South Africa’s biggest retailer makes R20 million profit a day

Shoprite’s 2025 financial year has started off with a bang, as the country’s largest food retailer made a profit of R3.71 billion and opened 205 stores in just six months.

Shoprite, which owns Checkers, Usave, and Checkers Sixty60, released its results for the 26 weeks through December 2024 on Tuesday, 4 March 2024.

The retailer reported strong financial results, with sales increasing by 9.6% to R128.6 billion, underpinned by its core Supermarkets RSA segment, to which all supermarket brands contributed.

Its revenue grew by 9.4% to R130.76 billion, while trading profit increased by 13.5%, resulting in a trading margin of 5.7%.

The company’s basic earnings per share grew by an impressive 12.6% to 685.3 cents per share.

Profit for the period increased by 11.9% to R3.71 billion. This means Shoprite makes around R20.38 million profit per day.

During the 26-week period, Shoprite opened 205 stores across its brands, expanding its continuing operations footprint to 3,417 stores. 

The retailer’s cash-generative capability was also reflected in its cash generated from operations, which amounted to R9.9 billion.

These positive results were largely driven by the company’s Supermarkets RSA segment, which makes up 83.7% of group sales.

This segment is represented by the company’s major trading brands, including Shoprite, Usave, Checkers, Checkers Hyper, and LiquorShop.

As a segment, Supermarkets RSA achieved 10.4% sales growth to R107.7 billion, with like-for-like sales increasing by 6.1%. 

The division’s internal selling price inflation for the segment measured 1.9% for the 26-week period, down significantly from the 7.7% it recorded in the first half of its 2024 financial year.

Checkers and Checkers Hyper, specifically, increased its sales by 13.6% to R47.6 billion, constituting a little less than half of the segment’s total sales.

Shoprite and Usave increased sales by 7.1% to R59.2 billion, making it the largest contributor to this segment’s sales at 55%.

The company reported that its Checkers Sixty60 offering, the retailer’s on-demand grocery delivery app, increased sales by 47.1%, expanding the store base from which it services Checkers customers to 601 stores.

The retailer also revealed the strong growth of its Xtra Savings rewards programme, which it said has saved customers R8.9 billion.

The company’s two other segments, Supermarkets Non-RSA and Other operating segments, also recorded solid sales growth of 4.1% and 6.2%, respectively.

Looking ahead, in the context of a somewhat uncertain global backdrop, Shoprite said it is excited to build on the opportunities afforded by its group structure, centred around its physical stores and digital platform. 

“Whilst we welcome any tailwinds from improved consumer and business confidence, we are not relying on cyclical factors to power our growth,” the retailer said. 

“We expect by far the majority of our growth short to medium term will continue to be achieved by our three distinct South African corporate-owned and managed supermarket businesses.”

While it is early days, the retailer said it expects the addition of more than 10,000 general merchandise products to its re-platformed Checkers Sixty60 app will, over time, bolster its contribution from this category.

In addition, the retailer said it will continue to expand its new adjacent formats – clothing, baby, outdoor and pet. 

Notably, Petshop Science, grown organically by Shoprite, has 129 stores now, and sales for the interim period increased by 56.9%. 

“Whilst presently small in the Group context, our expansion into these categories is meaningful in the universe of everyday purchases for our customers and important in terms of the role they play in our ecosystem, which defines our roadmap for future growth.” 

“In addition, the ongoing success of these aforementioned adjacent businesses is expected to support the group’s alternative revenue growth.”

Shoprite’s board declared an interim dividend of 285 cents per share, representing 6.7% year-on-year dividend per share growth.