Pick n Pay stores replaced by Checkers and Shoprite

SA Corporate Real Estate announced that it was replacing Pick n Pay stores in two of its prominent shopping centres with Checkers Fresh X Emporium and Shoprite stores.

SA Corporate Real Estate is a Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) with R19.4 billion of assets under management.

The real estate trust, along with its subsidiaries, owns a diversified portfolio of high-quality industrial, retail, and residential buildings.

SA Corporate’s properties are primarily located in major South African metropolitan areas, with a secondary focus in Zambia.

Although only 22% of the company’s 1.7 million square meters of gross lettable area (GLA) is retail space, it derives 38% of its revenue from this division.

SA Corporate’s retail portfolio includes Musgrave Centre, East Point Shopping Centre, Umlazi Mega City, Springfield Value Centre, and Bluff Towers.

“Our retail portfolio focuses on convenience-oriented shopping centres, with a tenant mix that emphasises defensive categories,” it said.

Pick n Pay is its biggest retail tenant and contributes more to SA Corporate’s rental contribution than Spar, Woolworths, and Shoprite Checkers.

On Friday, 28 June 2025, SA Corporate Real Estate published its 2025 Interim Pre-Close Update Presentation, providing an overview of the company’s performance.

As part of its presentation, it provided details about the performance of its retail division, focusing on its prominent shopping centres.

It stated that the footfall at its East Point, Springfield Value Centre, and Montana Crossing shopping centres was impacted by poor-performing tenants.

These poor-performing tenants included Decathlon and Pick n Pay. To address the problem, Decathlon at East Point will be replaced by Bounce.

Pick n Pay at Springfield will be replaced by Shoprite, and Pick n Pay at Montana Crossing is to be replaced by Checkers Fresh X Emporium.

It added that at Umlazi Mega City, trading densities improved subsequent to Boxer replacing Pick n Pay in the first half of the year.

Pick n Pay’s shrinking real estate

Last month, Pick n Pay announced that it had made substantial progress in closing and converting loss-making stores, with 40 Pick n Pay supermarkets closed or converted.

This included closing 25 company-owned supermarkets, converting seven to franchises, and converting eight to Boxer.

When looking at Pick n Pay’s combined company-owned and franchise stores, the supermarket estate declined by a net of 45 stores to 570 supermarkets by March 2025.

The store closures were part of Pick n Pay’s turnaround plan, which aimed to create a more sustainable business.

The turnaround plan aims to return the core Pick n Pay business to profitability and includes a ‘store reset plan’.

The company explained that there is a particular focus on eliminating losses incurred by specific loss-making company-owned stores.

“Where appropriate, loss-making supermarkets are either closed or converted to Pick n Pay franchises or Boxer stores,” it said.

Pick n Pay is also focused on improving the performance of its remaining stores by driving like-for-like sales and optimising the operating model.

Pick n Pay CEO Sean Summers has previously stated that they would close or convert over 100 stores, which is now being implemented.

Initial indications suggest that the strategy is effective. Like-for-like turnover for company-owned supermarkets increased by 3.3% year-over-year, driven by positive volume growth.

“Steady progress has been made over the past 18 months, with like-for-like growth improving from -0.5% in H2 FY24 to 3.1% in H1 FY25, and 3.6% in H2 FY25,” Pick n Pay said.

However, franchise stores remain a poor performer in the Pick n Pay stable. Like-for-like sales growth has been slower to recover, at -0.1% for FY25.

“Franchise received significant management attention, with Pick n Pay working to improve the overall franchise offering to drive turnover and profitability for all parties,” it said.

“Franchise turnover has more recently improved with like-for-like sales growth improving from -1.4% in H1 FY25 to 1.1% in H2 FY25.”