Shoprite opened more stores in one year than Pick n Pay, Spar, and Woolworths combined

Shoprite opened a net 262 new stores in its 2026 financial year, more than Pick n Pay, Woolworths, and Spar combined in their latest financial years.

This comes as Shoprite, the biggest retailer in South Africa, continues to go from strength to strength while its competitors struggle.

Shoprite revealed its store opening figures in an operational update released on Wednesday, 12 August. This update covered the 52 weeks ended 28 June 2026, which marks the end of Shoprite’s 2026 financial year.

In this update, Shoprite shared that it expects its headline earnings per share to rise by between 9.7% and 14.7%.

The retailer also reported that its group sales grew by 7.2% to R252.7 billion, largely driven by its core RSA Supermarkets division.

This segment, which accounts for 84.5% of group sales, grew sales by 7.1% to R213.5 billion. Like-for-like sales were up 2%.

Shoprite’s Non-RSA Supermarkets segment saw even stronger sales growth of 11%, reaching R20.6 billion.

The retailer’s operating update also revealed that it opened a net 262 stores in its South African segment, bringing its corporate-owned-and-operated store footprint to 2,839.

Shoprite’s store openings in South Africa included 115 supermarkets, 93 liquor stores, and 54 new formats.

This is a substantial store network, and puts Shoprite even further in the lead compared to its JSE-listed peers.

For reference, Spar reported opening 43 new stores in Southern Africa in the 2025 financial year but closing 58. This includes South Africa and its neighbouring territories.

The retailer also added 14 new pharmacies to its network, operating under the Pharmacy at Spar banner.

Woolworths’ store footprint spanned 1,591 stores in its 2025 financial year, which marks a decrease from the 1,594 stores it operated in 2024. This applies to its operations across 14 countries.

Specifically, Woolworths Food’s store locations increased to 669 in 2025, up from 651 the prior year, representing an 18-store increase.

Its Fashion, Beauty, and Home segment increased its network by two stores, while the Country Road Group saw a decrease of 23 stores.

Shoprite’s closest competitor, Pick n Pay, is in the midst of a turnaround plan that involves a store estate rest programme.

This programme, which involved closing loss-making stores, is now largely complete, but saw Pick n Pay’s footprint change significantly.

In the 2026 financial year, Pick n Pay opened 37 company-owned stores, one of which was in its Rest of Africa division. 15 franchise Pick n Pay stores were also opened that year.

As part of its store estate rest programme, Pick n Pay also converted some loss-making stores into other formats, notably Boxer stores.

The retailer recorded 22 converted openings in South Africa for the 2026 financial year. With the conversions and franchises included, Pick n Pay opened 67 stores in South Africa in 2026.

Boxer, which is separately listed but in which Pick n Pay still owns a significant stake, opened 54 stores in the 2026 financial year, two of which were in the Rest of Africa division.