Big blow to Pick n Pay
Discovery Vitality has dropped Pick n Pay as a HealthyFood partner. Members can make purchases at the retailer until 31 August to qualify for Vitality HealthyFood rewards.
Discovery Vitality announced in July that, on 1 September 2024, the Vitality HealthyFood benefit will be updated to include Checkers and Checkers Sixty60 alongside Woolworths in-store and online, Woolies app and Woolies Dash.
“Sadly, we will be saying farewell to Pick n Pay as a HealthyFood partner,” the company said.
It did not provide a reason for this decision, only saying, “The Vitality programme is constantly evolving to ensure that we continue to drive healthy engagement for our members”.
“The HealthyFood benefit will end at Pick n Pay stores and on-demand platforms on 31 August 2024.”
“Pick n Pay has been a longstanding Vitality partner, and we will continue to collaborate in many ways, including continuing to have members spend their Discovery Miles at Pick n Pay and through the Vitality Mall.”
Vitality members will earn rewards on qualifying purchases made until the end of the day on 31 August 2024. These rewards will be paid by 15 September 2024.
Therefore, transactions made from 1 September 2024 onwards at Pick n Pay will not qualify for HealthyFood rewards.
The company explained that the new HealthyFood benefit will enable members to be rewarded at Checkers and Woolworths for in-store purchases, Checkers Sixty60 and Woolworths online, and the Woolies app and Woolies Dash for online shopping.
“These HealthyFood rewards will be paid in Ðiscovery Miles, our rewards currency that is more valuable than cash,” the company said.
“Watch out for communication in September with more information. You don’t need to do anything right now.”
This comes a bit less than a year after Vitality announced that it would be partnering with Checkers and Checkers Sixty60 for the Vitality HealthyFood benefit.
“We are delighted to add Checkers to encourage even more Discovery Vitality members to make healthy food choices. Vitality’s HealthyFood benefit has been rewarding positive behaviour change for almost 15 years,” Discovery Vitality CEO Dinesh Govender said.
Grocery delivery has skyrocketed in popularity, with a marked increase in the number of households that use a combination of in-store and online channels to buy groceries, which is why it chose Checkers Sixty60 to partner with.
Prior to this addition, only Woolworths and Pick n Pay were partnered with Vitality for this benefit.

Pick n Pay versus Shoprite
Vitality’s latest announcement comes as Pick n Pay has been struggling to compete with the country’s other food retailers and losing significant market share to competitors like Shoprite.
In its latest full-year results, Shoprite reported that its core business, Supermarkets RSA, achieved sales growth of 12.3% and contributed 81.0% to group sales.
Like-for-like sales growth for the period measured 6.3%, noting that the stores acquired from Massmart were included in like-for-like sales growth only for the second half period.
Checkers and Checkers Hyper reported sales growth of 12.3%. Checkers Sixty60’s sales increased by 58.1%.
Pick n Pay’s latest full-year results revealed a far worse performance. Like-for-like revenue only grew by 3%, much lower than inflation, and trading profit fell 87% from R3.05 billion to R385 million.
Its net profit was significantly impacted by a R2.4 billion interest expense due to rising debt and an R2.8 billion impairment loss on assets.
These factors contributed to Pick n Pay’s R3.2 billion net loss, the worst in the retailer’s 57-year history.
However, the retailer’s online sales tell a different story, as Pick n Pay achieved online sales growth of 74.4%.
This sales growth was driven by the retailer’s on-demand offerings, Pick n Pay asap! and Pick n Pay groceries on Takealot’s Mr D mobile application.
Its on-demand platforms delivered growth of 102.3% in the financial year, establishing the retailer as the second largest on-demand grocery provider among South African consumers.
However, Pick n Pay will need to improve its in-store and overall performance to become competitive again, and its CEO, Sean Summers, is committed to achieving this.
Summers told Daily Investor earlier this year that his plan to restore the company to its former glory is on track and already yielding positive results.
Summers explained that Pick n Pay’s big problem is falling out of love with retail.
He explained that customers’ expectations had not changed significantly over the past decade. Rather, Pick n Pay has simply stopped being able to meet them.
Therefore, Summers outlined his Back-to-Basics strategy, which has six priorities and will focus on simplicity, quality, affordability and sustainability to help the iconic brand reclaim its former glory.
“Given the market environment, it is a reasonable and actionable plan. More importantly, the right operational team with the right experience is now in place to execute it,” the company said.
Summers said he was excited about changing Pick n Pay’s trajectory, which is starting to show positive trends again.
The graph below clearly shows the difference in Checkers’ and Pick n Pay’s performance over the last two years.
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