net 13 stores during the period.

While the Pick n Pay segment’s turnover declined, there was some positive momentum for the group’s company-owned supermarkets, which saw like-for-like sales growth of 3.9%.

However, this was not enough to offset weaker performance and higher expenses across the segment, resulting in a deeper trading loss of R953 million. In contrast, Boxer’s trading profit grew to R2.6 billion.

Therefore, Boxer’s excellent performance allowed the Pick n Pay group to report a profit before tax and capital items of R360 million, a significant improvement from the R237 million loss reported for 2025.

With capital items and tax taken into account, Pick n Pay recorded a loss of R193 million for the period, a significant improvement from the R651 million loss seen in 2025.

The group reported a basic loss per share of 99.17 cents, an improvement from 111.01 cents in 2025.

Aside from Boxer, this improvement was also driven by Pick n Pay’s Online and Clothing segments.

Pick n Pay Clothing grew its turnover by 5.3% in standalone stores, and by 0.7% on a like-for-like basis.

The group noted that an “exceptionally soft clothing market” saw turnover growth slow for this segment in the second half of the year, exacerbated by a delayed online launch.

Pick n Pay Online saw its turnover grow by 32.7% on a like-for-like basis, while the group’s on-demand platforms, including asap! and PnP groceries on Mr D, were up 37.6%.