JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -Shoprite Holdings, South Africa’s biggest supermarket retailer, reported a 15.8% rise in full-year earnings on Tuesday, as customers stocked up on food during the festive and Easter seasons.
Shoprite said diluted headline earnings per share from continuing operations rose to 13.67 rand in the year through June 29, up from a restated 11.80 rand a year earlier.
Group sales from continuing operations grew 8.6% to 252.7 billion rand ($14.39 billion), as the retailer’s core business, Supermarkets South Africa, achieved sales growth of 9.5%, with like-for-like sales growth of 4.8%.
The sales growth in Supermarkets South Africa was supported by volume growth, with customer visits up 4.4% and an average basket-spend increase of 4.8%, Pieter Engelbrecht, the group CEO, said in a statement.
Shoprite and Usave, the group’s discounters, increased sales by 5.9%, while sales at its upmarket Checkers chain surged 13.8%.
Engelbrecht said Shoprite kept selling inflation below 2%, with promotional activity in the reporting period higher than in 2024, to help shield financially constrained customers.
The supermarket business in the rest of Africa – operating in seven countries after the group announced plans to sell its Ghana and Malawi stores – saw a 6.4% increase in sales.
Shoprite declared a final dividend of 4.96 rand per share.
($1 = 17.5632 rand)
(Editing by Bernadette Baum)
