PEP-owner snaps up Shoprite’s furniture business

Shoprite will sell its furniture unit to a smaller rival as Africa’s largest supermarket chain focuses on expanding its specialist clothing, baby, outdoor, and pet stores.

The South African firm will sell the business to Pepkor for about R3 billion, the buyer said in a filing on Tuesday.

Cape Town-based Shoprite has also pulled back its main grocery business in several other countries across the continent. 

“We found ourselves at a crossroads with the business’s future growth and profitability hamstrung by the requirement of a level of investment that would have resulted in us re-directing capital and project management resources away from that currently dedicated to our food retail operations,” CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said in an earnings statement. 

For Pepkor, the continent’s biggest clothing retailer, which has struggled to scale up its business that sells beds, sofas and appliances, the purchase will help boost stores by a quarter to 1,300.