South Africa’s top retailer rolling out new high-end stores across the country
Checkers is opening new high-end stores catering for specific communities. It includes the largest halaal Checkers in South Africa.
Shoprite, which owns Checkers, Shoprite, Usave, and Sixty60, is South Africa’s largest retailer by market capitalisation, sales, profit, employee count, and customer base.
It operates 3,478 stores across eight countries in Southern Africa, with supermarket retailing as its core business.
Over the last year, the group added 281 stores across its markets and brands, including 184 supermarkets in South Africa.
It added R20.6 billion in sales growth and created 8,723 new jobs, bringing Shoprite’s total number of employees to 168,939.
Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said they have a particular focus on extending their reach in underserved communities in South Africa.
It is also pumping money into growing its online grocery delivery service, Sixty60, which continues to disrupt the South African retail market.
Sixty60 grew sales by 47.7% in the last financial year and expanded its reach to general merchandise, selected Shoprite stores, Petshop Science, and Medirite Plus.
“Our Sixty60 on-demand delivery service is now available in 694 locations, including five ‘dark stores’,” Engelbrecht said.
He added that Sixty60 now provides one-hour delivery access to more than 80% of the addressable online market in South Africa.
During the year, Shoprite acquired the remaining 50% shareholding in Pingo Delivery, giving it ownership of its last-mile logistics expertise.
“In addition to this, we re-platformed an enhanced Sixty60 app and launched, for the first time, a transactional website for Checkers,” he said.
Checkers opening new stores
Shoprite, through its Checkers brand, continues to open new high-end stores across the country to gain market share against competitors like Woolworths.
In 2022, the retailer opened its first new format Checkers Foods supermarket in the Western Cape.
This high-end store featured freshly prepared sushi, a meat market with free range chicken and restaurant-quality steak, and a bakery with artisan breads.
Although it did not state it, the fact that it has a Starbucks signalled that it is competing head-on with Woolworths Food.
In its latest initiatives, it opened its largest halaal Checkers in South Africa and a modern store in Cape Town’s southern suburbs.
Last week, Checkers opened the large halaal store at Saxony Westwood Mall in Westville, KwaZulu-Natal.
It offers shoppers a new benchmark in premium, culturally inclusive retail and created 212 job opportunities within the local community.
Checkers worked closely with the National Independent Halaal Trust (NIHT) to ensure the store is fully halaal-certified across all departments.
This includes the butchery and bakery to delicatessen and ready-to-eat meals, ensuring peace of mind for Muslim customers.
The Saxony Westwood store features a food court with doughnuts, Dubai-inspired strawberry and chocolate desserts layered with kataifi, and pistachio cream.
The beverage bar complements this with Indian-inspired coffees and teas such as Karak chai, Elaichi chai, Rooibos chai, and slushies.
The deli offers wood-fired tandoors from India, meats, vegetables, and naan breads cooked on site,
The bakery has mithais, baklava, and Middle Eastern flatbreads, alongside a new range of 100% halaal Indian fresh and frozen meals.
The butchery specialises in 100% halaal meats, from Championship Boerewors to Steakhouse Classic cuts.
Checkers also continued to expand its footprint in Cape Town’s southern suburbs, with its supermarket opening in Cavendish Square.
The store offers a wide range of in-store departments, including a meat market with free-range chicken and restaurant-quality steak.
It also has a hot and cold foods deli, a bakery with artisan breads, the freshest fruit and vegetables, Money Market services, and a coffee bar.
Checkers Cavendish Square created 38 new jobs, and is managed by Rubin Louw who joined the business in 2014.
Halaal Checkers in Saxony Westwood Mall photos
The photos below, courtesy of Checkers and Top Dog Contruction, shows the new Halaal Checkers in Saxony Westwood Mall.
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